No one could see the colour blue until modern times
Summery: The article talks about how there is evidence that until recently in human history, the color blue was unable to be seen, or more specifically unable to be processed as blue when humans saw it. In many different ancient languages there was no record of the color blue being mentioned. Even in a text as famous as the Odyssey, there was mentions of greens, violet, iron, and wine dark seas. It then introduces the philosophical question of does something exist if you don’t know its there, or does something exist if you don’t have a word for it? The article argues that since the color blue is not common in nature, ancient civilizations never developed a word for it. Because of this, they would not distinguish the color blue from other colors, most likely thinking that it was simply a different shade of a color they did have a word for.
Thoughtful Response: When I first read this article, I thought that it was super interesting for two reasons. Firstly, I really enjoy when I get to discuss or ponder hard questions like “does something exist if you don’t know its there”, so whirling that around in my mind was entertaining. My personal position is that no, if you don’t have a word for something or a way to acknowledge something, then it does not exist. The second reason I found this article interesting is that I had just taken a sensations and perceptions class where it taught you about how the body receives input from the environment and then interprets it to what we ‘see and feel’ in our lives. I also found it interesting when it stated that the color blue is not a common color found in nature. I took a minute to think about it and could come up with very few things like different insects and small mammals such as birds or frogs.
How Language Shapes Our Perception of Reality
Summery: The article discusses the possibility that the way you think and view the world is affected by the language you speak. It states how multiple different languages have different meanings for different words as well as some having meanings for words that cannot be found in other languages and how that could affect the way you think of the world. The easiest examples they give is how if a language has many different words for the color light blue and dark blue, would the speakers of the language see light blue and dark blue as different colors the same way we see red and pink as different colors even though pink is merely a lighter shade of red.
Thoughtful Response: Immediately when I started reading this article I agreed with what it was saying about the possibility that the language you speak alters how you think and perceive the world. While I cannot speak for every bilingual speaker, I do find that the way I think changes based on which language I am thinking in or even talking in. I also believe that culture plays a large role in this, as you generally learn a language in the culture that speaks it and all the different slang and mannerisms that native speakers use. I also agree that how each language has different words changes how you view certain things, whether it’s if you tie a gender to items, or if there are more than one word for different things, you tend to think the way the people of the same culture and language think when you use that language.For example, I find myself being unable to be angry and think in Spanish. So anytime I am angry, I switch to English in my head, but whenever I am talking about home or my family, in my mind I switch back to Spanish.
Twelve Words
Summery: The article talks about the author’s twin brother, who can only say twelve words due to having cerebral palsy, which he got right after birth when his blood pressure went too high and burst some arteries in his brain. This caused him to be stuck in a wheelchair only able to say twelve words. The article is written in the present, with different flashbacks of certain events in their life that are intertwined into the story. As the story progresses, it talks about how his twin brother is dying, his body cannot keep up with all the procedures and is shutting down and every joke and important memory the two brothers share is brought up until he dies and he finishes by talking about how hell describe his twin to his new daughter.
Thoughtful response: After reading this story the first time, I actually had to go back and reread it again to sort of react and really think about what the writer was saying and the point he wanted to get across. The first time I went through and read it, it was very emotional and powerful piece and I found myself getting sucking into it, not being able to stop or wonder anything except what would happen next. The second time I read it, I thought about what it would be like, if my sister could only say twelve words and only having her in my life for a short time, or having to go through the loss of a sibling and watching the hard painful struggle that takes place in the last days of their life. But I also really liked the way he ended it, having the comparison between how is brother looked and how his daughter looks and how in every action that he does for her, there is a memory of how he took care of his brother his entire life.
Mother Tongue
Summery: The article talks about an Asian American writer and her experience with having a mother who, for lack of a better word, speaks broken English and how that has affected her writing and her life over all. She talks about how even though her mother speaks a ‘broken’ or ‘simple’ English, it does not mean that her thoughts or her passion or the meaning she conveys with the words should be any less than those who speak fluently in English. She also talks about how all her life she has seen discrimination towards her mother due to the way she speaks and the difference in how people treat her vs her mother when they both talk about the same thing. She ends the article talking about how she has learned how to incorporate all the Englishes she uses, the fancy proper long worded English she learned in school, the causal English she uses with family, and even the simple English her mother uses.
Thoughtful Response: A common theme I’ve noticed for these readings we’ve had to do is that I find that I can relate to all of them very personally. While I do not like writing nor am I fascinated by the English language, I do come from a bilingual home. I say bilingual, but my sister and my English vocabulary and pronunciation are vastly better than our parents. In fact, while my mother’s native language is Spanish, she talks very similarly to the way that the authors mother speaks. I also relate to the author in the way that English was always one of the subject I struggled in the most. Any of the ‘logic’ questions never made much sense to me and my teachers always pushed me to excel in science and math. Almost as though to prove a point, I scored a 36 in the science part of the ACT and a 24 in the English part.
Cam Garcia 