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A comment on Microsoft turns spoken English into spoken Mandarin – in the same voice. Parent comment

Re:Microsoft turns spoken English into spoken Mandarin – in ... by zanny on Friday November 09, 2012 @03:20AM (#4761886)
Ever read 1984? A lot of linguists make arguements that our language shape the way we think and interact with the world, since at a young age we stop thinking visually and start thinking in spoken words.

In 1984, newspeak was all about removing ways to describe things the Party didn't want the public thinking about, so that in several generations of the language nobody would be able to comprehend dissent. And it actually has some real life foundations.

Just think of all the times a foreign language speaker says "I can't accurately represent this in whatever other tongue".

Note, I only know English, and after 6 years of Spanish throughout high school and college I have forgotten every wink of it. You really need to immerse yourself in a language to really dedicate it to memory, and constantly use it. Which is really a ton of overhead, that isn't really necessary, I agree.

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Re:Microsoft turns spoken English into spoken Mandarin – in ... by sneak on Friday November 09, 2012 @04:40AM (#4762051)
I am aware of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

German, for example, has no word for "silly", while English has no word for "gemütlichkeit".

Eliminating the overhead is worth any of these sacrifices, though.

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Re:Microsoft turns spoken English into spoken Mandarin – in ... by flyinRyan on Friday November 09, 2012 @06:55AM (#4762357)
Your example misses the mark as "silly" can be explained in German and Gemütlichkeit can be explained in English.

Language structures our thoughts. It is claimed that Chinese are better at math because of their language structure. How you express things in a different language will help you more clearly see the concept in your own language. I learned more about English by learning German than I did in all my schooling. It improved my spelling as well because it made me understand the words I was using better.

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Re:Microsoft turns spoken English into spoken Mandarin – in ... by sp332 on Friday November 09, 2012 @03:22PM (#4764578)
It's not about explanatory power, it's about patterns of thinking. Americans call each other "silly" all the time, but I'm guessing German's don't. Even though it's possible, it takes more effort, and doesn't come to mind as readily.
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Re:Microsoft turns spoken English into spoken Mandarin – in ... by flyinRyan on Thursday November 15, 2012 @11:44AM (#4789375)
They could call each other "lustig" or "lecherlich", which often covers what is meant by silly.
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Re:Microsoft turns spoken English into spoken Mandarin – in ... by rmah on Friday November 09, 2012 @10:41AM (#4763269)
If you're interested in how language can shape the way you think, I highly recommend watching Lera Boroditsky's talk here:

http://fora.tv/2010/10/26/Lera_Boroditsky_How_Language_Shape...

It's VERY good. But skip the first 3 minutes of boring intro.

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