Through The Language Glass: Summary

            In the book, Through the Language Glass the author Guy Deutscher says in his Prologue “a nation’s language, so we are often told, reflects its culture, psyche, and modes of thought.” He compares the language Portuguese with Spanish even though they are almost the same there is a differences between the way Portuguese speck Spanish, than other Spanish countries. This is the reason why these countries have trouble understanding each other and think differently because of cultural differences. The reason why Germans have orderly minds and they think fast is because there language is orderly. Through out the prologue, Deutscher mentions that culture influences language and the way we think, and that different languages can guide people to think differently. He also tells us that some languages have future tense while others don’t and that is the reasons why sometimes people don’t think about the future. “We learn our mother tongue; we do after all acquire certain habits of thought that shape our experience in significant and often surprising ways”. When we know a language we know the culture and history about it so we start think differently. He argues that culture and language does shape a person to think the way they do.