Name: Will Improving English Change Your Identity?
Uploaded: 2020-06-08T03:30:39.000Z
Duration: 6 min 11 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

- Will improving your English change your identity?

I am your beloved host, Julian Northbrook, doingenglish.com.

A couple of days ago, I was chatting with

as her English has improved, in leaps and bounds I may add,

along with the quality of her English speaking.

also often called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis,

The premise behind linguistic determinism

is that the language that we have in our heads

Of course, as with any kind of scientific theory,

there are degrees to which people believe

to the extent whereby, if you don't have the words

that you would need to articulate something,

On the other end of the scale, we have the exact opposite,

whereby thought and language are completely separate,

I would put my thinking somewhere around about the middle,

but slightly veering off to the stronger form

I believe, and I have plenty of evidence of back this up,

that learning a new language changes the way that you think.

Language, you see, is very, very closely connected,

meshed together with, intimately entwined

Put simply, just because you have the words

and the phrases and the expressions that you need

to talk well about something, if you have no content,

no knowledge, no ideas for things to talk about,

Whereas something like psycholinguistics,

because I have a very deep understanding of the field.

Culture is defined as the way that human beings

But, of course, animals have a culture, too.

Culture is defined as the way that we act and behave.

Not only does culture define the things that we talk about.

A great example of this would be something like

my stepping into a person's house and saying,

Something that is not common to say, here,

are used to wearing shoes inside the house.

Well, I'm from the U.K., but I spent a long time in Japan,

So, for me, I'm still stuck, somewhat, in Japanese culture

wearing shoes in the house is a little bit dirty.

That, in a sense, is an odd thing for me to say,

But in Japan, as a Westerner stepping into someone's house,

it's a given that you would take your shoes off.

This element of culture, as simple as it is,

defines the way that we talk about this particular topic.

But I believe it is also a two-way process,

As you acquire more words, a richer vocabulary,

phrases, expressions, things that are not said

in your first language but are expressed in English,

so too, will your understanding of the culture

that is meshed together with that language

will improving your English change your identity

Because as you are broadening your horizons,

so too, are you learning to see the world

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Will Improving English Change Your Identity?

stick

perceive

articulate

extraordinary