Two articles of interest recently appeared in the Wall Street Journal. The first article considers the once “untestable” idea that “language might shape thought….A flurry of new cognitive science research is showing that in fact, language does profoundly influence how we see the world”:

“It turns out that if you change how people talk, that changes how they think. If people learn another language, they inadvertently also learn a new way of looking at the world.”

The second article profiles “an excellent example of a reciprocal exchange that will promote mutual understanding between China and the United States”: a dance exchange between the National Dance Institute (NDI) in New York and the after-school arts program in Shanghai called the Children's Palace, a state-run after-school arts program.

“’It’s joint choreography spanning from one side of the world to the other,’ said Jacques d’Amboise, who founded the NDI in 1976 while still a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet.”