Just finished Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages by the Israeli linguist Guy Deutscher. The book sets out by posing a question concerning whether our native language will affect the way we think, the way we perceive the world. Instead of providing a straightforward answer, the author guides the readers through the history and examples of languages, as well as different theoretical perspectives of linguistics (in a relatively plain language), hoping that the readers can answer the question themselves.
I personally find this book insightful and interesting. Some content in the "Epilogue", in particular, also coincides my own belief in languages:
"[No] evidence has come to light that our mother tongue imposes limits on our intellectual horizons and constrains our ability to understand concepts or distinctions used in other languages. The real effects of the mother tongue are rather the habits that develop through the frequent use of certain ways of expression. The concepts we are trained to treat as distinct, the information our mother tongue continuously forces us to specify, the details it requires us to be attentive to, and the repeated associations it imposes on us–all these habits of speech can create habits of mind that affect more than merely the knowledge of language itself."
On logic:
"[I]t is all too easy to exaggerate the importance of logical reasoning in our lives...[But] how many daily decisions do we make on the basis of abstract deductive reasoning, compared with those guided by gut feeling, intuition, emotions, impulse, or practical skills?"
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Earlier last week when I had a lunch date with my ex-colleague, she happened to ask something about the influence of mother tongue on logic reasoning. My answer at that time was: "I would say that the environment of growing up and education may have greater influence on logical reasoning than mother tongue."
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