The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis asks the question of whether the language we speak shapes the way we think and see the world. Personally, I think that this theory is a bit bizarre yet very interesting. I think that this theory applies to everyone in the world and that everyone speaks differently and will view the world differently because of that.
Linguistic relativity says that people from different language communities and different cultures will look at the world differently pertaining to how they speak. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis looks at if American students ever studied a foreign language. For example, some concepts and ideas that are easily expressed in one language are difficult to translate into another.
After reading an article in the New York Times my senior year of high school I can vividly remember an article about the chinese language. In this article it discussed how chinese people cannot understand the concept of tripping on something while walking down the street. The article said that they cannot understand this because there is nothing in their language that means "to trip" they only have a word for falling. This is just one of many examples of where the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis comes into play.
In conclusion, I think that the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is a theory that is going to be on-going major debate for many, many years. I feel this way because people feel very differently about this theory and some people say it is completely bogus.
Dear Matt -- because it cannot be proven empirically, it will, as you say, be continually debated. I'm going to have to find that article on Chinese culture -- it's a great example.
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