Language and Thought

[rowyn]

A nifty article from the Wall Street Journal on the ways in which the language one speaks may influence the way one thinks. Neat stuff!

Comments

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

Heh. When I mentioned this to Gwendel, she pointed out how disoriented I seemed to be whenever bringing up the issue of driving directions. I have never had any remarkable ability to figure out east from west without landmarks, just to be clear. Still, I had for so long been spoiled on directions in the midwest, where the convention had been to go east on this road, north so far on that one, and so forth - because those were the flatlands, and roads often tended to follow nice north/south/east/west orientation (and the exceptions were exceptions and thus could be managed).

Then, I moved to Asheville, mountainous country, and when I got directions that involved turning right here or left there, and tried to clarify, "So, is that NORTH, or SOUTH?" and I'd often get funny looks. It's only slightly better for me in this regard in Florida; there are roads that tend to run straight and just might be lined up with the cardinal directions for at least a stretch, but there are so many lakes and ponds that things are still a lot more "squiggly" than in the midwest.

[level-head.livejournal.com]

*chuckle*

My habit in giving directions, for decades now, has been to say "turn right (which is north), then travel about one-half mile to X street, then turn left (which is west)..."

I use both.

Where I live, the freeway that is marked "North and South" actually runs east and west. This complicates things. It's not even "slightly northeast"--it's lined up right on an east-west orientation. Elsewhere along its course, this isn't true, but for local directions that doesn't help.

===|==============/ Level Head