Essay Two languages, two personalities By Rob Schwartz	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
2つの言語には2つの人格 アメリカの言語学者であるE.サピアとB.ウォーフが1950年代に唱えた仮説によれば、ある言語を使うとき、私たちの思考法はその言語独自の体系に影響を受けるという。 だとすれば、日本語話者が英語を使うときは、英語の論理や思考法に支配され、「別の人格」がお目見えすることになるのではないか…。

Many people all over the world study English as a second language. For some, like Spanish or German speakers, it may be relatively close to their native language, but for others, like the Japanese, the linguistic gap and the cultural gap are larger. This can present quite a challenge.

All language learners realize at some point that learning a new language requires more than just learning new words. Beyond the new vocabulary is a new system of grammar and syntax that makes order of the new words. These systems together with the culture specific to that language make up the "logic'' or "worldview'' of a language, and grasping this worldview is central to using the language well.

This idea is strongly related to an important advancement in the field of linguistics called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. This concept, pioneered by American linguists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf in the 1950s, asserts that one's language influences the way one habitually thinks. Put simply, "language creates thought."

If we understand this idea, we will realize that the language one is speaking/thinking will influence, or even control, one's way of thinking. Thoughts or ideas in one language are turned into something very different in another language. A simple example of this might be that in a certain situation the appropriate Japanese-language communication might be "gomen nasai'' but in similar circumstances in English the appropriate remark may be something like "don't worry about it," which has a very different feel.

The way people think and their reactions to different situations are, of course, key points to making up their personalities. Thus we can see that if a person learns a new and very different language well (and this includes grasping all the cultural particulars of a language), then it will affect who they are, their personality, when speaking that language.

This is to say that speaking and interacting in the new language will lead to a new and different personality in the speaker. Of course, the base personality in the native language is not (usually) fully discarded or ignored. Elements of it will come through in the new language, but still we can see a distinct new identity in the second language.

In this way, people who are bilingual, or at least fluent in two very different languages, have two distinct personalities. In the context of a single language "split personalities'' can be considered a mental illness, but in two different language contexts it is natural and almost necessary to have different personalities. So enjoy your new identity along with your new language!

Shukan ST: July 11, 2008

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