If you're studying a new language, you might discover these phrases not. I'm . VEDANTAM: Jennifer moved to Japan for graduate school. We're speaking today with cognitive science professor Lera Boroditsky about language. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: (Speaking foreign language). Athletic Scholarships are Negatively Associated with Intrinsic Motivation for Sports, Even Decades Later: Evidence for Long-Term Undermining, by Kennon M. Sheldon and Arlen C. Moller, Motivation Science, 2020. : The Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Benefits of Sharing Positive Events, Shelly. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) I'm willing to get involved. One study that I love is a study that asked monolingual speakers of Italian and German and also bilingual speakers of Italian and German to give reasons for why things are the grammatical genders that they are. VEDANTAM: How the languages we speak shape the way we think and why the words we use are always in flux. 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. SHANKAR VEDANTAM, HOST:This is HIDDEN BRAIN. It's inherent. We don't want to be like that. Hidden Brain Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam Subscribe Visit website Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our. They can be small differences but important in other ways. out. GEACONE-CRUZ: It describes this feeling so perfectly in such a wonderfully packaged, encapsulated way, and you can just - it rolls off the tongue, and you can just throw it. And you can even teach people to have a little bit of fun with the artifice. In the United States, we often praise people with strong convictions, and look down on those who express doubt or hesitation. But she told me a story about a conversation she had with a native speaker of Indonesian. If you are a podcaster, the best way to manage your podcasts on Listen Notes is by claiming your Listen Notes And when I listen to people having their peeves, I don't think, stop it. When we come back, I'm going to ask you about why languages change and whether there are hidden rules that shape why some words are more likely to evolve than others. You can't touch time. As someone who works in media, I often find that people who can write well are often people who know how to think well, so I often equate clarity of writing with clarity of thought. Bu Stay with us. So I think it's something that is quite easy for humans to learn if you just have a reason to want to do it. VEDANTAM: So all this raises a really interesting question. Goal Striving, Need Satisfaction, and Longitudinal Well-being: The Self-Concordance Model, by Kennon M. Sheldon and Andrew J. Elliot, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1999. And all of a sudden, I noticed that there was a new window that had popped up in my mind, and it was like a little bird's-eye view of the landscape that I was walking through, and I was a little red dot that was moving across the landscape. You know, endings are going to tend to drop off. Imagine how we would sound to them if they could hear us. VEDANTAM: Still don't have a clear picture? VEDANTAM: It took just one week of living in Japan for Jennifer to pick up an important, VEDANTAM: There isn't a straightforward translation of this phrase in English. Today in our Happiness 2.0 series, we revisit a favorite episode from 2020. Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships. In this month's Radio Replay, we ask whether the structure of the languages we speak can change the way we see the world. Of course, if you can't keep track of exactly seven, you can't count. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #8: (Speaking Italian). But, in fact, they were reflecting this little quirk of grammar, this little quirk of their language and in some cases, you know, carving those quirks of grammar into stone because when you look at statues that we have around - of liberty and justice and things like this - they have gender. The transcript below may be for an earlier version of this episode. It's testament to the incredible ingenuity and complexity of the human mind that all of these different perspectives on the world have been invented. Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. 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. We couldnt survive without the many public radio stations that support our show and they cant survive without you. 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. How big are the differences that we're talking about, and how big do you think the implications are for the way we see the world? This week on Hidden Brain, we revisit a favorite episode exploring what this culture means Jesse always wanted to fall in love. So new words are as likely to evolve as old ones. So - but if I understand correctly, I would be completely at sea if I visited this aboriginal community in Australia because I have often absolutely no idea where I am or where I'm going. So they've compared gender equality, gender parity norms from the World Health Organization, which ranks countries on how equal access to education, how equal pay is, how equal representation in government is across the genders. This week, we continue our look at the science of influence with psychologist Robert Cialdini, and explore how these techniques can be used for both good and evil. Of course, you also can't experience anything outside of time. Researcher Elizabeth Dunn helps us map out the unexpected ways w, Having a sense of purpose can be a buffer against the challenges we all face at various stages of life. So you can't see time. VEDANTAM: If languages are shaped by the way people see the world, but they also shape how people see the world, what does this mean for people who are bilingual? So the question for us has been, how do we build these ideas? And the answer should be, north, northeast in the far distance; how about you? This is HIDDEN BRAIN. Many of us believe that hard work and persistence are the key to achieving our goals. And as odd as that sounds, I can guarantee you if you watch any TV show with women under a certain age or if you just go out on an American street and listen, you'll find that that's a new kind of exclamatory particle. Our transcripts are provided by various partners and may contain errors or deviate slightly from the audio. Course Hero is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university. Today in our Happiness 2.0 series, we revisit a favorite episode from 2020. Each language comprises the ideas that have been worked out in a culture over thousands of generations, and that is an incredible amount of cultural heritage and complexity of thought that disappears whenever a language dies. VEDANTAM: As someone who spends a lot of his time listening to language evolve, John hears a lot of slang. Whats going on here? In the final episode of our "Mind Reading 2.0" series, we bring back one of our favorite conversations, with linguist Deborah Tannen. They give us a sense that the meanings of words are fixed, when in fact they're not. You can't smell or taste time. In this week's My Unsung Hero, Sarah Feldman thanks someone for their gift more than 20 years ago. 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. BORODITSKY: My family is Jewish, and we left as refugees. In English, actually, quite weirdly, we can even say things like, I broke my arm. If you liked . Sometimes you just have to suck it up. And they said, well, of course. And it's not just about how we think about time. ), The Sourcebook of Listening Research: Methodology and Measures, 2018. They shape our place in it. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: (Speaking foreign language). Languages are not just tools. Many of us believe that hard work and persistence are the key to achieving our goals. We talk with psychologist Iris Mauss, who explains why happiness can seem more elusive the harder we chase it, and what we can do instead to build a lasting sense of contentment. VEDANTAM: There are phrases in every language that are deeply evocative and often untranslatable. 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. 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? Go behind the scenes, see what Shankar is reading and find more useful resources and links. VEDANTAM: There are phrases in every language that are deeply evocative and often, untranslatable. GEACONE-CRUZ: And I ended up living there for 10 years. Today in our Happiness 2.0 series, we revisit a favorite episode from 2020. The size of this effect really quite surprised me because I would have thought at the outset that, you know, artists are these iconoclasts. If you take literally in what we can think of as its earliest meaning, the earliest meaning known to us is by the letter. But if I give that same story to a Hebrew or an Arabic speaker, they would organize it from right to left. Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. And one day, I was walking along, and I was just staring at the ground. Sometimes, life can feel like being stuck on a treadmill. But things can be important not just because they're big. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #6: (Speaking foreign language). There's a way of speaking right. Well never sell your personal information. Official Website Airs on: SUN 7pm-8pm 55:27 Happiness 2.0: The Reset Button Feb 27 Many of us rush through our lives, chasing goals and just trying to get everything done. In the United States, we often praise people with strong convictions, and look down on those who express doubt or hesitation. It's not necessarily may I please have, but may I have, I'll have, but not can I get a. I find it just vulgar for reasons that as you can see I can't even do what I would call defending. That is the direction of writing in Hebrew and Arabic, going from right to left. We all have to make certain choices in life, such as where to live and how to earn a living. Many people have this intuition that, oh, I could never learn that; I could never survive in a community like this. BORODITSKY: I spoke really terrible Indonesian at the time, so I was trying to practice. But it's so hard to feel that partly because our brains are on writing, as I say in the book. It's too high. If it is the first time you login, a new account will be created automatically. MCWHORTER: Language is a parade, and nobody sits at a parade wishing that everybody would stand still. But if you seed a watermelon, nobody assumes that you're taking seeds and putting them in the watermelon, you're taking them out. BORODITSKY: Yeah. He's also the author of the book, "Words On The Move: Why English Won't - And Can't - Sit Still (Like, Literally).". BORODITSKY: Yeah. That's how much cultural heritage is lost. She shows how our conversational styles can cause We all know casual sex isn't about love. Which I think is probably important with the reality that this edifice that you're teaching is constantly crumbling. According to neuroscientists who study laughter, it turns out that chuckles and giggles often aren't a response to humorthey're a response to people. VEDANTAM: I'm Shankar Vedantam. So what happens is that once literally comes to feel like it means really, people start using it in figurative constructions such as I was literally dying of thirst. Well, that's an incredibly large set of things, so that's a very broad effect of language. So if you took a bunch of those tendencies, you could make up, say, the English of 50 years from now, but some of the things would just be complete chance. Go behind the scenes, see what Shankar is reading and find more useful resources and links. But what happens when these feelings catch up with us? Social Functionalist Frameworks for Judgment and Choice: Intuitive Politicians, Theologians, and Prosecutors, by Philip Tetlock, Psychology Review, 2002. No matter how hard you try to feel happier, you end up back where you started. So maybe they're saying bridges are beautiful and elegant, not because they're grammatically feminine in the language, but because the bridges they have are, in fact, more beautiful and elegant. So earlier things are on the left. You can search for the episode or browse all episodes on our Archive Page. Those are quirks of grammar literally in stone. BORODITSKY: It's certainly possible. We'd say, oh, well, we don't have magnets in our beaks or in our scales or whatever. Our transcripts are provided by various partners and may contain errors or deviate slightly from the audio. 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. Copyright Hidden Brain Media | Privacy Policy, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Dont Know, Refusing to Apologize can have Psychological Benefits, The Effects of Conflict Types, Dimensions, and Emergent States on Group Outcomes, Social Functionalist Frameworks for Judgment and Choice: Intuitive Politicians, Theologians, and Prosecutors, Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams, The Effective Negotiator Part 1: The Behavior of Successful Negotiators, The Effective Negotiator Part 2: Planning for Negotiations, Read the latest from the Hidden Brain Newsletter.