June 2008 Archives

The hot topic of Piracy always comes to light these days with pirated everything that can be put into digital format. Some compare piracy to robbing a shop of its good, but other contend that it is simply sharing data. Whatever the case I'm a great fan of "Piracy" in terms of the fact that it allows people to share ideas, thoughts, and creative endeavors. Furthermore, if one thinks about it you could even say the language we use today is a Pirated invention, and even worse almost all languages today have some sort of pirated elements to them.

Here is an interesting video about the drama:
 


This blog was inspired by torrentfreak, you might say I pirated the idea.

I've been listening to a library rental on the History of The English Language done by Prof. Michael Drout. I've been learning a considerable amount of very interesting things about linguistics.


Most recently about Grimm's Law and Verner's Law and I Mutation, and other very confusing laws of linguistic mutation in Germanic language from PIE(Proto-Indo-European).

Okay, really something that is highly more interesting to me is the Hapax Legomenon, which simply put is word that appears only once within a written body of work, which is a very interesting phenomenon to happen.

You can of course read more at the links provided above. If you want a little more fun, then oyu can visit the Hapax Legomenon.

Yes, the interesting thought that speaking another language will change your personality.

Like this very nice Czech proverb explains:

Kolik jazyků znáš, tolikrát jsi člověkem.
You live a new life for every new language you speak.
If you know only one language, you live only once.
(Czech proverb) Source: Omniglot

Learning a language really can change your life and your outlook on the world. Adding some culture and some new words to your brain as well. Better yet, according to a recent study it seems that bilingual people have a personality change when they slip into a different language. Although I have no idea how you measure personality by what language one speaks it at least makes sense in a translation sort of sense. That is if you've got the words to be complain, moan, and whine it's likely you will. Whereas speaking another tongue, as your second language, no matter how well you speak it is likely to invoke a more thoughtful speech process than the flippant tone of your native tongue. Some interesting research, but then again I may also be misconstruing some of its findings to an extent. Whatever the case you can read the article about "How switching language can change your personality" right on over at New Scientist.

Stage	About how long?	About how many words?
Preproduction (the "Silent Period")	0-6 Months	500 receptive words
Early Production	+6 Months	1000 receptive/active words
Speech Emergence	+1 Year	3000 active words
Intermediate Fluency	+1 Year	6000 active words
Continued Language Development	5-7 Years	Content Area Vocabulary

Something that interests me are the states of Second Language Acquisition. Above is a table of the different phases. Currently, with my first second language(Spanish) I would mark myself within the Speech Emergence to Intermediate Fluency Category. However, either of which I am not entirely comfortable placing myself within.

 I can say that these phases are a remarkable histogram of my progress in the language. I remember long ago when I first began learning the language. My first classes within a Middle School environment consisted of a strong resentment of having to do any speaking aloud. I kept my ears open and learned quite a great deal of vocabulary. However, I was hesitant to speak, and I have no recollection of any dialog. The vocabulary was key and with time I was able to mimic the sounds I heard, and silently repeat them. Songs were particularly helpful in learning lists of things. I remember a song that went through the days of the week, and without it I might not have learned the days as quickly. this period consisted of mindless repetition, and attempts at translating the language word for word into my own. The true grammatical structures and literal meaning made very little sense to me as I still used my native language as a crutch.

With time I graduated in the same year to the Early Production phase. This consisted  of learning basic verb conjugations, such as  the "Go Go Verbs," and other simple conjugations, as well as key pronouns. Reflexive verb conjugations used a drastically separate set of pronouns, which created utter confusion. Verbs like "gustarle" made very little sense. What I didn't understand literally I inferred through common patterns. For instance, I knew that I could say "Me Gusta La Manzana" and that inversely if I liked "Manzanas," then the conjugation would change. However, this structure did not follow most norms of conjugation, and was therefore something I avoided. Multiple times while learning students were prompted to create worksheets for the rest of the class explaining this seemingly complex structure, and each time the idea became clearer.

Within the next two years I rehashed these skills constantly. Picking up new vocabulary, and over and over rehashing learned conjugations. Moreover, I was relearning how I thought about language. My misconceptions about what I thought the language would be changed into what the language was, which was entirely different from my initial conceptions about language.

Today I can say quite a bit in the language, which means I've probably entered a stage of Intermediate Fluency, but I'm not quite ready to say that I'm quite so far into the game. I realize now more than ever that understanding is very different than I had every thought of before. Often people or maybe only kids think that learning a second language will be gained with simple memorization and then a sort of instant gratification for the work. Still more, people expect to be able to understand each and every word spoken with their new skills with each, but in reality for most of us it takes quite a great deal of time and effort, and reaching native proficiency and fluidity of speech is a difficult goal to obtain.

(Credit to John Stanford Intl. School for the table, and additional info on Second Language Acquisition, )

Having met many new and interesting people it is also difficult to understand that they are also learning, and that perhaps for better or for worse I have the tendency to slip into Pidgin when speaking with someone who has not yet mastered the English language.

I have encountered a cornucopia of people from Brazil who desire very readily to learn English, but for whatever reason have not been able to master the language, but have command of operative phrases and use an albeit Pidgin like way of speaking.

What's worse is that I will slip into Pidgin when typing back and remove unnecessary words that are not essential to comprehension. I am quickly becomes, "I is" not because my friend in incapable of understand the syntax and grammar, but because it is easier for me to understand how they are understand it in their own language.  Portuguese is in itself a  sort of Pidginesque language that really came about right off the coattails of Spanish, and it has the vocabulary and grammar to prove it.

Other very prominent problems conversing with people who have not yet gained a command of the language is that there are often problems to resolve with their computer or general use of some tools that the internet allows. I was unfortunate enough to have been thought to have given a  Virus to one of my friend after trying to install a web cam and microphone so we could  practice speaking and see each other. Of course, I was absolved of all wrong doing, but I was still quite confused as to how everything panned out, even though I wasn't to blame.

(Image Courtesy: Daniel F. Pigatto from Open Source Pidgin Chat Client. )

Thanks to an about.com writer blogger I am now able to say @ in Spanish. Apparently, the word used to say this tricky symbol comes from Arabic and was traditionally a unit of measurement, but in case you didn't know before you know now.


You can read the article about the arroba here The '@' Symbol in Spanish.
Also, you can learn a little more about Arabic words carried into Spanish through 'Spanish's Arab Connection.'

Portuguese for me has been progressing very steadily and has come quite easily from my studies of Spanish. I have not abandoned French entirely, but have stuck more to learning vocabulary and sticking to pronunciation for the time being.

My Spanish has also been progressing quite quickly.

I've tried to limit the uptake of new friends, because it doesn't seem that I have enough time in the day to talk to all of my very good friends abroad. They have all been very accommodating and have even offered me stay in their homes if I ever choose to visit them. I hear so many great stories form these people I have been meeting, and I can hardly imagine that such an experience has been offered to me free of charge, which is an immense and very wonderful gift for me to be able to experience.

For Aphasia Awareness Month there are some videos on Youtube documenting the problem.
This terrible brain maulfunction, which is often caused by stroke, or from other severe brain injuries. Aphasia is typified by the inability to produce speech fluidly and often this speech lacks grammatical complexity. Some aphasia sufferers are unable to produce sounds that can be deciphered as English though they try, and others perhaps more fortunate can use certain words and phrases such as small children to get their point across. Some sufferers are with time and a great deal of effort able to regain their ability to speak fluidly once again

Broca's Aphasia


Wernicke's Aphasia




Details of a Stroke
Another very interesting video about neuro-scientist who experience a stroke and was able to document the chilling experience and recount the details vividly.

Today surfing around I found a website detailing Mnemonic devices. Although some actually may be more difficult to apply to foreign language learning, they may certainly be viable method for remembering other tidbits.

I especially liked the methods detailed on the website using the "Journey Method" to remember things, by using landmarks you see everyday. Along with this the alphabet device which is useful, as long as you can associate everything on your list with the alphabet.

Before knowing much about mnemonics I created my own device to remember classes I had homework in. Usually, remembering a small group of numbers 1-7, then repeating them a few times so I could easily recall subjects I needed to recall the next night. Other perhaps more complex devices I use usually are made up Acronyms and Numerical sequences to remember lists of important data such as all the states in the European Union. As best I can I will try to form an easily remembered word, which is actually an acronym. I've used it before in chemistry as well to keep different properties of elements in line, such as charge or even their order on the table.

Other less list like devices I use are triggers. I'll remember to remember. Oddly enough it works more often than not. I know I won't remember to print off something in the morning, so I'll set my alarm with the intent of waking myself up, but also knowing that it signifies something else, and even if I forget what I have to remember I can usually puzzle it out in at least knowing I was supposed to remember to remember something out there.

You can see the website with lots of cool Mnemonics tutorials at Mind Tools.

(Image Courtesy of seangloster)

Besides being one of the most difficult traveling destinations to spell there is news about the famous and breathtaking moment, which I have never seen. Being primarily that, without surprise, that with permission form the Peruvian government someone extracted several treasures from the monument 40 years before the famous Hiram Bingham rediscovered the monument. Finally, the myths that had been circulating behorehand about such an underhanded attempt have been revealed.

You can read the entire article at the BBC Machu Picchu ruin found 'found earlier'

The news from Retuers last month that a language museum may be in the works sounds like an interesting idea.

An excerpt from the article,

"HOLYHEAD (Reuters) - Language enthusiasts want to open a dedicated museum in London -- the world's most multilingual city, where more than 350 languages are spoken -- to coincide with the 2012 Olympics.

Linguist David Crystal said the interactive museum would draw on high-tech gadgets and serious scholarship to boost people's interest in languages -- both foreign and their own -- and would be the first of its kind in Britain."

You can read the entire article here at Multilingual Language Museum.

I'm reminded of the figure of Rachel Corrie. The young activist for peace between Israel and Palestine. She was tragically killed as she tried to protect a Palestinian home from destruction. There is nothing wrong in acknowledging that both Israel and Palestine are responsible for terrible acts of inhumanity and grave atrocities. Still it is saddening to think that people continue to support antics such as these for fear of the thought that not supporting them would some how indicate antisemitism.

You can visit the Jewish Voice for Peace and find out more. Below I have also enclosed a YouTube video about the conflict, which may be of interest.

"In the past, the assistant professor of cognitive science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has demonstrated that the shapes of letters in 100 writing systems reflect common ones seen in nature: Take the letter "A"--it looks like a mountain, he says. And "Y" might remind one of a tree with branches. He also showed that across different languages most characters take three strokes to write out. That's because, he says, three is the highest quantity a person's brain can perceive without resorting to counting." - Scientific American excerpt.

Quite an interesting read not only about the developments of written language, but also other traits developed through evolution that influence language. You can read the entire article at the link below.
Scientific American: What Dictionaries and Optical Illusions Say About Our Brains