Skip to 0 minutes and 3 seconds From the moment you wake up, you are surrounded by language. Before you even say good morning, you’ve swum through a sea of words.
Skip to 0 minutes and 12 seconds Even ordinary objects speak to us: Labels, slogans and special offers are written to catch our eyes, guide our opinions and influence our choices. Language doesn’t just describe reality, but it has the power to build it. When you name something, you bring it to life. When your language has a word for butter so thick your teeth leave marks like the Danish word ‘tandsmør’ you will taste the word differently. Some words help you marvel. Like the Japanese ‘komorebi’, meaning the light that leaks through the trees. But why does language matter so much? Once we become aware of it, everything changes. We live in language like fish in water, but just like fish, we rarely notice it.
Skip to 0 minutes and 59 seconds Language shapes what we feel, think and how we live. Only when we see it do we notice its power. Words create worlds. Once we notice the water, we can learn to navigate it.
Skip to 1 minute and 14 seconds You see the headline: ‘migrants flooding the country again.’ What happens when people are described as a disaster? We learn to spot language that shapes emotions.
Skip to 1 minute and 25 seconds Then we reflect: whose story is this? Who benefits? What is being left out? And then we ‘do’. We speak up. We challenge. We change the story. We choose words that build understanding, not division. We can become agents in this world made of words. This is what critical language awareness allows you to do. Critical language awareness begins with noticing how language works, deepens as you reflect on its power, and comes alive when you put that awareness into action.
