Blog 2: Loss of language

http://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/endangered-languages

This article talks about how many languages are being lost, and that within a century, at least around 5 out of every 6 languages used today will likely be lost. I agree with the article in the sense that language is an important part of a culture, and if the language is lost, the culture will soon follow. The world will become less and less diverse, and everything will pretty much be the same as everything else. I don't know about you, but I think that would be pretty boring if every culture became the same. Boredom aside, if entire cultures are to be lost, we won't be able to learn as much about each other. In my opinion, one of the best things about people, is how we are all so different from each other, and the differing languages are a big part of that.

My final thoughts about this:
1. Don't let anyone convince you to not learn a language just because they say it wouldn't be very useful. That is a big part of why so many are dying out.
2. Learning a new language can help you to understand and learn about a new way of life.
3. I personally think it would be very good if everyone were to learn at least 3 different languages. If everyone took the time to do that, I believe that the world would become an easier place to live in, and it would promote a better understanding of others, and in turn, a better understanding of ourselves.

Blog 1: This one is about how language may or may not make you think differently. Please excuse this poor excuse of a title, I'm just not good at coming up with names for different things.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/magazine/29language-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

The reason I picked the article was because the title intrigued me. The title is Does your language shape how you think? When I read the title, what came to my mind was "What does it mean? Do they think that if I were to originally speak a different language other than English, I would think in a different way?" The article is related to language because it looks at multiple examples of how people may or may not think differently based on their language.

I found the article to be very interesting. The reason I feel that is because it talked about how different languages I am unfamiliar with worked. I didn't know before that some languages didn't have words or concepts such as left, right, front, or behind. They instead just use north, south, east, and west when referring to everything. For example, I would say there is a person sitting to the left of me. They would say there is a person sitting to the north of me.

I agree with the article about the part where it talks about how just because a language may not have a word for a certain concept, it doesn't mean that speakers of that language wouldn't understand the concept.

I think that the article on its own isn't enough, but it can give someone a start on finding different ways to view other languages. If someone can understand the concepts talked about in the article, they can have an easier time learning more about how their own language works, and they can understand better how other languages work.

I will probably research this topic more in the future because I think it can help me to understand more about different concepts in other languages.

I am Steven McCarthy. My interests include learning about foreign cultures, and their languages.  I speak fluent English. I have at least a basic level of proficiency with reading, writing, and speaking Spanish and Japanese. I also have done basic studies in Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Thai, and Russian. I plan to become fluent in all of those languages and possibly more. The reason I am taking the English 213 class is because I need to take it in order to get the Academic Certificate in Language Studies, and also in the hopes that I can use what I learn in this class to help me to better understand the languages I am learning. Most of my experiences that have to do with language are in classes, online, or in books. Unfortunately, I am unable to get much practice speaking these languages out in public, due to a lack of people who speak them. Spanish Is the only one I can easily find people to speak with. That is part of the reason I want to travel, so I can use what I have learned in places where it is more relevant.