Linguistic Anthropology Assignment #1
March 4, 2022
Question: In your opinion, what was the most useful idea discussed in this week's lesson?
In my personal opinion, the most useful idea discussed in this week’s lesson was the
concept of how language transforms as time passes and as new generations create new meanings
for certain words. I believe this is an extremely important concept as this knowledge is essential
for newer, younger generations such as my own. While discussing the topic in class, I was able
to evaluate and assess personal examples of situations where a certain word or saying was
proven to have a different meaning for me, compared to my parents and older peers. During the
lesson, I was able to understand the importance of language changes as it is passed down from
one generation to the next. One specific aspect of this topic that was particularly interesting to
me was the concept of language transformation through migration, colonization, and trade.
Language is the main bridge to a society's cultural resources, and can often dictate how you are
perceived in a certain community as it can signify an individual's ethnic and cultural background.
As a second-generation immigrant, I have personally experienced the boundaries that a native
language speaker can experience in a euro-centric based Western society. When certain language
capabilities do not correlate with the linguistic standard of a nation, a common individual
response is to practice conformity to the standard by learning the language of the host country.
This barrier could potentially be a huge boundary for the language skills of young migrants who
are required to learn how to adapt to their country of origin, as well as the dialect required in
their new host country. Furthermore, as the ability to learn a new language has been proven to
decline with age, adapting to the linguistic standard of the receiving country could result in
greater cultural boundaries for older-aged immigrants.
