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Let me tell you/about some of my favorite examples. I’ll start with an example/from an Aboriginal community in Australia. They are the Kuuk Thaayorre people. In their language,/they don’t use words like “left” and “right.” Instead,/everything is in cardinal directions:/north, south, east, and west. You’d say something like,/“Move your cup to the north-northeast a little bit.” When you want to say “hello” in their language,/you’d say,/“Which way are you going?” And the answer should be,/“North-northeast in the far distance. How about you?”
We used to think/that humans were worse than other creatures at orientation,/but if your language trains you to do it,/you can do it.
There are also big differences/in how people think about time. Here I have pictures of my grandfather/at different ages. If I ask an English speaker/to organize the pictures in time order,/she might lay them out from left to right,/which indicates that time moves from left to right. But how would the Kuuk Thaayorre do it? They don’t use words like “left” and “right.” When facing south,/time moves from left to right. When facing north,/time moves from right to left. When facing east,/time comes towards the body. What’s the pattern? East to west, right? For them,/time doesn’t get locked on the body;/it gets locked on the landscape. It’s a dramatically different way of thinking/about time.
Let me tell you/about some of my favorite examples. I’ll start with an example/from an Aboriginal community in Australia. They are the Kuuk Thaayorre people. In their language,/they don’t use words like “left” and “right.” Instead,/everything is in cardinal directions:/north, south, east, and west. You’d say something like,/“Move your cup to the north-northeast a little bit.” When you want to say “hello” in their language,/you’d say,/“Which way are you going?” And the answer should be,/“North-northeast in the far distance. How about you?”
We used to think/that humans were worse than other creatures at orientation,/but if your language trains you to do it,/you can do it.
There are also big differences/in how people think about time. Here I have pictures of my grandfather/at different ages. If I ask an English speaker/to organize the pictures in time order,/she might lay them out from left to right,/which indicates that time moves from left to right. But how would the Kuuk Thaayorre do it? They don’t use words like “left” and “right.” When facing south,/time moves from left to right. When facing north,/time moves from right to left. When facing east,/time comes towards the body. What’s the pattern? East to west, right? For them,/time doesn’t get locked on the body;/it gets locked on the landscape. It’s a dramatically different way of thinking/about time.