Presleigh Keplinger- Reflection #5

        While I was working on researching and putting together our presentation on Chapter 6, there were many aspects that really made me start thinking about the concept of language.  One of the first questions asked in our textbook prosed the concept of whether the language each culture speaks affects the way in which we view the world around us or not.  I found this question particularly interesting, as I have never thought of this aspect of language.  Do I, as an English speaker, look at the world differently than someone who speaks French based solely on the language we use?  I don’t necessarily think this to be completely true.  I think language is just a powerful way to express ourselves.  We all experience aspects of life and all have opinions and views about certain things, yet we express these experiences in different ways, not only culture to culture but from each individual person to the next.  I watched a video the other day that interviewed many different people from many different cultures about the concept of friendship.  They all had different words for friendship but they all shared the same values and descriptions of what friendship is and what friendship means to each of them.

        Language does, however, create some sort of a unison amongst different people.  It definitely establishes a sense of community identity among its users, which can also be perceived as a barrier to those outside of that language group.  In order to approach this aspect of language more efficiently, I think that individuals need to understand that language is simply, as I said earlier, a way of expressing one's self and their experiences.