The Power of Language

Language has power! This video will probably be of particular interest to all the language students out there. It certainly is to me, because it points out how important our choice of words actually is and how language can even influence our attitude.

The point Stephen Fry makes in this video is that the way we refer to issues or people can change our attitude towards them. Throughout history, we can find a lot of negative proof for this. Language was often used to dehumanize a certain group of people. And sadly, it worked. Germans called Jews "ape men", "subhuman", and "rats" and by this made people think that Jews are "not human" or "less worthy than others". And only with this attitude it is possible for "ordinary people" to do horrible things to others. As Stephen Fry mentions in the video, the same tactic was used in the Rwandan Genocide in 1994.

The examples given above are, of course, very extreme cases and  these words would not be used under normal circumstances. However, also in our everyday language there are terms that can be misleading, offending or distorting our awareness of reality, even though we might not mean to do that. For example, talking about “discovering America” implies the idea that Europeans came to America, tried to find out more about it like curious scientists, and eventually had the right to take what they found, because they “discovered” it. However, this ignores the fact that Europeans invaded land that was already occupied by Native Americans and took it from them.

Another example is how black people are referred to in the US. The term “negro” was mainly used before the Civil Rights movement in 1650s and 1960s. Nowadays it is associated with the long history of slavery, segregation, and discrimination, when African Americans were treated as second class citizens or worse. The same applies for the word “colored”, since in times of segregation, black people had to sit in the “colored” sections of busses or restaurants, for example. In essence, the term stirs up painful memories. Nowadays, accepted terms are “people of color”, “African American” or simply “black”.  

Another issue is the use of exclusionary language in terms of gender. It is not such a prominent issue in English, since many occupations only have one term (like teacher, lawyer, dentist…). In other languages, however, male and female versions exist, for instance for occupations. In German, a male teacher is called “Lehrer”, whereas to indicate that the teacher is female the suffix –in is added, therefore it would be “Lehrerin”. Nevertheless, often only the male version is used when talking about a group of people in general. Nowadays, many people oppose to this and try to promote the use of both male and female titles. When I first heard of this concept I was thinking “isn’t this kind of fussy? I’m not offended if somebody uses the male form, I know women are meant as well.” However, I have slowly come to realize that using a universal title or both titles does make a difference. When I hear “stewardess” I automatically think of a woman, although I know men are practicing this profession as well. The term “flight attendant”, however, evokes a much more neutral concept in my mind.

So basically what I am trying to show is that language reflects as well as influences our attitudes. Language not only expresses ideas and concepts, but actually shapes our thoughts and therefore its power should not be underestimated. With this in mind, I think we can become a lot more sensitive and detect manipulations more easily. And, even more importantly, we can reflect on our own choice of words, because they do have an impact on the world around us.