During this class, a reoccurring theme I continue to find interesting are the cultural and mental differences brought about by difference in language. Before this class began, I was intrigued by how learning different languages, art forms, or music theories allowed people to engage their brain in different ways and literally influence the ways people think. When we read Nisbett’s writing about how language affected grouping in different cultures, I was extremely interested in linguistics. I found this chapter of their book so interesting, because it not only analyzed the difference in thinking, but also showed how language can influence the brain to think. Another topic I found interesting was the reading about Chinese mother techniques. I’ve always heard about my friends strict parents, but learning about some specifics was really intriguing. I still enjoy thinking about how Chinese parents correlate their child’s success in school with their parenting abilities. As someone who did not have this childhood experience, I think this topic is not only informative, but that this class bridges a cultural gap by learning about it.

My appreciation for linguistics has risen dramatically since beginning this class. I think this is because I did not know to what extent the study of language reached. Reading about the specific research and studies has created links to questions I have already had. By learning about linguistics it has provided deeper answers to questions I did not know how to ask before taking this class. My approach to learning this course is first of all to attend every session I can. I think the readings are great, but in class the material is made much more tangible by the slides and lectures. Also, I think getting ahead in the homework is responsible, but detrimental to learning for it makes it difficult to recall readings you read like weeks prior to the class. I’ve really enjoyed the course overall, and have gained an appreciation for linguistics.

Through the course of this class, many things have intrigued me. The topic that intrigued me the most was the topic of politeness. My reactions to the readings have been pretty minimal but I did find the readings on “Tiger Moms” to be fairly interesting seeing as it’s from someone else’s perspective. The class has changed my view of linguistics but specifically sociolinguistics and how the different countries we focused on structured their version of sociolinguistics.

Being able to study subjects that I am passionate about such as: culture, language and societies, I was able to deeply engage with all of the material in this class. I loved that I was eager to read all the assignments with extreme curiosity and absorbed as much information I could, as well as being able to participate with classmates and have active discussions in class that helped me understand points of views from students of other nationalities. In particular, the subject of linguistic features of east Asian languages intrigued me very much. I learned new things about lexical properties and the foundation of languages, (I.e. what language family they derive from etc.) which I found out, is something I am very interested in, enough to study more about linguistics throughout my degree. I wouldn’t say this class was challenging for me, but because it was focusing on subjects I love to learn about, I learned so many new things that even contributed in many of my other classes. I look forward to taking a class similar to this one again!

-Ester Angulo

So far in this class, the question that has intrigued me the most is how does language affect our perception of certain concepts? It is fascinating from today’s class to consider how people think of the same concept differently, or even from the reading, what they notice first about something or what they are taught by the parents to notice first as they are growing up.

Learning about the different cultural phenomenon such as Herbivore boys and Girl graphs was also particularly interesting, as they were aspects of Japanese society I wasn’t aware of or knowledgeable of. I approached the learning in this course as learning new cultural and linguistical differences and how linguistical differences are used by the speakers of the language to express their different cultural differences. It has taught me to examine the language used and how the language is expected to be used in the languages I am learning (Korean and Japanese) and beginning to notice more of these interesting cultural and linguistical differences while I am learning the language. I have begun to notice odd aspects that I failed to notice before.

I think the issue of gender issues still prevalent in Asian societies and our own is what intrigued me the most. I mean, finding out that the gender gap is increasing in the ranking is shocking, as I would’ve thought it would get  better through the years. It provides evidence that language can be powerful, and I think that was the whole, main point I’ve learned throughout from this class. The whole linguistic approach to it where the use of words can’t always be translated from one language to another with the same power. For example, the tiger mom article where the word trash does not translate as harshly from her language to English or the article north korea translated to English from the much more manipulative original. Or the body language associated to each sentence can leave greater impacts to future generations, like with kids and the term, kawaii. And the gender biases it provides like Moser mentions in his paper on sexism in Mandarin; that motivate others to fight back or create their own language like the girl graphs in japan. It’s these  different cases and research topics from linguistic professors that left an impression and a newly found interest to look more into languages and the roles they play into societies.