Kaden Khau 14 - Twisting Between Language and Memory

Kaden Khau 14 - Twisting Between Language and Memory

April 2, 2025

Ive always been fascinated with the way language and memory intertwine. As a bilingual person, speaking my other language sometimes make me recall memories depending on the language I was speaking at the time. It's kind of like speaking the language make my life exist in different compartments, and switching between makes me bring back certain memories.

One memory I had from this was when I was hanging out with a friend that spoke the same language as me growing, but he had to move away and we didn't go to the same school. When I met up with him, we started talking again in it, certain memories I had with him started flooding into my brain and we also recalled same shared experiences with each other. It was like it had been locked away, and that meeting him again was the key to opening them back up again. This made me question whether if the language we speak at the current moment influence the way we store and retrieve memories.

I also found the same thing with remembering things. I feel like the language I learned while growing up, English, made it easier to learn than using my own native tongue. But I feel like the language you use to encode the memory into your brain, whether it be a shopping list, a historical event, or even a new skill, and decoding it in that same language is the easiest way to remember things. I feel like language is more than a tool for just communication. It's a lens in which we can remember and experience the world.

                                            MultiBrief: Working memory in English language development
Photo by MultiBriefs

Comments

  1. Raghav DagaApril 9, 2025 at 2:33 PM

    Hey Kaden! I found your story of reuniting with a friend of yours who you used to be so close to in the past deeply touching, especially how you had a special connection by speaking a different language. As I spent the greater part of my life growing up in India and speaking other languages beyond English, speaking those languages, especially with my friends from India, evokes the same memories that you mention in your blog. I really enjoyed your metaphor of certain memories being “locked away” and only being accessible through the key of language, something that I believe is certainly true. I think the benefit of having so many languages in the world today is that it allows everyone to experience the world in unique ways and have distinctive global cultures rather than the entire species being homogenous. As a bilingual, having at least 2 unique lenses to view the world makes life far more enriching than being restricted to just a singular default.

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  2. SadiaApril 9, 2025 at 9:01 PM

    Hello Kaden! Your blog was interesting and the description and connection you made between language and memory. I agree with you that speaking a certain language unlocks memories, for me it reminds me of my grandparents. When I was young I used to speak to them in my native language and my grandma used to sing me songs in them, and now, if I hear it it reminds me of her. I think that is how memory works, smell and things like you mentioned in your previous blog, also work together. Language carries a lot of emotions within itself, and I think that every language has its own beauty. One thing I recently discovered is how easy it is for me to learn, in a language other than my native language. You are right, language is not just for communications, though it is a mean to communicate, it can help us reflect and understand our lives.

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