These readings were very interesting because I think we often take our native language for granted in the sense that I had never stopped to think about the structure and science of the English language because it comes so naturally to me. When I started to learn new languages, I also didn't have to think deeply about the meaning of words, because I would just give them meaning based on their English translation. This being said, I think a more effective way to move forward this semester is to focus on meaning over translation. When I see a table, I want to think of it as "thakja" instead of "That is a table in English, so in Korean it's thakja." This is easier said than done, but it is a good mindset to have in language learning to recognize that different languages have different meanings. I'll also have to be aware that there will be words or phrases I learn in Korean that don't have a direct translation to English or that have different meanings. For example, I know that in Korean there are different words for "bye" depending on if you are the one leaving somebody's house or the one whose house somebody is leaving. Meaning also comes so much from cultural awareness and context. I've found myself being corrected in Spanish because I say something that translate perfectly to the way I would say it in English, but it's not the way natives speak. For example, in English we can say "sorry" for a variety of situations, and the most direct translation to Spanish is "lo siento," but you would never say "lo siento" if you bumped into somebody in a crowded area like you would say "sorry" in the same situation.
According to the article, as a right-handed person, my language skills are probably controlled by the left hemisphere of my brain. The localization theory states that, even more specific than just hemisphere, that there are certain locations in the brain that process specific functions such as sensation, writing, speaking, comprehension, etc. There are many areas that work together to form language. An interesting thing in the article is about how complex communication is, when it can be such a seemingly mindless activity for us. The example it uses is saying "Hi how are you? I'm fine thanks" in passing with someone. It's something I do every day without consciously thinking about my intention to communicate, conceptualize my idea into the proper English syntactic structure, and sending the signals to the muscles I need to say those words out loud.
Analyzing and conceptualizing "meaning" is something we do a lot in higher education, but it's more typically "the meaning of the stock market crash" or "the meaning of Hamlet," and less so "the meaning of the word chair." It's actually much more difficult to explain the meaning of something so simple, because we think of its meaning as a given, even though at one point in our lives we had to conceptualize the meaning of the word chair. Focusing on meaning this semester will hopefully help me see the world through the lens of a new language, not just the English lens translated to a different language as directly as possible.
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