Topic: Reflection on "How Immersion Helps to Learn a Language" (NY Times Article)
I found the article "How Immersion Helps to Learn a Language" to be very fascinating! Since I am majoring in biology, it is interesting to me to think about how scientific techniques, like electroencephalography (EEG), can provide us with an increased grasp of how we learn and remember language. It was amazing that the immersion group displayed the full brain patterns of native speakers, and I think this might be in part because of the role of the brain in processing information like a native speaker would. For instance, in German, when I would use the past perfect tense, the most important "action" verb would be at the end, so when I would listen to someone talk about their day, for instance, I would have to wait until the end of the sentence to actually understand what she was doing that day. For instance, if I were to say: "Today at school I ate a sandwich," in German, the word order would be "Today at school [aux verb - in the form of "to have"] I a sandwich [main verb: ate]." Thus, my brain would process the whole idea of the past differently, because I would wait a little longer, expectantly, to hear the crux of the sentence -- the verb. With Hindi, I'm not so sure I have been learning through immersion. I have been utilizing a variety of mediums, but towards the beginning, I really focused on "book" learning -- learning grammar, vocab, etc, through textbooks and some online resources. However, now I feel that those aren't the parts of Hindi that I most remember. I most remember what I supplemented with audio or video resources that were very culturally authentic, such as a public service announcement using health vocab or a Bollywood clip about family. Thus, it is interesting how the brain really does utilize different mediums to learn, especially when you consider the role of neuroscience in assessing the brain's capabilities in language learning.
One of my friends who is interested in issues relating to gender and human rights is studying abroad in India, where she is studying Hindi as one of her courses. She told me that she dislikes studying Hindi because of its emphasis on gender-distinctive pronouns and verbs (The verb form for "he goes" would be different from the verb used in "she goes"). I never really thought about that before, and I think that these small details may influence the way we view gender relationships as well in society -- as a way to consider how linguistics influences the way our brain may process other details. For instance, Sweden just brought about a new gender-neutral pronoun (Hen) to show sensitivity to people who do not identify themselves as either male or female. "Hen" would be a gender-neutral pronoun instead of he (han in Swedish) and she (hon in Swedish). It's interesting, but in light of the NY times article, do you think that linguistic interventions like these would actually change the way our brain processes societal relationships as well?? Here's a link to the article about Sweden's "linguistic intervention" -- Sweden's new gender-neutral pronoun
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