<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><div>On Dec 17, 2010, at 3:35 PM, BenRifkah Bergsten-Buret wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 7:04 PM, Michael R. Wolf <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:MichaelRWolf@att.net" target="_blank">MichaelRWolf@att.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.8ex; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex; position: static; z-index: auto; ">
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Very interesting to me, these inseparable notions of Language and Culture.<br>
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You're talking about linguistic relativity
:<a href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Linguistic_relativity" target="_blank">https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Linguistic_relativity</a>.
IANAL(inguist) but I believe it gained traction when studied by Edward Sapir
and and Benjamin Whorf. The ill named Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis which, simplified, draws a direct correlation between culture, language and cognitive tendencies. It proposes a causal relationship in that the language itself can have a direct impact on the way speakers think and therefore on the culture they create.<br></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Thanks.....</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>A few years ago, I used to hand out cards at the beginning of each day's class. (I got lazy).</div><div><br></div><div>It didn't matter what class I was teaching. The first day's class always had this...</div><div><br></div><div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Language shapes the way we think,</div><div>and determines what we can think about.</div><div><br></div><div> -- B. L. Whorf</div><div> -- as quoted in the Preface to the First Edition of</div><div> "The C++ Programming Language", Bjarne Stroustrup</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>========</div><div><br></div><div>Instead of starting class with "What is the language?", I'd start a discussion like "What do you want to think about?". I'd (subtly, purposely) divert the discussion so that we'd talk about *other* languages... HTML, XML, SQL, BASIC, FORTRAN, Latin... so that I could say that *those* languages are good when you want to think about ______, but the language we're here to work on today is good at _________.</div><div><br></div><div>By the time we were finished that discussion, I had end-run a common question ("Why use language X instead of Y?") in such a way that I didn't need to answer it... they could answer it themselves. For years, it's been one of my best "lectures".... or "meta-lectures", mainly because it takes a step *back* before digging in, but also because it draws on the collective experience of the class to set the limits of what they already know (and isn't *directly* useful to this class) and what they do *not* know (the real reason for this class).</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Here are some links....</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.mtsu.edu/~dlavery/Whorf/">http://www.mtsu.edu/~dlavery/Whorf/</a></div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_hypothesis">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_hypothesis</a></div><div><br></div></div><div><br></div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div class="gmail_quote"><div>
<br>This idea blew me away the first I heard of it (can't remember where) and I've found from my experience that programming languages are great evidence to support the hypothesis. When learning a new language every developer I know approaches tasks from the perspective of their previous languages until they grok the zeitgeist of the new language.<br>
<br>WNYC's RadioLab did an episode a while back that explored the inseparability of language and culture in some unique situations: <a href="http://www.radiolab.org/2010/aug/09/">http://www.radiolab.org/2010/aug/09/</a>.<br>
<br>-- <br>Ben<br>
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<div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>-- </div><div>Michael R. Wolf</div><div> All mammals learn by playing!</div><div> <a href="mailto:MichaelRWolf@att.net">MichaelRWolf@att.net</a></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><br></span></font></span></div></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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