As a linguist and speaker of multiple languages- I raise this topic a lot with my students.
For instances- when I think in Russian, I think differently than in English or Chinese.
Russian has only 3 tenses, English and French have a dozen or so. Chinese essentially has just one. How you convey an idea is vastly different.
English language and even Western religions are specific and are based on greco-roman logic. Something either is or isn't. English is great for general science and engineering as it can be very precise because of its tenses.
While Russian is more Asian in thinking. It paints a picture, it is not so precise. Things are less black and white, rather shades of grey.
Western philosophical thought is about finding the "truth" - the one truth.
Eastern thought is everyone has their own individual truth.
Language influences culture and religion. Culture influences language and religion. Religion influences culture and language.
For Newtonian science- English and Western languages have an edge. But for high sciences like experimental physics and quantum mechanics- Eastern thinkers can hold two contradictory ideas in their heads with no problem that can make a Western thinker's head explode.
We marvel and are puzzled by Schroedinger's cat paradox in the West.
Someone who is Chinese or Russian would say "what exactly is the problem?"
Certain languages have richer vocabulary for certain things. Yiddish is absolutely fantastic at describing personal character traits but is rather hopeless at describing a landscape. Verbs of motion English is the master - we know if someone goes, is going, has gone, had gone etc. Russian you could study for years and still not understand exactly where the person is!
My former girlfriend, in her broken English, would say to me " I go you ten minutes taxi, okay?" And I am sure she knew exactly what she meant and seemed fine. But I had no idea if she was leaving the house in 10, walking to the taxi, in the taxi or what.
Words, phrases and ideas are vastly different between languages in social norms too. The Georgian word and the Ukranian word for "cheers" has a much more nuanced meaning than English and can also mean victory. The Russian please does line up in full meaning and frequency of use to the English please. But it does line up quite nicely to the Hebrew one.
Even the idea of "normal" is different. In Georgian, Armenian and Russian if someone asks how you are- you can reply "normal" but an English speaker, especially a British speaker would take anything less than good as being something wrong.
Language affects our world view and that is why learning languages with different thought patterns can be so enriching. It literally expands the mind.
