Around the world, languages have unique words for topics that are often highly specific. In Russian, for instance, goluboy and siniy aren't shades of one color: they're two separate colors, light blue and dark blue, where an English speaker just says "blue." What happens when we apply the same minute differences to feelings? The words we use shape how we [...]
If you read our previous article on Leendert Hasenbosch’s life, you likely know that things went poorly after his “trial” onboard the Dutch East India Company’s ship. In fact, his punishment was so severe that he perished, stranded on an inhospitable island. So why would he confess in the first place? The reality is that people give false [...]
For centuries, immigrant communities have significantly influenced mainstream American culture, whether through culinary practices, art, media, and even the American English dialect through vocabulary, pronunciation, and slang. Jewish communities introduced Yiddish words such as "nosh," "schmuck," and "schlep," while Spanish-speaking communities contributed vocabulary related to the landscape and culture of the Southwest and Latin America. At the [...]
The Language of a Uniform Throughout history, uniforms have communicated significant information without words: where a person comes from, what their job is, and even what you are supposed to think when you see them. In the modern day, this type of non-verbal language is highly curated. Rank A person’s rank in the military describes how they relate to [...]
Have you paid any attention to the color terms you use every day? When does something go from “green” to “dark green”? Is it even green, or is it blue? The answers to these questions don’t come down just to the specific words you choose; they also depend on where you’re from. A person’s cultural origin plays a significant [...]
In an episode titled “The Library” on the popular TV show Seinfeld, Jerry and Kramer meet a “library investigation officer” named Lt. Joe Bookman. When revealing his name, Kramer wittingly responds, “That’s like an ice cream man named Cone!” While this amusing fictional example is a great use of the type of observational comedy that popularized this long-running sitcom, [...]
From the moment we learn to control our mouths, lungs, and vocal cords as infants, we yearn to speak. As babies, we babble and attempt to copy words, and with no formal instruction at all, we can typically grasp the basics of speaking in under a year and begin to communicate. Neurolinguists have shown that our brain’s superior temporal [...]
No matter what your native tongue, adding another language will bring unparalleled benefits to your personal and professional life. The learning process itself improves mental capacity, and knowing multiple languages helps people cross social and cultural boundaries. The professional benefits are equally significant, including more job interviews and higher pay. With benefits like these, it is no wonder that [...]
Is there a way to know how someone is feeling by simply looking at them? A quick internet search of the words “body language” will produce a slough of articles, books and interviews which claim to reveal hidden mysteries about human body language. Practitioners in this field usually make claims that with proper training, we can either detect clues [...]
