interesting

[magicicada]

cislyn pointed me towards a very useful article on the Piraha indians.

Under Whorf's theory, people are only capable of constructing thoughts for which they possess actual words. In other words: Because they have no words for numbers, they can't even begin to understand the concept of numbers and arithmetic.

if there was ever a way to describe why everyone should learn a second language, this is it. this is why i study french. this is why my daughter will be learning spanish. learning a new language enables new thoughts which would be difficult or impossible to form without the words to express them.

Discuss.

Comments

[gardenwaltz.livejournal.com]

i won't limit her to spanish, but we're definitely going to start with only 1 new language at a time. she's still not quite ready to make choices like this for herself, and i don't want to push too hard.

[oldgrue.livejournal.com]

Kids are so durable, the fear is going to be what *you* can handle. :)
Don't be fooled - your little one will do fine.