Languages and Interpretations

I speak two languages, Arabic and English. I've been speaking them since I was very little and am fluent in both. However, depending on the situation or topic I sometimes prefer to use one over the other because I find it easy to express myself. Also, I was used to using both languages sometimes even in the same sentence. It’s a bad habit and coming here I learnt that I need to focus on just speaking English without throwing some Arabic words in there. The textbook talks about the relativist position which is the view that a particular language shapes our perception of reality and cultural patterns. I speak two languages and I don’t feel like one changes the way I view reality. So I definitely agree with the nominalist position that perception is not shaped by the particular language we speak.

I thought the discussion about President Obama's speech in Cairo, Egypt was very interesting. I am Arabic and a Muslim so I am the intended audience in his speech. I've seen it in both English and translated to Arabic by interpreter. I first saw parts of it on TV translated to Arabic but I later caught it online in English. The translation to Arabic was accurate but the speech becomes lacking in emotion therefore, you can get a different understanding. Since I speak both languages I understood what was being said in both but hearing it English is definitely more effective. I think translation and interpretations in any situation can cause this problem. The textbook describes this as high-context communication. It's a style of communication in which much of the information is contained in the contexts and nonverbal cues rather than the actual words. In this speech in particular, everything from pitch and tone to emphasis is important in order to understand how President Obama really feels about the topics he's discussing.

In addition, quoting the Quran was not a very big issue to me. I though it was appropriate and in context with his speech. In addition, not matter what his intentions about doing it were, he did it respectfully. So in my opinion, I did not think it was offensive in any way. However, I do think it is understandable that people may criticize him for it. Different people have different outlooks on their religion and politics and may take it offensively.