Joshua Klein and the amazing intelligence of crows!
I love visitors. Last week, we had Ruth Ann Harnisch and her husband, Bill. They're from the Harnisch foundation. And then we had Joshua Klein and Bill Jensen, both technologists. It's always so nice to have people come in and give pep talks.
I can't get over what Ruth said, "what you think of me is none of my business."
Josh was just fabulous. I loved the hacking technique. His TED talk is nothing short of fabulous!
It's way to go guys!
Monday, March 9, 2009
Anthropology 1001 Essay# 2
Inayat Kaur
ANT 1001 TV24A/ Gaunt
2nd Year (Finance)
The Sapir Whorf Hypothesis developed by Benjamin Lee Whorf and anthropologist, Edward Sapir dwells on the ideas of language and culture. Whorf proposed that language influences a person's view of the world. Is this true or not? We are about to find out.
Language is an important part of a person's life. It's a very important tool for communication. Although more than 50% of communication is non-verbal, the importance of language cannot be undermined. Why the Sapir-Whorf remained only a theory and not a statement is because it was published posthumously and gained attention after Whorf's death.
There are many in favor of the theory and many more who disagree. As an introductory Anthropology student, I'd vote in favor. Not that my view is remotely important, but even then. I have an examples to illustrate why I believe this theory is true.
This is from my Communication class. Each of the students had to give an Impromptu Speech ( A speech delievered with little or no immediate preparation). Needless to say that at Baruch, we have students from a variety of cultures. A Chinese student was to speak on his thoughts about living in New York City. We were given 10 minutes to think and speak. When his turn came, he spoke from a collective point of view. Instead of talking about his own personal view, he shared his group's point of view. And after he finished, the Professor smiled and told us how the Chinese culture is collectivist. For them, We=I. They talk collectively. Ofcourse, this doesn't hold true for the entire Chinese population. They are well apadted to live in the American individualistic society.
I think what Whorf said is true, the only thing is that a person's view can change. There is no rule to that. So there may be many words for a particular term in your cultural language. But there may be just one term for all of them in English and vice-versa. I have a Russian friend who now lives here in New York. She is well versed in English and Russian. And she has a daughter with whom she talks in both the languages. I once asked her why both the tongues? Why not only Russian? She replied saying that there are certian words in English that she can't really translate in Russian. And some Russian phrases that when translated, have an intirely different meaning in English.
And so, the debate regarding the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis continues!
ANT 1001 TV24A/ Gaunt
2nd Year (Finance)
The Sapir Whorf Hypothesis developed by Benjamin Lee Whorf and anthropologist, Edward Sapir dwells on the ideas of language and culture. Whorf proposed that language influences a person's view of the world. Is this true or not? We are about to find out.
Language is an important part of a person's life. It's a very important tool for communication. Although more than 50% of communication is non-verbal, the importance of language cannot be undermined. Why the Sapir-Whorf remained only a theory and not a statement is because it was published posthumously and gained attention after Whorf's death.
There are many in favor of the theory and many more who disagree. As an introductory Anthropology student, I'd vote in favor. Not that my view is remotely important, but even then. I have an examples to illustrate why I believe this theory is true.
This is from my Communication class. Each of the students had to give an Impromptu Speech ( A speech delievered with little or no immediate preparation). Needless to say that at Baruch, we have students from a variety of cultures. A Chinese student was to speak on his thoughts about living in New York City. We were given 10 minutes to think and speak. When his turn came, he spoke from a collective point of view. Instead of talking about his own personal view, he shared his group's point of view. And after he finished, the Professor smiled and told us how the Chinese culture is collectivist. For them, We=I. They talk collectively. Ofcourse, this doesn't hold true for the entire Chinese population. They are well apadted to live in the American individualistic society.
I think what Whorf said is true, the only thing is that a person's view can change. There is no rule to that. So there may be many words for a particular term in your cultural language. But there may be just one term for all of them in English and vice-versa. I have a Russian friend who now lives here in New York. She is well versed in English and Russian. And she has a daughter with whom she talks in both the languages. I once asked her why both the tongues? Why not only Russian? She replied saying that there are certian words in English that she can't really translate in Russian. And some Russian phrases that when translated, have an intirely different meaning in English.
And so, the debate regarding the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis continues!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
