Part 1:
In the last session we discussed concepts about representation, multilingualism and identity.
Representation can be divided into two overall systems: the concept of mental representation
including conceptual maps, and language. The concept of mental representation deals with the
mental images of things in our mind regardless whether the objects actually exists or not.
Furthermore, the human brain is able to create mental images and thoughts about certain situations
or fictional characters such as god. Those individual concepts in our heads create meaning by
connecting it with other people’s mental believes and pictures through finding ways to distinguish
between them. A crucial constituent of this system are conceptual maps which describe how those
mentioned concepts can differ between general and cultural perceptions such as the meaning of a
handshake or a particular colour in Austria versus in Asia. Briefly speaking, it is possible that everyone
interprets things or situations in another way than one personally does due to contrary experiences
and believes. The second system of representation is about language, more precisely about how
those mental concepts of us can be expressed so that someone else is able to understand it.
Therefore we need linguistic signs to establish meaning of our conceptual thoughts. Moreover,
language also corresponds with our identity. Overall, identity can be divided into an individual or
personal as well as a collective or social part of representation. For example, many people who have
the ability to process, speak and understand more than one language are often stuck between
various cultural-related identities as it can be observed in “The Mindy Project”.
Part 2: How does the ability to speak multiple languages make the character powerful?
The female protagonist Olivia Pope is able to understand and speak Farsi in addition to English. Farsi
is another name for the Persian language. In the shown scene, Oliva Pope can use her multilingual
knowledge to defuse a dangerous, nearly deadly, situation. In the course of the communication she
uses her multilingual skills to gain trust in the opposite party and thus gathers control over both sides
involved in the agreement. The people who are trying to blackmail the others are obviously not
aware about the communicative competency of their hostage. Therefore, they even have the
audacity to falsely prejudge Olivia Pope due to her skin tone as well as on the basis of gender roles.
The protagonist immediately uses the lack of knowledge for her own advantage and tricks both of
the contractors to avoid closure of the deal. Eventually, both groups which have been confronted
with a fictional life-threatening situation decided to reverse. Conclusively said, speaking the same
language has a huge trustworthy impact in terms of identifying with another person.