I found this week's readings to be very interesting, especially Deutscher's discussion about how language shapes the constraints of our thinking and the way we see the world. I largely agree with him that in the most general sense, languages share many commonalities and humans generally can relate to other experiences even without a specific word in their language. However, his example of how different languages indicate directionality highlights how a person's framework of thinking can be greatly influenced by their language. I found that stigma related to certain words could also be a slightly different, yet similar example of this. The social associations and stigmatizations of words can vary across languages and direct translations may greatly skew the meaning. For example, in many countries around the world, mental health is still highly stigmatized and words meaning depression, anxiety, or panic attack, though stigmatized in the West to an extent, would seem much more extreme and not relatable to everyday people when used in another language. In this way, though increased globalization and the rise of the Internet has led to a lot of transnational communication and may have reduced many of the ways that language differences shape people's perceptions and experiences, I think language is so strongly intertwined with culture that it is something that translators are likely conscious about.
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