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Does the language you speak determine HOW you think? Why? Why not?

When it comes to things outside of the visual system, we know considerably less. However, if there’s one area that we know more than a little bit about, it’s language processing. Most importantly, for our purposes, we know that for right-handers, the left hemisphere is doing the bulk of the language processing work. Knowing this, combined with our knowledge of where visual information from each eye gets processed, we can make a prediction about how language will affect perception. That is, we can predict that, because information from the right eye ends up being processed on the left side of the brain, and language is, for the most part, processed on the left side, we should see stronger effects of language on perception for information that comes in through the right eye
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Reference:http://scienceblogs.com/mixingmemory/2008/03/20/neuroscientific-evidence-for-t/
1Gilbert, A.L., Regier, T., Kay, P., Ivry, R.B. (2006) Whorf hypothesis is supported in the right visual field but not the left. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103(2), 489-494.
2Roberson, D. & Davidoff, J. (2000) The categorical perception of colours and facial expressions: The effect of verbal interference. Memory & Cognition, 28, 977-986.
3Further evidence that Whorfian effects are stronger in the right visual field than the left. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(3), 1097-1102.
4Gilbert, A.L., Regierd, T., Kaye, P., & Irvy, R.B. (In Press). Support for lateralization of the Whorf effect beyond the realm of color discrimination. Brain and Behavior.
5Tan, L.H., Chan, A.H.D., Khong, P.L., Yip, L.K.C., & Luke, K.K. (2008). Language affects patterns of brain activation associated with perceptual decision. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(10), 4004-4009.
 
I remember seeing a study about this.
They were comparing peoples ability to see differences in colours, and the evidence was in favour of the idea that the more words you have to describe different shades of a colour, the more variation you will be able to see.
 
For me personally, yes, as I think nearly exclusively linguistically. For people in general? It seems to vary. For example, whether one's native language codes spatial relationships relatively (eg, left, right, front, back) or absolutely (think of a coordinate system analogous to NSWE) appears to affect performance on nonlinguistic tasks. Alternately, the way in which language codes color (and in particular how many colors it codes for) often leaves performance on color-identification tasks unaffected (particularly for non-linguistic tasks). Some languages only code for 2 colors ("light" and "dark", hue being described in statements of the form, "object x is the color of blood", for example), but native speakers of such languages seem to discriminate among colors just fine.

ebola
 
Related reading: The Wine Dark Sea: Color Perception in the Ancient World

Here's a pull-quote anecdote of Oliver Sacks' Bluelighters will appreciate:
It isn’t the first time that Dr. Sacks has discussed color and altered states: in “The Dog Beneath the Skin,” he tells the infamous story of the 22-year-old medical student who, under the influence of PCP and amphetamines, enters a week-long heightened state of awareness. Among other things, this student—decades later revealed to have been Sacks himself, of course—perceived “dozens of browns” where previously he had seen only one shade. (Dr. Sacks does not now recommend this type of student experimentation.)
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as ebola stated there are fundamental differences between the languages and the ideas they represent. another ex: some languages have no notion of the past or future, while others drastically differ in definitions for ideas that supposedly "translate".
 
Language creates our universe without it what we would know as X would not X... Terence Mckenna talks about it religiously and touches on it when he talks about it much in Food of the Gods, I'd recommend the read if you are interested, some very nice work.
 
After learning French and Mandarin, I would definitely say yes. It's inaccurate to say that words are just translations of each other because in cultural contexts the words carry different values. There are also words and concepts which exist in one language that do not exist in others.

In Chinese, I speak a lot more bluntly, directly, and pragmatically. In French I come across as sardonic and sensible. In English I am soft spoken and intellectual.

I express myself differently in all three languages. It's like having multiple personalities. After learning the languages and being immersed in the cultures, it's like different realities/epistemologies switch on when you engage in that language.

And I'm horrible at translation. If someone says something to me in Chinese and an English person wants to know what they meant, it's hard for me. Direct translation does not capture the essence of the conversation. I admire translators for this reason.

I think if you can learn an additional language really well, it will expand your understanding of the universe greatly, simply by showing you that reality does not have one interpretation.
 
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