Thought generated from blog 6

I feel that Emil Ruder make a great point in discussing the connection between typefaces and foreign languages. I believe this to also be true about the characters a foreign language uses. The specific example it brought to mind for me is several years ago products with Chinese characters on them became very popular and many people began getting them as tattoos. When asked what these characters meant they would respond love, hope, peace, tranquility, or some other Zen like utterance. When accused of conforming to popularity many would argue these words were a personal motto. I would argue that if these were in fact a personal motto why would they not have it written in their native characters? Would that not be more personal that a foreign language? I feel these words gained much of their significance and meaning from the fact they were Chinese, a culture associated with enlightenment, Zen practice and intelligence. Also feel the flowing lines and brush strokes lend significance. The characters look painstakingly thought out unlike our native standard Times New Roman lettering. I feel that the connotation a language and its typeface or written language gives of what is being read adds a great deal of the implicit message. For example if you got a business memo written in a script like font you would be much less inclined to take it seriously and might even mock it to coworkers.