Being multilingual alters your experience of time (2018)

Re:Being multilingual alters your experience of time (2018) by zoomablemind on Sunday July 14, 2019 @09:26AM (#20433239)

On the topic of time-reference - An interesting cultural aspect when refering to 'tomorrow', a Western speaker means rather shortly, quite possibly next day.

Yet an Arabic speaker, when saying 'bukra', in fact may imply some indefinite point in future, quite possible not at all.

Just as being on-time or late may practically mean different allowances in different cultures.

Sure, there're other more precise expressions, perhaps being bilingual would expand one's perception of time-referencing.

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Re:Being multilingual alters your experience of time (2018) by jaclaz on Sunday July 14, 2019 @10:08AM (#20433446)

Well, it is not Arabic only, "mañana" in Spanish means actually tomorrow, but often it is intended as "some time in the future", more like "soon" but also "not now and not so soon".

In Italian it is almost the same for "domani", with a lot of nuances depending on the context.

Only as an example, in Italian "Domani puoi sempre fare questo" which would translate literally to (and is probably perceived by a foreigner as) "Tomorrow you can always do this" actually means "In the future (indefinite, or "any time") you can still do this" (usually meaning reverting a present decision).

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Re:Being multilingual alters your experience of time (2018) by lajawfe on Sunday July 14, 2019 @12:45PM (#20434377)

"Later" in English matches "not now and not so soon" no?

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Re:Being multilingual alters your experience of time (2018) by kawera on Sunday July 14, 2019 @10:44AM (#20433672)

Same in Portuguese (amanhã) and French (demain).

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