Tok Journal
Nick Roberson
Mr. Scharff
IB TOK
3rd June 2013
Language: Journal #3
1. Our language makes us more likely to notice some distinctions or to experience/perceive in certain ways. 2. Our differing environments, cultures and social needs will manifest themselves in differences in language.
Concerning the first prompt, the language that we use causes us to notice the differences in the environment surrounding us because of the manner which it has been described to us. An example of this is the study of color perception in an African tribe, we learned about this study a few classes ago, where the way that this tribe uses language causes them to perceive colors differently than us. The reason for this is the way they classify the colors opposed to the way we classify them. They have broader uses for colors where multiple ones, to our standards, may be grouped into one category. This is different to our ROYGBIV classification method of classification. So when shown a circle made up of squares with all green and one blue, the people from the African tribe were not able to pick out the different color while it seems obvious to us what color is not like the rest.
So due to this difference in perception, both groups see the same thing but we do not perceive the same thing due to our differences in classification and language. Now concerning the second prompt. Environment, culture, and social needs, no doubt, have an affect on language. Different countries speak different languages and different cultures have different words for the same thing to list some examples. In England the bathroom is called the water closet or the lieu, and here we just say bathroom, the john, toilet, the restroom, and a few more. When I go to New England there is different slang, such as ‘grody’ to mean nasty or ‘wicked’ to mean cool, I say some of those but I picked them up from my friends from the north. Out in California there are a multitude of names for an
Mr. Scharff
IB TOK
3rd June 2013
Language: Journal #3
1. Our language makes us more likely to notice some distinctions or to experience/perceive in certain ways. 2. Our differing environments, cultures and social needs will manifest themselves in differences in language.
Concerning the first prompt, the language that we use causes us to notice the differences in the environment surrounding us because of the manner which it has been described to us. An example of this is the study of color perception in an African tribe, we learned about this study a few classes ago, where the way that this tribe uses language causes them to perceive colors differently than us. The reason for this is the way they classify the colors opposed to the way we classify them. They have broader uses for colors where multiple ones, to our standards, may be grouped into one category. This is different to our ROYGBIV classification method of classification. So when shown a circle made up of squares with all green and one blue, the people from the African tribe were not able to pick out the different color while it seems obvious to us what color is not like the rest.
So due to this difference in perception, both groups see the same thing but we do not perceive the same thing due to our differences in classification and language. Now concerning the second prompt. Environment, culture, and social needs, no doubt, have an affect on language. Different countries speak different languages and different cultures have different words for the same thing to list some examples. In England the bathroom is called the water closet or the lieu, and here we just say bathroom, the john, toilet, the restroom, and a few more. When I go to New England there is different slang, such as ‘grody’ to mean nasty or ‘wicked’ to mean cool, I say some of those but I picked them up from my friends from the north. Out in California there are a multitude of names for an