Before taking this class, I had assumed most of the study done in the linguist field was about grammar, vocabulary, and origins. While taking the course, I find these are only a part of the field, and culture, history, living habits, and social situations also play an important role. It’s a fresh idea to think that language can affect how people think. As an international student, I realized that people from different countries have different thinking logic. I attributed this phenomenon to different cultural backgrounds, and people received different primary education. Now I know it’s language itself impacts us. So do that mean linguists change the thinking pattern of people? If so, I will be surprised by the power of linguistic.

As a native Chinese speaker, I have to say that some of the readings related to Chinese language or culture cannot reflect the contemporary situation in China. For example, we don’t have as many “tiger mothers” as the reading said. I believed it happened in the last generation. Now parents become pay more attention to children’s mental health and do not want to stress children too much anymore.