Tag: time and space

Time changes in different languages

“Hi, guys!”, said Michael, taking his place at the table. “I read an article about how time is different in each language. Actually, the article is about a book that is based on research. Did you know that Chinese people set a timeline from up to down?”

“What do you mean?”, asked Sophia.

“So, in some crime stories we see on television, detectives draw a timeline on the board to understand what the victim did before he/she died, right?”

Michael waited to make sure everyone was on the same page. Then, he continued.

“They usually draw horizontally the line from left to right and write the events chronologically considering that the event on the left is the earliest and the one on the right is the latest. Those are Western TV shows. Well, if those TV shows were Chinese, that timeline would be drawn vertically in which the event on the top would be the earliest and the one at the bottom would be the latest.”

They all looked at Michael without saying a word.

“That doesn’t make any sense”, said Sophia at last.

“Indeed, it does. Western languages’ writing is from left to right. Therefore, we see time coming from the left to the right. Chinese people, at least traditionally, write from top to bottom, thus, they see time as coming from top to down”, replied Michael.

“So, languages whose writing is from right to left also consider time coming for right to left?”, asked Elizabeth.

“Yes. At least that is true for Hebrew, according to the study”, answered Michael. “In the article, they also say that for Aymara people, from the Andes in South America, and Mandarin speakers, the future is behind them because they can’t see it. What they can see is the past, which is in front of them”.

“It seems like they are walking backwards
”, noted Sophia.

“It kind of makes sense, if you think about it. We have memories of the past, photos, objects, experiences
 It is as life opens up, as if it gets wider and wider as time goes by. Every step backwards reveals a little more of what we can’t see”, said Elizabeth.

“But we leave the past behind us and are walking towards the future! We move forward, not backwards!”, said Sophia, looking very confused.

“I guess that’s just how Western learn to see things. There are tribal languages that have no past nor future”, said Jack.

“So, how can they refer to the past and future?”, asked Sophia.

“Maybe they don’t need to. They live in the present”, said Michael.

“That sounds like one of those mindfulness things
”, remarked Leo, laughing.

“We all live in the present!”, said Sophia, who was getting really disturbed with the conversation. “But we have a past and plan for the future!”

“Ok. The article also states that Australian Aboriginal refers to objects as being in north, south, east, west, and all in between. For example, Sophia is north of the table. Actually, I have no idea if north is in that direction, but you understand what I mean”, said Michael as a way to change the subject a little bit.

“That’s more precise than saying on the right-hand side or left-hand side”, noted Leo.

“Yes. Maybe that’s why in London underground the lines are presented with the eastbound and westbound direction”, said Jack.

“It is very confusing for someone who can’t tell which way is east and which way is west
”, said Sophia.

“But it’s more precise, as Leo said”. Michael looked at Leo and nodded to agree with him. “There’s an example in the article that is: ‘the ball is on the left of the dog’ versus ‘the ball is on the dog’s left’. It seems the same, but the truth is that the ball is in the opposite direction. In Spanish there is no confusion. Spaniards don’t refer to the ball from the dog’s point of view.”

“It’s like the right bank of the river and the left bank of the river. I always ask myself ‘from whose point of view?’ If we say the north bank of the river and the south bank of the river is much simpler”, said Elizabeth.

“True, but, again, you have to know where north and south. I never do”, said Sophia.

“Australian Aboriginal have learned the cardinal points since they are children. We trust on GPS”, said Jack. “Maybe we are wrong and they are right.”

“Another curiosity mentioned in the article is that some languages see time as a volume and others as a line. For example, English people say ‘it’s been a long day’ and Spanish people say ‘it’s been a full day’. As in: ‘the day was longer than it usually is’ versus ‘the day had more events than it usually has’. Something like that”, continued Michael.

They stopped talking and wondered about it.

“Both are right, isn’t it?”, said Elizabeth finally. “If you end the day later than usual, it will inevitably have more events.”

“Not necessarily”, replied Leo. “During the same number of hours, you can have more events than usual. Or you can have fewer events during more hours
”

“That is all very confusing”, said Sophia.

“Imagine if you were bilingual
 They switch from one way of seeing things to the other in a second!”, said Michael.

Sophia looked at him with a very desperate expression.

“Each country sees things in different ways. Australia is huge and it’s mostly a desert, so knowing the cardinal directions was essential for surviving. Spanish people focus on events while English people perceive the day as a sequence of events, and that sequence can be longer or shorter. Some languages state that we are walking towards the future, others see the past ahead”, concluded Jack.

“Some tribes don’t see a past nor a future. They only see the present”, added Michael. “Maybe they are right. The past is only in our head and the future hasn’t happened yet
 There is only the present.”

“Not exactly. We walk forward towards the future. We plan the future, we visualise it. The past is behind us because we have already lived it. There is evidence about it all around us. Events happen in order, one after the other”, contradicted Sophia.

“Einstein was right: it’s all relative”, said Elizabeth.

 

** YOUR WORDS AND IDEAS **

By Isabella Muir | On 26 March 2025 at 10:02
Another fascinating article! Past, present and future – all determined by individual perspectives, affected by nationality, language and culture. I suppose it proves that nothing is static – almost that there are very few ‘facts’ just someone’s opinion (one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom-fighter). It also emphasises the wonder of language – which is just what your articles are all about!

By Words in Ideas | On 26 March 2025 at 14:56
Thank you so much! Indeed, we are not aware that our mother tongue, which shapes our culture, determines how we see the world. The words we use have weight and are highly revealing. Learning foreign languages is truly opening the door to see the world under another perspective! 🙂

 

Keyword: TIME | Time and Space

Einstein once realized that if a person and a ball would fall from a building at the same time, the individual would not be aware of the speed in which the ball was falling. For him/her, it would look like the ball would be still. The same phenomenon happens when we are in a speeding car. If a car next to ours is at the same speed, it seems we are both still. We are unaware of the space and the time passing by. This means that space and time are relative.

Objects in the universe are moving in a space-time continuum. As they move forward in space, time is also moving forward. We are not aware that Earth is moving, but it is. And we are not aware that time is passing unless we look at the clock or we watch the sun rise and set. For example, people lose track of time if they are living in a place where the sun is blocked and they do not have a watch (like in a bunker).

Seasons are dependent on the movement of Earth around the Sun. Through observation, humans realized that seasons would follow a cycle with four different phases. Astronomically speaking, solstices mark the most extreme points (Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn), hence winter and summer. Halfway in each direction, the Sun goes through the equinoxes (on the Equator line), signalling Spring and Autumn.

Calendars were built as a way to measure this for agriculture purposes as it was necessary to plan when to sow and when to harvest. Different methods were used, and some are still in use simultaneously. The reference is the Gregorian Calendar, which is based on the movement of Earth around the Sun. After some adjustments, it was established that one year would correspond to a complete turn around the Sun. The year would be divided into 12 months and each three months would correspond to a season. Christianity determined the birth of Jesus Christ as the first year AD (Anno Domini, Latin for “in the year of the Lord”). That was 2025 years ago (or 2025 complete turns around the Sun). The years BC (Before Christ), or BCE (Before Common Era), are counted backwards from that first year.

There are other calculations, which consider other starting points. Assyrians are an ancient people from the Mesopotamia region (somewhere between today’s Iran, Iraq, and Syria) and are currently in the year 6773. According to the Hebrew calendar, Jewish people are currently in the year 5785. Buddhists are currently in the year 2565 and Persians in 1402. The Islamic Calendar is based on the Moon cycle and started its counting on the year the prophet Muhammad moved to Medina (the Hijrah). They are currently in the year 1446. In China, they built a calendar based on the lunar cycle, but taking the Sun cycle into consideration. Instead of indefinitely adding up years, they named them. The Chinese created a 60-year cycle combining the names of 12 animals with the 5 elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water). That was 4722 years ago.

Age (the number of years each individual has “completed the turn around the Sun”) is increasingly gaining weight for determining a person’s life. For any given age, there are certain types of duties and demands that are asked of people. It can be tough if you do not meet those age requirements and it can be a reason for discrimination. This is called Ageism. Discrimination towards older people is a known phenomenon, but it can happen at any age. Like many other discriminations, this one is “hidden” because these actions are considered “normal behaviour”. In other words, age discrimination is accepted. Like other discriminations, it should be censored.

For centuries, people organized their lives based on seasons because agriculture was the centre of their lives. Then, during the Industrial Revolution, people began to organize their lives based on years, months, weeks, days, and hours in a combination between the movement of Earth around the Sun (years) and the movement of Earth around itself (days). It was established that noon would be when the Sun would reach its highest point in the sky. The hours of the day were then calculated accordingly. Due to the rotation of Earth on itself, adjustments were made around the world to meet these criteria, hence time zones. Except in China. There, it was established that the whole country, which has five time zones, would use the same standard time. So, the Sun can reach its highest point in the sky in a different time, depending on the region.

Earth is about 4,500,000,000 years and homo sapiens exist for 200,000 years. In a way, there is no past and no future, only evolution. Earth has been evolving since its creation, going through different phases. Life on Earth has already been extinct five times in the “past”, but it was born again in different forms. If humans get extinct, Earth will keep moving through space and time and another type of life will be born.

We are connected with space and time as a tiny piece of a celestial object moving through the universe, interacting with other celestial objects. Whenever we take a step forward, a second has passed. If we travel to another country, we also travel into the “future”. Even when we are still, we are moving because we move with Earth, both in space and in time.