I have absolutely no doubt about this.
If your language is inflexible, your thought patterns will match.
I have extensive interactions with Chinese people. They can mangle their broken English extensively and I am still able to figure out what they mean. One word, hello for example, can be said high pitch, low pitch, tone anywhere on the spectrum, emphasis on either end of the word, letters mispronounced, etc. It’s all the same.
My Chinese however must be exactly right or they simply don’t understand it. Since I speak it poorly and know only a few handfuls of words, it makes it extremely difficult for me to discuss something new.
I recall one conversation with our driver who was asking me in broken English what we did the day before.
“We went to Shenzhen” I said, tone off a bit
I got a questioning look.
“huwhel?” he was trying to say where.
“Shenzhen” tone still not quite right.
He shakes his head, furrows his brow.
I took a different tack. “Hong Kong” said properly, then motioned with my hands, as if next to it
He responded “OOOOH Shenzhen” which to my ear, sounded exactly like what I had said twice.
“yeah, exactly” LOL
I think this builds into them the inability to create and innovate. This is not to say it can’t be overcome, but I believe it is a big impediment for them. It’s why it’s so easy for them to adopt things already created but very difficult to innovate things never made.
Very interesting observations here, thanks for sharing that!
I’ve noticed that some Chinese keep mixing up the words for “he” and “she”. This seems very odd and makes me wonder if anyone else observed it too.
Fascinating commentary!
“I think this builds into them the inability to create and innovate.”
I came to the same conclusion having studied with Chinese and Japanese grad students in biz and math...then working with their most senior engineers on large mechanical and electronic installs of THEIR designs in factories. They were excellent mimics. But if it didn’t work, it was amusing watching them doing the same thing over and over...then an American,German, or less often, an Italian engineer much junior in age and experience “figure it out” for them. The fix would leave the Asians marveling at it all.....and taking copious notes and pictures.
The fact that the Chinese have 3,000? standard characters in their simplified lexicon to our 26 has to be extremely limiting as well in communicating and logging ideas efficiently and just as important, flexibly to denote something novel.
It has nothing to do with them being “rigid”.
In Chinese tone is part of the way the spoken language differentiates between difference words.
Take the “Shen” of “Shenzhen” for example, in tone 1 Shen can mean the verb “to Stretch”, in tone 2, Shen is a noun, it means “God”, In third tone, it a verb “to Judge”, and 4th tone, it’s a verb “to seep through”.
The same “Shen” to you can means things that are vastly different when pronounced with different tones. That’s why without the context of “near HongKong”, when you prounce it in the wrong tone, it can prove very difficult for someone decipher your meaning.
Yes, Chinese is one of what they call a “tonal” languages where a change tone and/or pitch, not just the base sound, can change the meaning.
On the other hand, people who grow up as speakers of a tonal language will, a lot more frequently then others, develop “perfect pitch” or near perfect pitch; as their hearing practices in their language have required greater appreciation of, and greater recognition of tone and pitch. Thus that recognition becomes more highly developed.
I once tried learning spoken Chinese (Mandarin). Gave it up.
I’ve studied Chinese. but found that when I say anything in Chinese to a Chinese person, he is puzzled as he doesn’t get it, coming from this Caucasian face!! LOL!
As far as languages and your brain— Chinese is exercise, as it is 3 languages in one -— The Chinese characters, the written Chinese language (pinyin) and then the spoken language, Absolutely fascinating language!!
It’s the tones. Among people who did not learn tones with their learning of their native language, some people will never be able to deal with them. Some take to it naturally. In my experience which does not rise to the level of a scientific study, people with perfect pitch who sing automatically on key, have a much harder time with tones than some people who can’t carry a tune even with yeas of practice. I am one of the latter group and those English speakers I know who take easily to tones in Vietnamese, are awful with music. I will sing Karaoke in Vietnamese but not in English. I am still off key but I know when the notes go up and go down because in a tonal language the music must follow the lyric or vice versa or the song is nonsense.