Note: Edited for the current club. Speech Objective Number2: Organize your speech

Opening: Yes I just have words. But I believe in the power of words. I believe that words can soothe and sting and leave lasting impressions. I believe that words help us read between the lines and hear between sentences and help us see things that go beyond the literal message. I believe that words have the power to change this world by changing the way we think.

Fellow tough tech toasties, today I am here to talk about the power of words. End of Opening

Who among us will not be able to remember a few words that changed our lives. I can never forget the joy that I had felt by the words “Will you marry me”. I felt the same joy again a few years later when I heard, this time from a stranger ‘It’s a girl’. And the words I dread the most and hope I never have to hear them! “You are fired!” As these examples show when spoken softly, kindly and with love, words can bring immense joy and feel like music to the listener’s ears but when uttered out of spite and quoted with sarcasm or anger they can cut deeper than a knife and cause wounds that take a life time to heal. Words can put you on cloud nine or cause a fall from seventh heaven. Words are powerful. They have in them, the power to change lives. We should keep this in mind before speaking harsh words.(end of point 1)

Point 2: The power of words does not end with the effect they have on listeners. Words also have the power to influence how the speakers are perceived. Has it ever happened to you that you thought a person to be very sophisticated and intelligent but the impression changed as soon as the person said something? How about the other scenario where you write off a person as inconsequential and but when they speak, they manage to inspire you in a way you didn’t think was possible. We all know how differently a candidate who uses “I” and says “I will do this” and a candidate who uses “we” and says “yes we can” are perceived.

Not only individual personalities, words and language reflect culture and society as well. I grew up in India. Though things are changing now, it’s a male dominated society for the most part. Does it come as a surprise then that the word for husband in Hindi, my mother tongue, means ‘the one who owns a wife’? Domestic help is still referred to as servants in many parts of India. And their treatment by their employers leaves a lot to be desired. Fair skinned is considered beautiful in India and again its not a surprise that beautiful and fair are used interchangeably all the time. Finally the LGBT community has very little acceptance in the Indian society. Again, it does not come as a surprise that the language does nor have a respectable words to refer to them. End of point 2

Point 3: This brings me to the question. Is the language being shaped by the society or the society being shaped by the language? Are words powerful enough to affect the way we think. Do people who speak different languages perceive the world differently? If the word for husband in Hindi meant, ‘the one who has a partner’. If the word “domestic help” was used instead of the word “servant”, would I have grown up in a different society?

The technical word for my questions is the ‘Theory of Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis’. The theory explores if language one uses influences and even determines thinking. A lot of research on the subject seems to suggest that the answer to my questions is yes. Yes our words affect the way we think. To an extent our words determine how we think. Whether a painter will paint death as a man or a woman depends on the language they speak and the gender of the word “death” in their language. One aboriginal community in Australia does not use words such as ‘left’ and ‘right’ but uses ‘west’ and ‘east’. It turns out that the aboriginal community fares far better than English speaking people in their navigational ability. They were found to be better at keeping track of where they are in unfamiliar landscapes and buildings. To that extent, the words we use do affect how we perceive the world.

Sure words and language come about to express what is already in existence, what has happened or is happening. That’s how new words such as plutoed and dooced and googled are coined. But once coined the same words have the power to affect how we think, feel and react in new situations. Children who are not mature enough to form their own thoughts yet will get a totally different view of the world based on whether they hear ‘terrorism’ or ‘freedom struggle’.

And that is the greatest power of words. The power to influence young minds, the power to affect the way they think.

Conclusion: Tough tech toasties, I have talked about the power of words. Of how they affect us, define us and help us define the world we live in. But why was it important to do that. Why do we have to be aware of the power.

The answer lies in this quote:

Watch your words because words Become Thoughts. Thoughts Become Actions. Actions become Habits. Habits become Nature and Nature becomes Destiny