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If You're Fat, Broke, and Smoking, Blame Language
First time accepted submitter derekmead writes "A Yale researcher says that culture differences how much money we save, how well we take care of ourselves, and other behavior indicative of taking the long view, are all based on language. His study argues that the way a language's syntax refers to the future (PDF) affects how its speakers perceive the future. For example, English and Greek make strong distinctions between the present and the future, while German doesn't, while English and Greek speakers are statistically poorer and in worse health than Germans. (The study includes a broader swath of languages/nationalities, but that's a start.)"
cultural differences _____ how much money we save?
Jetzt schreibe ich einen Satz.
... Just lost two pounds and made $10!
Morgen werde ich noch einen schreiben.
The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or the Americans. On the other hand, the French eat a lot of fat and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or the Americans.
The Japanese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or the Americans. The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or the Americans.
Conclusion: Eat and drink what you like. It’s speaking English that kills you
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Sounds like the return of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Captcha: "nonsense".
I believe him, but a sample size of three languages is not convincing at all.
Hey don't blame me, IANAB
That tomorrow never comes. For languages that don't distinguish between now and later, that would be the same as hoping that today never comes?
Maybe communism was good for something other than starting a hate campaign against communist.
How many people think in pure emotion and logic? Most people think in terms of language, and in that way language is in itself a prison for the mind.
correlation != causation
Unpublished of course, but I wrote a thesis in college about the role of language in the perception of time. Other than determining that an African language, Wolof, was particularly suited to discussing the particulars of time travel (it has some interesting tenses regarding subjective and relative time), I happened to come across a particularly fascinating report by a psychologist doing research for an advertising journal. He described various cultures' attitudes towards time that then influenced what they believed was important -- for example, Spanish-speaking cultures view time as cyclical, which made the present less important, or Native Americans, who don't exactly have a cultural perception of time at all, and tend to view time in consideration to the task at hand instead.
There are some interesting papers out there if you're really interested in this stuff.
If you know more than one fat, language, is the increase linear or exponential? Moreover, if I learn german, will I fit size 32 pants again?
Silence is a state of mime.
German has future tense, it's Greek that has complicated situation where tense is not the important part but rather type of action, rather than time
How about the language of taking responsibility for oneself? In psychology, there's something called an "external locus of control" versus an "internal locus of control". An example of an external locus of control would be someone saying: "I lost my job because my boss is a jerk" whereas an example of an internal locus of control would be: "I lost my job because I didn't do a good enough job." The fact is, when you place the control on something other than yourself -- language, the media, your parents, whatever -- you end up relinquishing responsibility and by doing so, what changes? If it's language's fault, it's not yours so you're still fat and smoking and broke and thinking it's language's fault doesn't change that. However, thinking to yourself, "I got myself here," puts the responsibility in your own hands...it's you now, so you can do something about it...
Take my word for it or don't but compare me to my brother and you'll see taking simple responsibility for oneself is literally the difference between not only fat, smoking, and broke...but educated, healthy, and prosperous as well...
I expected this to be about programming languages. I've known a lot of fat, broke, chain-smoking COBOL programmers.
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
So how does this study relate to programming syntax? Are you more likely to get rich and live happy & healthy if you use a Strongly Typed language or a Weak Typed Language? Are GOTO statements bad for your health an well being?
~theCzar
This is nitpicking, but a piece about language and syntax should not begin with such an obvious grammatical error.
So i just skimmed it... however i'd find it hard to believe that such a thing is provable to any real extent. There are just too many other factors to play with when trying to apply such a broad brush.
simply put, the language you speak often dictates who you listen too, us here in AU, and no doubt in canada are greatly influenced by what happens in the US - though it wasnt always that way for us (AU) prior to the internet. There were certainly influences, but now those influences are faster and more prevalent. As such, AU'ers themselves are also less healthy, more fat, and more likely to spend money then they were say 50 years ago - yet we still spoke the same language.
Thats a pretty simple example, but in AU, alot of a social infrastruture has changed to be more like the US - AU used to provide much of its services by govt owned facilities - these days the reverse is true, and this impacts health care, so people without money are less healthy (perhaps).
My ultimate point being that today there are just too many other factors at work that could have larger impacts then simply the language you think and any proof derived from such would probably be easily flawed. My humble opinion anyway.
The article says "Morgen regnet es" in German translates to "It will rain tomorrow". But translate.google.com says it translates to "Tomorrow it's raining", which does not requre the "will", which seems critical to TFA's thesis. Can a German-speaker please say what is the common sentence to express the possibility of rain tomorrow? Google translates "It will rain tomorrow" to "Es wird morgen regnen".
Since I can only speak English and Greek (and I also live in Greece)
Correlation does not show causation.
researchers are ID10Ts, ya'll
Fake and gay.
Let's see, From time to time, Americans and even residents of the United Kingdom have been wealthier than Germans (actually, isn't that the case right now?), and also I believe that the Greeks have had their moments in the Sun. Are these shifts in fortune to be blamed on changes in language ? China 400 years ago was wealthy, then 100 years ago it was not, now it is becoming wealthy again. Has the Chinese language changed, and then changed back, in a way to be responsible for that as well ? For that matter, is every language in Africa somehow deficient ?
Pardon me if I doubt this.
On the other hand, if Newt Gingrich announces tomorrow that, if he is elected, the lunar colonists will get a new, revised, English to make them healthier and more economically competitive, I can't say I would be too surprised.
Or maybe the prevalence of fast food, and advertising makes a difference not to mention education.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
"Boy, I sure don't envy that guy!"
No, i didn't read the full article but by doing a fast search i could find anywhere in the text something, anything that would confirm that: Greek speakers are statistically poorer and in worse health than Germans.
Why you wrote such a description?? Did YOU even read the article before posting it??
//LIFE WOULD BE EASIER IF I HAD THE SOURCE CODE!
Im also checking out japanese for some time now. the way sentences are structured always places the emphasis/main point at the end of the sentences. therefore, you have to wait for the sentence to end, to get the full meaning. only in situations that are quite evident, you can grasp what the person is saying from start-mid of the sentence. in general, you have to wait. coincidentally 'reading the sitaution/atmosphere' seems to be a common metaphor that is used/practiced in the japanese culture. as for the main point, japanese culture is quite shaped with a practice of being patient/persevering things through the end. it even reflects on their pop culture.
Read radical news here
People are healthier in Germany? Maybe because Germany has universal health care.
People are better off financially in Germany? Maybe because Germany still has a strong manufacturing base and fair wages paid to workers instead of high CEO salaries.
Just a thought.
The basic structure of English hasn't changed a lot in fifty years. On the other hand, the body shape of English speakers sure has changed. We are much more obese.
My favourite stereotype of Germans is that they are a bunch of fat beer guzzling guys in lederhosen. If we chose the right times and places, we could show that Germans were fat and Americans were thin.
The thesis, that we as a nation are obese because of the language we speak, doesn't stand up to even cursory inspection.
Even the article you link to says research has shown it to hold up....
... the future is now (or something)...
Die Zukunft ist jetzt! (oder etwas)...
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
I expected this to be about programming languages. I've known a lot of fat, broke, chain-smoking COBOL programmers.
I prefer to call them COBOL Developers, for reasons that should be obvious.
Greece is in serious financial trouble and Quebec (primarily french) is going the same way and has been called the Greece of Canada.....interesting....and of course Germany is a economic powerhouse of the EU.
$action = empty(PHP) ? backToC() : unset(PHP) ; "when the concrete cases are understood, the abstractions are readily
I'm not used to regression tests enough to comment on any particular regression coefficient in the tables.
However, the data seems to be awfully clustered, see page 12. Of 76 countries considered there, fully 59 are rated low FTR(no future required). Most datasets like that would exhibit artifacts in the form of notable regression coefficients.
In addition, I believe an expert in statistics would probably find that if you study such a dataset long enough, you will find some such correlations even if the dataset was generated randomly.
The graph on page 19 looks convincing at first, but take away the outliers Luxemburg and Greece, Luxemburg because it is bascially a huge city where you can earn lots of money by being the head of a shady company that is used by rich Greeks to evade taxes, and Greece, where the state's financial situation is very bad.
The next 8 countries basically take turns between low FTR and high FTR, it isn't much different for the next ten, and then it ends bascially in a block of low FTR
Also, as mentioned in the paper, if data suggests that natives using compass directions know better where north is, why would languages discerning less between future and now work the other way around?
Hey don't blame me, IANAB
...or Native Americans, who don't exactly have a cultural perception of time at all, and tend to view time in consideration to the task at hand instead.
Care to say which sociolinguistic group? Lumping all Native American cultures and languages together is about as helpful as saying " Europeans, who have a strong cultural perception of tuna fish sandwiches", or " Asians, who believe time flows from their belly buttons".
North America is a continent. There are a *lot* of different people here. There are a *lot* of different cultures and languages here. Speaking broadly about the people native to this place, about all you can say conclusively is that they are native to this place. And at that, only "native" relative to the latecomers who began arriving in the late 1400s. Making sweeping claims that any group this large all shares the same temporal perspective immediately casts doubt on anything else you have to say.
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
The sample size isn't 3 languages (the table of languages, familes, and how they were coded takes up most of 3 pages.) There are three specific examples noted in TFS, with the further note "(The study includes a broader swath of languages/nationalities, but that's a start.)"
(Roman transliteration of inscription on the scroll of the Northwestern University seal, excerpted form John 1:14 in the Christian New Testament)
How is anyone in Germany able to purchase anything they need, anyway, without skipping work?
I am of Ausland-Slavic heritage, by the way, which gives me license to rag on Germans.
Through the language glass: why the world looks different in other languages
By Guy Deutscher
(GoogleBooks Preview).
From the introduction:
I've only gotten 10 pages in so I'm not sure what his foundation will rest on, but the author has a precise and smooth writing style that promises to make the book an enjoyable read -- which is often a toss-up in nonfiction even when you're very interested in the topic.
I took some linguistics classes in college, and I remember learning about the Sapir-Worf Hypothesis, which the professor explained with obvious contempt. I've also read some of the work of both Pinker and Chomsky, and honestly, as persuasive and brilliant as both those men are, I never was convinced that there isn't a link between a group's native language toolset and the resulting thought process which might tend to be used to solve a problem such as differentiating between concepts or assigning priority or order to objects.
Furthermore, in this decade we have seen research indicating that native speakers of tonal languages may be more likely to develop the musical skill known as "perfect pitch". (Short version here). If the very tonal structure of a language can dramatically shape the brain's ability to acquire/process/interpret/sort tones in general, can we so easily scoff at the possibility that the semantic structure of a language might shape the brain's ability to acquire/process/interpret/sort concepts in general?
Hollywood, Television, has become the dream machine. We need to take that back; each of us is a Dream Machine
coincidentally 'reading the sitaution/atmosphere' seems to be a common metaphor that is used/practiced in the japanese culture.
Part of this is historical -- Japanese culture has had more time free of invaders and foreign influences, and more time to hunker down and let stereotypes blossom into full-blown cultural shorthand. Stereotypes are often derided in the US as something to be avoided, partly because the steady flow of immigrants from all over the world pretty much guarantees that a stereotype that applies to one group will be wildly off the mark with another. But when the whole village / city / country has grown up there, sometimes for generations out of mind, there's a lot of shared context, and a lot that you can get across without having to spell it out. That's one of the big reasons that gaijin are such a spanner in the works -- we don't fit the existing cultural constructs. It also means there's more to learn and less forgiveness with regard to cultural literacy -- "well, you're just supposed to know that's how it works!" was a common refrain when my wife and I (both born and raised in the US) ran into things at our workplace that didn't make sense to us.
If you're interested in Japanese mores and how parts of the culture still function, I very highly recommend Ruth Benedict's book, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword . It was published just after WWII, but much of what it describes is still applicable to modern Japanese culture. One dynamic that's particularly odd for Westerners is the concept of indebtedness: basically reverse karma, where doing something good for someone when they're down is seen as taking advantage of them, because now they owe you. The only people outside of this indebtedness social construct are people acting in an official uniformed capacity. No matter how much Red Cross first-aid training you have, it's considered completely inappropriate for you to help at an accident scene -- unless you are in uniform. Anyway, give Benedict's book a read.
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
Left out of the fun because GOTO isn't allowed in your programming language? Unwilling to use GOTO because it affects health negatively? Do not worry, we have a 4 step program to help you!
step1();
do{
step2();
if(condition()) break;
step3();
}while(false);
step4();
Hey don't blame me, IANAB
I think the difference the pdf sees between German and English is that when someone asks you what you will do today, in German it is fine to say "Ich gehe ins Theater", leaving the listener to decide whether the future is meant, while in English you are supposed to say "I will go to the theatre".
Hey don't blame me, IANAB
When I studied some Russian as an undergrad I was intrigued by the way that Russian applies the perfect/imperfect concept to the future, as well as to the past. How does this affect Russians and how they view the future?
I'm also reminded of how important the subjunctive mood is in Spanish. Not that it affects perceptions of the future (mañana, anybody?), but the whole cultural thing that even when you actually say "This is so...", the implication is more like "God willing that it be so..."
...laura
http://sourceforge.net/projects/fiftyfifty/
england was a unpossible to learn class of school
As a professional linguist I'm concerned about the linguistic analysis of English in this paper. The author claims that German does not have explicit future marking, while English does. He uses examples like:
"Morgen regnet es" --German, literally "it rains tomorrow", with no future tense marker
"It will rain tomorrow" -- English, with the future tense marker
He argues that the explicit future tense marking causes speakers to treat future events differently and thus damages savings or whatever. The statistical analysis in this paper looks pretty good to me, though I'm not familiar with the way economics people report linear regressions so it'll take more time to evaluate that. But the statistical analysis is no good if the linguistic analysis it's based on is wrong. Garbage in, garbage out.
The problem is that languages don't exclusively use or neglect to use future tense markers. For instance in German, you could use a future tense marker, as in "es wird regnen" (literally, it will rain). BUT you drop the future tense marker if you have a word like "tomorrow" that makes it obvious that the event is in the future, like "morgen regnet es" (tomorrow it rains). All languages make use of a variety of different patterns to mark future tense.
In English there is a similar pattern to German, for instance. People will very frequently say things like "I'm teaching tomorrow" or "I'm grabbing donuts with my friend tomorrow morning." The author ignores this, although it is very common in English usage, and even though it is a direct counterexample to his purported classification of English. He claims that English MUST mark future explicitly by pointing out that we don't say things like "I listen to a lecture"--but the problem with that sentence is NOT that it doesn't mark future; the problem is that we use the progressive in English contexts, and we could very easily say "I'm listening to a lecture tomorrow, so I won't be able to come to your party" or similar.
It turns out English and German have pretty much the same pattern of future tense marking. Maybe English speakers use explicit tense marking more than German speakers do, but that's a quantitative difference, which is ignored in this paper in favor of arbitrary categorizations.
If this fellow is so ignorant about the language he's writing in, how much can we trust his judgments about other languages? Or rather, how much can we trust him to be sufficiently critical of the linguistic categorizations that he's looking at, or to know what they really mean? Yes, his data was based on "expert" linguistic sources, but linguists are also prone to this kind of miscategorization, and are very often more driven by a need to make languages conform to certain modern theories than by a desire to make a legitimate description; furthermore the people writing about these languages are all operating according to DIFFERENT DEFINITIONS and different theoretical frameworks, a problem I have to deal with just about every day in my work.
tl;dr It looks like the author has given almost no thought to the lack of soundness in the linguistic categorizations he uses, even though his system breaks down in the very examples he cites. I don't think he knows what he's talking about.
German don't make a strong difference between present and future ? What did that guy smoke. There is as much difference as in english language. Ich werde morgen essen, und ich esse jetzt have quite a marked difference, about as much as I will eat tomorrow, and I am eating now. Or for the example he cited , Ich werde zu eine Seminar gehen. Heck his first sentence in the paper is wrong. You can both say Morgen regnet es , und es wird morgen regnen. This guy is compeltely off base. This is utter nonsense.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
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visit randi.org
Currently Germany is currently in a time of relative economic prosperity. Greece (which has retained more-or-less the same language for thousands of years) is not. English corresponds to a fairly large collection of countries that have little to do with each other. At least four of the countries are doing okay (UK, Canada, USA, New Zealand, and Australia) while many of the others (mainly former English colonies) are not. (Some of the former colonies (i.e. Bermuda) are doing fine.)
If this so-called "study" had been done during post WWI, we'd have to conclude that speakers of German were getting the ever-living crap kicked out of them.
If we spread the B.S. analysis out a few centuries, we'd come to the conclusion at various times that Chinese, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Latin, Aramaic, Japanese, Sumerian, Sanskrit, etc. was the "best" language for prosperity. (And I'm sure I've missed a few)
This kind of theory resurfaces every now and again amongst the literati who can't do research properly. Linguists dismissed the generative role of language decades ago - concept comes first, expression comes second, and this is never violated. This is one of the few things Orwell is credited with getting wrong (and he was a Linguist) - Newspeak would have no effect on peoples thought processes, and would also turn into a Pigin then a Creole quite quickly. Language doesnt control your mind, prevailing concepts and a Status Quo control your mind, language is just a conveyor and nothing else. For examle Sir Humphrey Appleby couching all his persuasive passive-aggressive little demands in sugary language - its not the language that does the persuading, its the fact that he appears to be both a figure of authority, a knowledge authority, and a reasonable man: all false assumptions. For those who haven't brushed with Linguistics much, particularly some of the very subtle concepts therein such as we are discussing here, I can highly recommend the famous "Linguistics At Large", it tops out at 1970 but very little has changed in the science since. It is a very good introduction.
Australia, Canada and New Zealand all have lower smoking rates, lower levels of alcohol consumption and longer life expectancy than Germany. This is despite all three having large indigenous populations in significantly worse health than the general population. Australia and Canada also have a higher GDP per capita (PPP or nominal) and a higher GNI per capita.
Further, while the German household savings rate is certainly higher than Australia, Canada and New Zealand, German government debt levels are also significantly higher. Additionally, I'm not sure about Canada and New Zealand but low household savings rates in Australia can be explained much better by non-language factors:
1. Australians save by investing in property. The tax structure and government incentives favor investment in property over saving. Generally this means going into debt for a significant period to later come out on top.
2. Australia has government mandated private pension (aka. superannuation). All employers must pay an amount equivalent to 9% of an employees wage into a fund nominated by the employee. Assuming that this money would have otherwise gone to the employee, this means all Australians by government mandate save about 8.25% (0.9/1.09) of their wages without it appearing on the household savings rate.
To expand beyond Germany, Japanese is also an FTR language, yet smoking rates are also significantly higher in Japan. Japanese generally have a low tolerance for alcohol so drinking rates are lower. Life expectancy is slightly longer, although Australian males now have a longer life expectancy than Japanese males. Further, Japan doesn't have a large indigenous population in significantly worse health than the general population, which alone is probably enough to account for the slight overall difference.
While Japanese household savings rates are high, Japanese government debt is extremely high. Further the Japanese practice of withholding wages, and then paying them as a block bonus also probably promotes saving. Additionally the utter insufficiency of, and imminent collapse of the Japanese pension system is also probably promoting saving.
I wonder if a society would actually decide to change their language if there was sufficient evidence that it hinders their cultural development.
When they got independent some years ago, the government of East Timor had to choose which would be their national language. They could choose among Portuguese (the language of the colonial power until 1975, spoken by old literate people), Indonesian (the language of the recent enemy and occupier), English (the language of the Australian big friends) or Tetum (a local language spoken by some but not all the Timorese).
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
...I'd suggest blaming yourself.
Jamming Damen mit meinem Panzer-Flöte!
"Tomorrow never happens. It's all the same fucking day, man." - Janis Joplin
..which part of "fat, broke, and smoking" applied in 1942 ?
(Not intended to be darkly humorous, just disgusted with what passes for academics theses days...)
Interesting observations. Using some examples from my neck of the woods, I'd say it could be mixed up with agriculture and migration patterns.
Vietnamese is very strongly future-typed. No tenses but an auxiliary verb 'se' = 'will' which appears in front of the verb. It is used even when the word 'tomorrow' or 'this evening' appears in the sentence. Vietnamese are famous for their over-indulgence in alcohol and coffee, although culturally they're savers (in the form of gold or ornaments). Oh, and they're atrocious drivers. (And there's a Catholic influence - sin now, confess later.)
Thai is even more strongly future-typed, in that their word for 'will' ('ja') takes even more precedence in the sentence - eg "ja mai pai Pantip" - "I will not go to Pantip". Thais are known for their moderation in most areas and they're characterized as undisciplined when it comes to wealth/savings. But they do drive well. Talk about Thai attitudes and most foreign observers will sum up with "mai pen rai" ("no worries").
Both the Thais and Vietnamese are rice-growing societies who recently migrated (the Thais much more recently) from China, where they're very loose with future markers.
Contrast with the Malays. Spoken Malay has no future typing - they rely on words like 'tomorrow'. Their society is characterized by its indifference to planning and saving, feasting today, forget tomorrow. Not very organized agriculturally. They're also an island race - perhaps best not to think too much about the future when you're getting into that boat and you can see nothing on the horizon (but a full belly will help).
Furthermore, in this decade we have seen research indicating that native speakers of tonal languages may be more likely to develop the musical skill known as "perfect pitch". (Short version here). If the very tonal structure of a language can dramatically shape the brain's ability to acquire/process/interpret/sort tones in general, can we so easily scoff at the possibility that the semantic structure of a language might shape the brain's ability to acquire/process/interpret/sort concepts in general?
Are you assuming here that the tonal structure of the language is shaping the brain, rather than the brain shaping whether the language is tonal or not? It's possible that genes that affect brain development can predispose populations towards tonal or non-tonal languages; could those genes also affect the ability to develop perfect pitch? (I.e., "A correlates with B" does not ipso facto imply "A causes B"; B could cause A, or C could cause both A and B.)
Amharic makes basically no grammatical distinction between the present and the future. Certainly less of one than German, which actually has a future tense even if it's not always used. So, I guess Ethiopians should be the healthiest people on the planet. Maybe at least it explains why they're skinny.
We have native Americans in South America as well you insensitive clod.
Sure. Except they're generally called indígenos, or in English "indigenous peoples", whereas the term "Native American" in general English speech refers more often to North American groups, and more specifically to groups in the United States. In Canada, the native groups are called "First Nations", for instance.
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
So I've been taught in linguistics classes that there isn't really such a thing as a future tense--all verbs are either present or past. E.g. is/was seem related but are will/would (present/past) really the same thing? shall/should is similar to will/would but if we're arguing that shall is future then what the heck is the present tense of shall?
First, his linguistic analysis is broken (esp. the German vs. English one) - but others posted that earlier.
A simple (in)validation / common sense check should have taken place before running off too far - unfortunately it did not happen:
Ireland and US/UK speak (nearly) the same language - English. Yet they are on the (extreme) opposite sides of the scale, with Australia, New Zealand and Canada spread in between.
Switzerland, Austria and Germany (and partially Luxembourg, and with some bending Netherlands too) speak German (Dutch is close). All these countries are spread over the scale, too (even if to a lesser extent).
Silimar with French: Luxembourg (in parts), Switzerland (in parts), Belgium, Canada (Quebec) and France are spread, too.
Similar with Italian in Switzerland (top third) and Italy (lower third).
Similar Spanish: Chile in the top third, Mexico right in the middle, Spain in the 3rd Quarter.
Coming from Switzerland and having so fun every time I go to a different canton having to adjust to a new dialect, I wonder where he got the data for the FTR. From my experience:
- there is no Swiss German (or maybe he's talking about Zürich German)
- Swiss Italians speak regular italian, with a strong accent, and they don't know how to use verbs (some even to the extent of just using present, 2 pasts, and conditional)
- Swiss French differs from French only in minor ways
And a link for you to listen to a song in different languages (mostly German variants): http://www.bodowartke.de/liebesliedgenerator/llg_flash_2009.php
I'm french, now it all makes sense.
""A Yale researcher says that culture differences [ Missing verb? ] how much..."
I.E. /. and grammar doesn't trump content, but still...
A Yale researcher says that culture differences influence how much
or
A Yale researcher says that culture differences affect how much
or
A Yale researcher says that culture differences determine how much
or
Well, you get the idea, and I know it's
Some days it's just not worth
chewing through my restraints.
When his assumption is true, than Germany is a strange country. While South Germany was in past centuries poor now it is richer and now the north is poorer. As the different German dialects do have different vocabulary and grammar, there must have been a big change between in language. However, that is not true.
I would rather accept an argument, that culture and religion (which is a part of culture and reflects and influences culture) have a big impact on the behavior and the relationship towards goods, money and social security. For example, the health in continental European countries especially former west European countries is better than in the US as these countries have a general health-care system and the countries are relatively wealthy. While the US does not have such an health-care system (even though US-citizens pay more than twice as much as European citizens the US does not have healthcare for everyone). Other English spoken countries like India or South Africa (yes they have other languages beside English) are not that wealthy for known historical reasons.
that correlation does not imply causality?
It IS true. I used to live in Greece. Well, you know how it is. Look what our language caused us: Severe economic crisis.
In Crete (big greek island) they speak a dialect. It's Greek alright but with a much heavier accent. Therefore they have the higher life expectancy all over Europe.
So, language do matters.
Now I am in Germany. I speak German most of the time. I am definitely taller, blonder, richer more athletic and have lost a couple of kgr. Eating Schweinshaxrl, Wurst and Kalbsbraten all day long, instead of fish, veggies and olive oil doesn't affect my health a bit. On the contrary. And if you think that this is all...wait till I get really fluent! I'll send you photos of me Greek speaking and after and see for yourself.
In Delany's Babel-17, you become an unaware saboteur just for learning an artificial language. There are languages that have no word for time, or for big numbers, maybe even for fun. That aren't just different ways to express yourself, but how you see reality.
Personally I can say that I view problems differently depending on what language I am thinking in. So, I have always though language effects how you approach things. Hell my daughter even tells me that I can sing better in German( she says I can match pitch in German and not in English ). So, I think it even effects perception not just thought.
But, I think this article misses the boat by saying certain constructs don't exist in English or Germany - because they do. I think it is more about popular use, so how do you make that sort of statement accurately about any number of languages. Still an interesting read though.
I came here for Hitchhikers Guide references, left disappointed.
I assumed be meant Clovis~
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on