Patrick Cox

Patrick Cox

Patrick Cox runs The World's language desk. He reports and edits stories about the globalization of English, the bilingual brain, translation technology and more. He also hosts The World's podcast on language, The World in Words.

Your brain on language

September 7, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment
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sign1This week, a mom-and-pop effort to restore Arabic script to street signs in Israel. Earlier this year, Israel’s new transport minister Israel Katz proposed an overhaul to his country’s road signs. So far they’ve been trilingual: Hebrew, Arabic and English. But Katz wants to remove Arabic and English city names and replace them with transliterations of the Hebrew names. So instead of the English word, “Jerusalem,” and the Arabic name for the city, “Al-Quds,” both languages would spell out “Yerushalayim,” the Hebrew name of the city. The proposal hasn’t been implemented yet. signs2But street signs in Israel have long been ideological battlegrounds: the Arabic has often been defaced or obliterated. That’s where Romy Achituv and Ilana Sichel (pictured right) come in. They are reinstating the Arabic, one sign at a time. So far the police haven’t stopped them. (Photos: Daniel Estrin)

Also in this week’s podcast, I speak with author Katherine Russell Rich on learning Hindi at a language school in Rajasthan. Her book “Dreaming in Hindi“rich-dreaming1 is also an investigation into what happens to our brains when we learn a learn a language. Rich quizzed several neurolinguists, so she could get a handle on the challenges and all-round weird linguistic moments she encountered in her pursuit of Hindi mastery. So there are answers (not THE answers perhaps) to the following: what’s the difference between learning a language “intuitively” as a child and in a classroom setting later on? Why is it so difficult to have a perfect accent in your second or third language? Why do so many people verbally shut down for weeks or months when learning a language? How does language effect personality and vice versa? And is there blowback from your learned language that changes how you speak your native tongue?

On the subject of the last question, check out this fascinating conversation on The World’s science podcast on the latest research into what happens to your native tongue when you learn a second one. According to this study, you’ll never read your first language in the same way. Also, that cognates can trip you up.

Finally, we cast a somewhat shameful eye over a tough-to-translate expression in Spanish.

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Discussion

8 comments for “Your brain on language”

  • Sunil Kumar

    interesting to know a westerner was interested to speak in Hindi.I am an Indian,Indians speak multiple languages.We speak our mother tongue,the language of the state we are settled (26 states in India),Hindi the national language and English.sometimes a Indian would know more than 4 Indian language and 2 international language(Arabic or French).English for us, is a “work” language,the majority of the world deals with English,which makes English very important. A comment by Katherine about the word “kal” or tomorrow or yesterday. It has nothing to do with kaali or goddess of destruction.It has something to do with Kaal or time. The word for seconds would be “Shun”. we also use “palak jaapak (Blink) roughly equal to a second .The vedic civilization as different units of time,you can check for Vedic time units in the Vedic Scriptures.

  • Krysthal Siles

    I find this subject very interesting and I have a question.
    My mother tongue is Spanish, but I’ve learn to read first in French. Now I live in U.S. and learning English, has been easy for me.
    I would like to know if speaking several languages could be enherited or is enviromental? All my paternal family speaks at least 2 languages.

  • http://YourBrainonLanguage Deb Kellogg

    I found this podcast very interesting since I am myself bilingual in both English & German (and that was great German sentence structure!). I heard German growing up as a child, but didn’t begin to systematically learn it until I reached high school. (My parents communicated in English since my father’s first language was Norwegian.) I,too, went through a “silent period” when I first moved to Germany to study, and like the others almost woke up one morning speaking German without even thinking about it. I have been a German language teacher/professor for more than 30 years and very much appreciated the comment that you don’t learn just words & grammar; you learn an entire culture. Second language aquisition for an adult is different than for a child; in fact, some doubt whether an adult learner can ever become a truly bilinguage speaker. This podcast answered some of my own questions and addressed issues that, for me, were very inteeresting & highly relevant. Danke sehr! (thank-you very much)

  • Wes Dopkins

    The speaking sideways section was kind of interesting. The German word for it is, assuming I understood it correctly, fremdschämen. That’s the expression I’d use when referring to Costanza, anyway. It is also similar to how I would translate it into English, i.e. “to be ashamed for someone.”

  • Connie

    I loved this podcast! Learning about the “Silent Period” explains a lot. I try to learn a bit of the language of whatever country I am traveling to next. I have experienced the Silent Period many times and it is fascinating, comforting and frustrating to know that it is natural. Now the question is how to go through the Silent Period & come out the other side before the trip.

  • Monica Flitcraft

    I am a student in CST 229 in Philip Tirpak’s class and have been asked to respond to this podcast.

    I really enjoyed listening to this podcast since I am bilingual as well (half Korean and half White). I grew up in South Korea being surrounded by the Korean language and instantly learned Korean and was considered my first language. However, once I went to an American school and was surrounded by only English speaking teachers and students, I instantly went through a Silent Period, and then one day learned English and now speak it perfectly and with that, lost a lot of my Korean speaking proficiency. It’s interesting to know that through language, you can learn its culture!

  • http://www.rajshree.com rajshree

    very interesting n creative…..liked it!!