Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

I believe that language affects thought and behavior and I believe the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is very true.  The following video further outlines the validity of this hypothesis.

I grew up in a family that spoke their mind, honesty is the best policy.  So in giving this talk I spoke my mind and did not give another thought to a word hurting someone’s feelings.  It was honest and real.  Since that’s what I come that influenced how I delivered my talk.  Years ago I was very new at giving talks and had just recently moved to a small country town.  In this talk, I was trying to begin with something funny, I thought.  So I’d expressed how I drive to work in the city in the downtown area and spend most of my time around professionals.  I also expressed how it was culture shock for me to be in a new country town and living down the lane from a hillbilly (he refers to himself as a hillbilly so I thought that his self-awareness made that an okay description to use).  About 80% of the crowd laughed at the whole story, but the remaining 20% did not crack a smile and later of course I was told about how offended they were.  It bothered me very much since I did not intend for a word to hurt others.  It was a good lesson to learn early on.  I learned very quickly how words can hurt others and that being politically correct is necessary.  My personal feeling about political correctness is that it has gone too far.  For me, I know who I am and what I’m about.  I grew up with “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”  I cannot say always or never, but typically I am not offended by someone else’s words.  In the times that I do remember being offended it typically struck a chord and I had to review why I was so sensitive to that.

For example, I was tired from staying up late last night reading and did not have a normal night’s sleep.  I noticed around 11 AM I was so negative, any time something came up even the slightest issue, I had something negative to say.  The next incident that came up I became more agitated and the way I was talking reflected that.  The last incident happened and I began impatiently speaking and was so irritated it made me stop.  Finally, I took a deep breath and thought about what I was feeling and what my actions were saying.  My self-talk was negative and I felt out of control.  

I have learned to stop and recognize my behavior and to to think about about what I am doing.  I have taught myself to be patient with myself on these kinds of days especially since I know this is a domino effect on my attitude, my thoughts and what words I use when I speak to others.  I work on patience and changing my attitude as quickly as possible to settle down to make my day easier and those around me.