What defines us? If pressed, I would answer that if there is any part of me that sits at my core, then surely it must be my moral center, my deep-seated sense of right and wrong.

And I often feel that I’m a slightly different person in each language I speak — more determined in English, more relaxed in French, and more emotional in Czech. Is it possible that, along with these differences, my moral guidelines also point in somewhat different directions depending on the language I’m using?

In a research led by Albert Costa, volunteers were presented with a moral dilemma known as the “train problem”: Imagine that a train is charging at five people standing on the track, unable to move. The only way to stop the train and spare the five people is push another stranger off a footbridge into its path. Costa and his colleagues found that posing the dilemma in a language that volunteers had learned as foreign tongue dramatically increased their willingness to push the sacrificial person off the footbridge, from fewer than 20% respondents using their native language to about 50% of those using the foreign one.

In another research conducted by Janet Greipel, volunteers read acts that many people find immoral, such as stories where someone cooked and ate his dog after it had been Keadby car. Those who read the stories in a foreign language perceived these actions less wrong than those who read them in their native tongue.

The difference in this judgment comes down to two separate and competing thinking patterns — one of these, a quick and direct feeling, and the other, careful deliberation about the greatest good for the largest number. When we use a foreign language, we unconsciously sink into the more deliberate mode simply because the effort of operating in our no-native language activates our cognitive system. This is similar to findings that reading math problems in a hard-to-read typeface (字体) makes people less likely to make careless mistakes.

Following tips from a tourist guide 15 years ago, Zhao Jiang went to Mahabalipuram, a town, that despite its architectural splendors, golden beach and performing arts, was strictly off the map for Chinese holiday-goers at the time. Then in October, came the news that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have an informal summit (峰会) at the same seaside resort in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

“I was happy that Tamil Nadu got the chance to host the summit and enjoy the spotlight, and I was proud that what I have learned and am working on has now become well-known.” Zhao, who heads the Tamil language service at China Radio International (CRI), said.

It has been an illuminating (有启发性的) journey for Zhao. In the mid-1990s, when she went to study a foreign language at the Communication University of China, she chose her major more on a quirk.

“At that time, the university was offering Bangla, Nepali, Swahili and Tamil as foreign languages. I knew Bangla was spoken in Bangladesh, Nepali in Nepal and Swahili in Tanzania. But I had never heard of Tamil and I had no idea where it was spoken: So I signed up for this unheard-of language,” she said.

Today, she is an expert in Tamil, the major language in Tamil Nadu. It is also spoken in Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia. One of the oldest languages in the world with a history of about 2,100 years, its script (书写文字) is formidable (强大), leading to a famous Indian business man calling it “the Great Wall of Tamil”.

While “they” may seem small, this gender-neutral(性别中立的) word is clearly making its mark on culture. On Tuesday, Merriam-Webster announced “they” was the 2019 Word of the Year.

“Our Word of the Year ‘they’ reflects a surprising fact,” the dictionary publisher wrote. “Even a basic term- a personal pronoun(代词)- can rise to the top of our data.” The word secured the top spot when Merriam-Webster’s annual traffic report showed searches for the term increased by 313 percent. And while the reason for the increase was likely affected by many things, Merriam-Webster believes the power of the pronoun cannot be overstated.

“English famously lacks a gender-neutral pronoun to correspond neatly pronouns like ‘everyone’ or ‘someone’. As a consequence, ‘they’ has been used for this purpose for over 600 years. However, ‘they’ has also been used to refer to one person whose gender identity is non-binary, that is, neither male nor female,” Merriam-Webster explained.

The publisher also pointed out major events in culture that arouse interest in the word, such as Sam Smith’s switch to use the pronouns “they” and “them”, as well as the American Psychological Association’s recommendation that “they” be used when referring to someone whose gender is unknown, or who prefers “they” over “he or she”.

In September, Merriam-Webster added gender-neutral pronouns “they” and “themselves” to the dictionary. Many were thrilled by the news, and non-binary people expressed thanks. They felt “accepted” and “seen”.

Emily Brewster, a senior editor at Merriam-Webster, was also excited. “Pronouns are among the language’s most commonly used words, and they tend to be mostly ignored by dictionary users,” Brewster said in a statement to NBC. “But over the past year or so, as people have increasingly come across the non-binary use, we’ve seen searches for ‘they’ grow rapidly.”