Writer Sergei Dovlatov he said that a person's personality 90% consists of the language he speaks. Philosophers, linguists, psychologists are sure - language affects thinking. For example, if a language has a future tense, its speakers are less likely to save money. Economist Kate Chen explains that when a person speaks about the future tense in a different grammatical form, it seems distant, so there is less motivation to save money.
Hence, if we learn another language, we make our brain more flexible and look at some things from a different perspective.
How does the Russian language define thinking?
Russian thinking is characterized by paradoxes and this is expressed in language. A simple rearrangement of words in the phrase "I need you very much!" to "I need you very much!" shows how people say one thing but mean the exact opposite. People who speak in paradoxes are able to find non-trivial solutions.
There is no stable expression of past and present tense in Russian verbs. We can talk about the past tense using the present tense. For example, "It was when I was still going to school. I was walking down the street one day, carrying a backpack with textbooks...". People who are used to speaking this way neglect time and focus on the length of the action, its power, and, in general, its quality.
The Russian language is multifaceted and has many synonyms. The task of the verb is to reveal the brevity, intensity, exhaustiveness of the action. For example, "carried water", "brought water", "carried water". By these verbs, the context of the situation becomes clear and one can make a decision depending on it. Therefore, if people speak Russian, they are more attentive to different situations and catch shades of mood and action. And this helps to conduct successful negotiations with partners.
In Russian, you can change the order of words in sentences. More often we use the phrase "I bought groceries", but we can say: "I bought groceries", "I bought groceries", "I bought groceries". Depending on how the phrase is constructed, a person perceives himself in a different way.
To learn how to think in Russian, you can learn Russian online at Palme School.
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