Countries I've Visited

Thanks to: http://www.world66.com/myworld66/visitedCountries

Introduction

Hi, my name's Kit and I'm a freshman at Stanford University. I am from Washington, D.C. and my favorite color is purple. I am a rower on the Stanford lightweight crew team. I love to bake, read, and hang out with friends. I like having dance parties.

I am currently taking a class called Language and Society. I was interested in taking this class because I am fascinated by the idea that language influences the way we think. I have been taking spanish since 7th grade and I have been forced to think in a completely different way. Not only are the words themselves different, but so is the way they are used. The sentences are structured completely different manners and there are so many nuances. While I have been learning spanish for a long time, I am still not fluent. I am still learning to think in this other language. I am still learning how to speak because while I know a lot of vocabulary, you can't literally translate from one language to another. The meaning isn't the same. You have to learn to think in a new way in order to speak like a native speaker.

I am also interested in this class because I want to become a doctor and laguage the ways in which it is used is of the utmost importance in medicine. I want to work abroad, helping underserved, impoverished populations who will speak many other languages and in order to understand and help them, I think it is important to understand the way language affects their lives.

I think it is very important to understand the connections between languages and the cultural and societal implications of the vast differences in languages in order for us to understand other people. Language is so integral to our lives and affects us in innumerable ways. For these reasons I think the topic of this class is critical.