If different languages influence our minds in different ways, this is not because of what our language allows us to think but rather because of what it habitually obliges us to think about.
I love thinking about this stuff. If you get a chance, listen to Radiolab's fantastic episode on words.
That is incredible. My father spoke cardinal directions more than most people, and I'd like to think that it has given me a bit of above average direction sense. I am going to make it a point to do the same with my daughter. My wife's native language is Chinese, and although she has been living in the states for 10 ' years, she still will switch 'he' and 'she' unconsciously from time to time.Indeed, speakers of geographic languages seem to have an almost-superhuman sense of orientation. Regardless of visibility conditions, regardless of whether they are in thick forest or on an open plain, whether outside or indoors or even in caves, whether stationary or moving, they have a spot-on sense of direction. They don’t look at the sun and pause for a moment of calculation before they say, “There’s an ant just north of your foot.” They simply feel where north, south, west and east are, just as people with perfect pitch feel what each note is without having to calculate intervals.