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But what if there's a whole category of people in your life whose impact is overlooked? UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #8: (Speaking Italian). It's not something that you typically go out trying to do intentionally. VEDANTAM: If you're bilingual or you're learning a new language, you get what Jennifer, experienced - the joy of discovering a phrase that helps you perfectly encapsulate a. feeling or an experience. VEDANTAM: Lera now tries to understand languages spoken all over the world. If you're just joining us, I'm talking to John McWhorter. Hidden Brain. When language was like that, of course it changed a lot - fast - because once you said it, it was gone. Listen on the Reuters app. And so for me, that question was born in that conversation of are there some languages where it's easier to imagine a person without their characteristics of gender filled in? We call this language Gumbuzi. If you're studying a new language, you might discover these phrases not. VEDANTAM: So this begs the question, if you were to put languages on something of a spectrum, where you have, you know, languages like Spanish or Hindi where nouns are gendered and languages like English where many nouns are not gendered but pronouns are gendered, and on the other end of the spectrum, you have languages like Finnish or Persian where you can have a conversation about someone without actually mentioning their gender, it would seem surprising if this did not translate, at some level, into the way people thought about gender in their daily activities, in terms of thinking about maybe even who can do what in the workplace. Transcript The transcript below may be for an earlier version of this episode. If the language stayed the way it was, it would be like a pressed flower in a book or, as I say, I think it would be like some inflatable doll rather than a person. Shankar Vedantam: This is Hidden Brain. You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around. I think it's a really fascinating question for future research. The Effects of Conflict Types, Dimensions, and Emergent States on Group Outcomes, by Karen Jehn et. We'd say, oh, well, we don't have magnets in our beaks or in our scales or whatever. VEDANTAM: I understand there's been some work looking at children and that children who speak certain languages are actually quicker to identify gender and their own gender than children who are learning other languages in other cultures. You can't smell or taste time. Learn more. They know which way is which. Imagine how we would sound to them if they could hear us. VEDANTAM: I'm Shankar Vedantam. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: (Speaking foreign language). But the reason that it seems so elusive is because we don't really think about the, quote, unquote, "meaning" of things like our conversation-easing laughter. If you can speak more than one language, does this mean that you're also simultaneously and constantly shifting in your mind between different worldviews? We'll also look at how languages evolve, and why we're sometimes resistant to those changes. And, of course, you always have to wonder, well, could it be that speakers of these different languages are actually seeing different kinds of bridges? Let's start with the word literally. MCWHORTER: Exactly. In the final episode of our Relationships 2.0 series, psychologistHarry Reis says theres another ingredient to successful relationships thats every bit as important as love. And we teach them, for example, to say that bridges and apples and all kinds of other things have the same prefix as women. Lera said there's still a lot of research to be done on this. I think that the tone that many people use when they're complaining that somebody says Billy and me went to the store is a little bit incommensurate with the significance of the issue. He's a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University and the author of the book "Words On The Move: Why English Won't - And Can't - Sit Still (Like, Literally).". But somehow they've managed, not just by randomly bumping into each other. And then when I turned, this little window stayed locked on the landscape, but it turned in my mind's eye. Whereas speakers of a language like Spanish might not be quite as good at remembering who did it when it's an accident, but they're better at remembering that it was an accident. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Speaking foreign language). If it is the first time you login, a new account will be created automatically. Many of us rush through our days, weeks, and lives, chasing goals, and just trying to get everything done. Copyright Hidden Brain Media | Privacy Policy, Freely Determined: What the New Psychology of the Self Teaches Us About How to Live, Going the Distance on the Pacific Crest Trail: The Vital Role of Identified Motivation, Athletic Scholarships are Negatively Associated with Intrinsic Motivation for Sports, Even Decades Later: Evidence for Long-Term Undermining, Rightly Crossing the Rubicon: Evaluating Goal Self-Concordance Prior to Selection Helps People Choose More Intrinsic Goals, What Makes Lawyers Happy? In English, actually, quite weirdly, we can even say things like, I broke my arm. VEDANTAM: The moment she heard it, Jennifer realized mendokusai was incredibly useful. BORODITSKY: That's a wonderful question. The best Podcast API to search all podcasts and episodes. I'm Shankar Vedantam. So you may start with moving your southwest leg in, but then you have to move your northeast leg out. Sometimes, life can feel like being stuck on a treadmill. So some languages don't have number words. BORODITSKY: Well, I think it's a terrible tragedy. ADAM COLE, BYLINE: (Singing) You put your southwest leg in, and you shake it all about. Go behind the scenes, see what Shankar is reading and find more useful resources and links. GEACONE-CRUZ: And I ended up living there for 10 years. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. The transcript below may be for an earlier version of this episode. There are many scholars who would say, look, yes, you do see small differences between speakers of different languages, but these differences are not really significant; they're really small. Physicist Richard Feynman once said, "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool." One way we fool ourselves is by imagining we know more than we do; we think we are experts. Imagine this. They're more likely to see through this little game that language has played on them. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #10: (Speaking Russian). But what if it's not even about lust? So I think that nobody would say that they don't think language should change. So you can't see time. And I would really guess that in a few decades men will be doing it, too. out. So in English, I might say that Sam (ph) broke the flute. If I give you a bunch of pictures to lay out and say this is telling you some kind of story and you - and they're disorganized, when an English speaker organizes those pictures, they'll organize them from left to right. Researcher Elizabeth Dunn helps us map out the unexpected ways we can find joy and happiness in our everyday lives. So one possibility for bilinguals would be that they just have two different minds inside - right? This week, we kick off a month-long series we're calling Happiness 2.0. VEDANTAM: Still don't have a clear picture? VEDANTAM: For more HIDDEN BRAIN, you can find us on Facebook and Twitter. He didn't like that people were shortening the words. You can find all Hidden Brain episodes on our website. But it is a completely crucial part of the human experience. You can find the transcript for most episodes of Hidden Brain on our website. MCWHORTER: Yeah, I really do. Interpersonal Chemistry: What Is It, How Does It Emerge, and How Does it Operate? If you missed it, Think back to the last time someone convinced you to do something you didn't want to do, or to spend money you didn't want to spend. He. Growing up, I understood this word to mean for a very short time, as in John McWhorter was momentarily surprised. Evaluating Changes in Motivation, Values, and Well-being, by Kennon M. Sheldon and Lawrence S. Krieger, Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 2004. It's natural to want to run away from difficult emotions such as grief, anger and fear. If you still cant find the episode, try looking through our most recent shows on our homepage. They often feel angry about it, and you think this anger is actually telling. I'm Shankar Vedantam. But it's so hard to feel that partly because our brains are on writing, as I say in the book. And in fact, speakers of languages like this have been shown to orient extremely well - much better than we used to think humans could. It's how we think about anything that's abstract, that's beyond our physical senses. Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. So when I ask you to, say, imagine a man walking down the street, well, in your imagery, you're going to have some details completed and some will be left out. edit transcripts, Improve the presence of your podcasts, e.g., self-service, If you share your Listen Notes page and at-mention. Everyone wants to be loved and appreciated. Now, in a lot of languages, you can't say that because unless you were crazy, and you went out looking to break your arm, and you succeeded - right? You couldn't have predicted this I know-uh move-uh (ph). I said, you know, this weird thing happened. I want everybody to have the fun I'm having. And you've conducted experiments that explore how different conceptions of time in different languages shape the way we think about the world and shape the way we think about stories. In the second episode of our "Relationships 2.0" series, psychologist Do you ever struggle to communicate with your mom? Parents and peers influence our major life choices, but they can also steer us in directions that leave us deeply unsatisfied. Well, that's an incredibly large set of things, so that's a very broad effect of language. So you can't know how the words are going to come out, but you can take good guesses. And then if you are going to be that elliptical, why use the casual word get? VEDANTAM: Many of us have dictionaries at home or at work, John. It's never going to. Maybe they like the same kinds of food, or enjoy the same hobbies. VEDANTAM: I understand that if you're in a picnic with someone from this community and you notice an ant climbing up someone's left leg, it wouldn't make a lot of sense to tell that person, look, there's an ant on your left leg. The categorization that language provides to you becomes real, becomes psychologically real. All of these are very subjective things. So the word for the is different for women than for men, and it's also different for forks versus spoons and things like that. But might we allow that there's probably a part of all human beings that wants to look down on somebody else. VEDANTAM: You make the case that concerns over the misuse of language might actually be one of the last places where people can publicly express prejudice and class differences. MCWHORTER: Yes, Shankar, that's exactly it. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Imagine you meet somebody, they're 39 and you take their picture. I think language can certainly be a contributor into the complex system of our thinking about gender. ROB LOWE: (As Chris Traeger) Dr. Harris, you are literally the meanest person I have ever met. But what happens when these feelings catch up with us? Language is something that's spoken, and spoken language especially always keeps changing. : A Data-Driven Prescription to Redefine Professional Success, by Lawrence S. Krieger and Kennon M. Sheldon, George Washington Law Review, 2015. The fact is that language change can always go in one of many directions, there's a chance element to it. You can search for the episode or browse all episodes on our Archive Page.