Hello Everyone,

I would like to ask you to consider making a donation to a project I am currently working on for my coworker. We will call him T.  His brother, B, who was in Sri Lanka, died in the middle of our last semester, rather suddenly.   B had been working on a project to bring Deaf Education to Sri Lanka, so when he died, T took up the project as his own and to ensure that it would be completed as per his brother’s wishes.  The next step in this project is to publish a series of bilingual books that will be distributed to students and used to train teachers in Sri Lanka this summer.  The cost of the publication for these books is estimated to be $3,000.  I have seen the books myself and believe they will be a huge step in bringing equality to the level of education for the Deaf in Sri Lanka.

If this is something you would like to support, please consider making a donation, however small. I will be delighted to present him with the funds for this project before his departure to Sri Lanka this summer.

Thanks for any support.  If you would like more information before making a decision, please leave a comment with an email address I can reach you at.

I figured it’s about time for an update on my Japanese progress, since I’ll be in Japan in less that two months!

Because I have been using different strategies for different skills, I’ll break this post up into four parts, and explain my progress in each listening, speaking, reading and writing, as well as future goals in each area.

Listening:  For listening, so far, I’ve mostly been using Anime and J-dramas.  I plan to soon use audiobooks, podcasts, and any news recordings I can find and see how that compares.  With the television shows, I can follow the simple ideas of most sentences, but I do have a bad habit of relying on the subtitles.  Something I have done before that helped this issue is watch Japanese shows with French subtitles, so that I could still read it when I got stuck and didn’t know what was going on, but was less tempted to just read the subtitles instead of listening.  The only downside there is these shows are harder to find. For my trip, I would like to be able to understand enough to follow conversations necessary for navigating in Japan at the very least, and ideally to have simple conversations with the natives.  I am not under any delusions that I will be able to have deep political discussions or anything but that is certainly a good longer term goal.

Speaking:  This may be my biggest breakthrough area of them all!  I recently attended a Japanese conversation group to test out my actual level of production.  Though rusty, I did manage to discuss, with a native speaker, her upcoming American driver’s exam and how driving in the USA compared with driving in Japan. I then assured her that driving in DC, though scary, was nothing to sweat about compared the craziness that is driving in Peru where people don’t even stop at intersections and buses approach each other at full speed on narrow winding mountain roads.  We then discussed the pros and cons of my Android smartphone and why I like it better than Apple products.  Though I did not say these things eloquently, I communicated them and definitely considered this event a success.  I plan to return as much as possible before my trip to make sure I can easily use what Japanese I do know and possibly pick up some additional vocab, grammar, etc from the group. I want to be able to make myself understood in Japan well enough with what I do know so that acquiring more will not be difficult because there will already be a flow of communication and mutual understanding.  Longer term, I would love to sound like a native…..but, patience and baby steps.  I am pleased with the progress I have made even in this past week.

Reading:  At a different event, there was Karaoke, and I was floored to see this American guy rapping fluently in Japanese.  Due to this awe, you can safely assume my reading skills (especially Kanji-related reading skills) are not so polished as to be able to keep up with the Karaoke’s subtitles as they fly across the screen.  To be honest, reading and writing, although definitely a longer term priority, have not been so high a priority for this trip.  I would like to be comfortable reading signs when I get there but I am not sure how to go about practicing this since most of my reading material is manga or short stories.  Any suggestions?  The 300 or so Kanji I do know are the more basic Kanji, not necessarily the most commonly used. Literacy is WAY harder than speaking Japanese, I am well aware, but I’d like to use the valuable resources available to me in the form of street signs when I arrive.  Still deciding how to best prepare for that, since some of that information will clearly include more advanced Kanji…

Writing:  At the moment, this is my last priority, and I haven’t made much progress in it.  It won’t be particularly helpful for my trip, I think, but it is something I want to work on.  I would be more motivated if I could get more feedback on it, so maybe I’ll write something and bring it to the conversation group.  They bring books to the meeting so they seem rather study friendly and not solely conversation geared.

Overall update:  I’ve let life get in the way a bit, but I’m really becoming more serious about his now that I have the opportunity to study with native speakers and get quality feedback.  I will definitely be continuing to use this opportunity to increase my fluency and expand my network to include more native Japanese speakers. I’m both realistic about the amount I’ll be able to use upon arrival and optimistic based on the speed of my improvement so far. Before I leave, I’ll give an estimate of my proficiency and compare with my actual experience in Japan.  We shall see how humbled I am and how much I succeed in getting away with. ^.~

In today’s world, can you imagine not having a native language?  Think of the language we are exposed to every day through a bombardment of social media such as newsfeeds and televisions and magazines and of course most importantly, real live conversation.

Although rare, it is not unheard of for a person to be deprived of a native language.  For instance, a Deaf child born into a hearing family that does not learn any sign language may be deprived of language exposure during that critical period in their early childhood. This happens, in various parts of the world, for various reasons -parents don’t know what to do, their culture rejects alternative modalities of language, remnants of the caste system.  For whatever reason, sometimes a child does not grow up with any language to call their own. (In fact, I currently have a student for whom I suspect this to be the case, which is what prompted my interest in this topic to begin with.)

So, my question is:  Is it possible to dissociate thought from language? Given that there exist people without a native langauge, I’m inclined to say yes.  But I have enormous difficulty imagining what shape these thoughts come in, what it could possibly look like to think without language.

You know when you’re thinking to yourself, running that internal monologue, and it’s like hearing the words inside your head? The one that appears when you read silently to yourself?  Linguists call that subvocalizing, and most of us do this when we are thinking.  If we strip that away, what’s left of our thoughts?

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states that our native language influences our perception of the world, such as limiting the number of colors we have concepts for based on the number of terms in our native language.  But, before language can even color our perception, there must be something.  After all, a newborn has no language.  But surely they are capable of thought?  Perhaps not particularly abstract ones, but if you’ve ever seen a young baby staring at a toy with obvious fascination, you’ve probably put a caption on that mental snapshot along the lines of “oooh, shiny.”

But is that a thought the baby has, or is the baby merely experiencing the physical sensation?

Do you think language and thought are separable?

I just watched The Secrets of Body Language last night, and it has stirred up all sorts of interesting linguistic questions in my mind.  Anyone else who is upset that Lie to Me was taken off the air will be delighted to know that they can pick up some of Cal Lightman’s basic techniques from this video as well.

One of the key points of this informative documentary is that 93% of communication has nothing to do with the words that are coming out of our mouths.  In fact, we can reveal our true emotions through tiny micro-expressions that last only a fraction of an instant, and even one who has been coached in body language will find it difficult to hide these miniature lie alarms.

All sorts of politicians and celebrities were used as examples, with video footage of various  denials (think Nixon and Clinton) and their tells were explained.  I was fascinated, not only being a fan of Lie to Me, but because in ASL facial expression is grammatical!

What exactly does it mean for facial exression to be grammatical?  It means that “bitter” “sour” and “miss” are all the same hand motion, location, and movement, but the only differences between the three are the facial expressions.  (Think Chinese and tones).This means I have a good solid background in reading expressions and adding that nuance of meaning to what has been said.

The additional information in this video has only left me more eager to put these skills into practice.  If 93% is an accurate number, then I can hardly call myself a linguist if I focus only on 7% of all language.  Time to broaden our definitions of language, or at least consider the other aspects that are equally, if not more, important for communication.

What do you think?  Is “body language” a language?  Or is it just something else, some other means through which we communicate?

Regardless of how we label it, it tells us more than words.

Okay, so I promised an update on my Japanese.   Getting to that.  I’m actually going to take this opportunity to give a general overview of my typical language “study” schedule and discuss some merits of different methods.

I been told at least three times over the past week that I’m “linguistically gifted” or “just have a natural facility for languages”, yadda, yadda, yadda.  While I appreciate the sentiment and support and encouragement, I don’t really think it’s true.  Certainly, I have a strong interest in languages, that not everyone shares, and that helps me in my pursuits.  But I’m no more capable than any of you.  I just like to use what I know in real life situations rather than stare at books and take tests (though, that’s certainly been a part of my language education process as well.)

A typical weekday for me these days involves a lot of American Sign Language and a reasonable amount of Arabic.  Needless to say, these are the languages I’m currently making progress in because I’m forced to use them on a daily basis.  I teach English classes in ASL to Deaf students (most of whom are from Saudi Arabia)—–this means, during my workday, I use no English except for the target grammar, and even then it’s written, not spoken.  Although the lectures are primarily in ASL, since most of my students are Saudi, when they are confused, a well placed Arabic phrase or sentence on the board clears things right up.

Now the really interesting part is that this is language purely for communication purposes.  There are no tests here.  I’m using ASL and Arabic to make points and get information across, from my brain to theirs.  If I don’t have all the words, I still have to make myself understood.  So, sink or swim.  I become more skilled at this through practice and necessity, not study.  Would I pass a test this way?  Not necessarily.  Do I succeed in talking to real people?  Yes, every day.  It’s my job.

Not that academic study has no place in language learning, but it should not be the end all method and it certainly does not replace actual interaction with native speakers.  It should be secondary to the true purpose of language–communication.  Mistakes are okay, even welcome as learning opportunities, so long as your point comes across clearly.

For those that still aren’t buying it, I’ll give you a recent  example of this method succeeding for me with a language in which I have essentially zero academic background: Bangla.

Recently my friend started talking to me only in Bangla, to help prepare me for a possible future project.  I don’t really know any, but I have known her for a long time, so I’ve picked up a few random words.  A recent phone conversation went like this:

Her (in Bangla):  How are you?

Me (In English):  Stressed.  Haven’t been doing yoga.

Her (in Bangla): You should do Yoga, it’s good for your health.

Me (In English): Classes are expensive.

Her (in Bangla): You can do it at home.

Me (In English): Yes, but that’s not the same as going to the studio.

Her (in English): *bursts out laughing*  Are you really understanding me?

Me (In English):  *laughs* Well enough.  I know “at home”.  Context helps. That’s all I really need to know.

She went on to say something about my language skills.  Really, I didn’t know the Bangla that was coming out of her mouth.  I knew her, and the topic of conversation, and a well-placed key word or two.  Being hard of hearing, I get a lot of practice filling in things from context.  It’s possible that’s what people mistake as a special language skill.  Granted, some study would be helpful for me to start replying in Bangla, but the lack of it did not limit my ability to participate in this conversation.

Needless to say, all of these things have been distracting me from Japanese.  I can watch dramas without relying on the subtitles for every word, but I’d really like to have some human interaction, because, as I’ve discussed above, book skills can only get you so far. They really only help you pass tests, not talk to people.

Any takers for a Japanese conversation partner? You can give the communication and context approach a try. ^_~

Autistic Girl Shows Unimaginable Intelligence

I watched this video recently, and was really struck by some of the implications.  As someone who chose to study linguistics, clearly I have an appreciation for the importance of language in our daily lives.  Still, this video clip deals a striking blow to anyone unprepared for the magnitude of its relevance.

Without language, this girl is judged to be unintelligent and “low-functioning”.  The latter is a label I greatly dislike for a number of reasons, but it is a term widely used for those with Autism and who do not speak, so highlighting society’s use of this term will actually help make my point.

The girl in this video, Carly, does not speak.  I am already familiar with the prejudices that accompany this, working in the Deaf community.  But more recently ASL has become accepted as the language that it is, with as full an array of linguistic properties as any other.  For the vast majority of her life, Carly had almost no communication with anyone, even her family, and certainly not a “language”.  Or so it appeared.

After discovering that she could in fact type, and not only knew words, but grammar, and began to express complex thoughts, two things came to light.  One: Autism may not be what we thought it was.  Two:  Are our measurements of intelligence limited by language?

While both of these are extremely interesting questions, I am most interested by the latter. Why do we make the assumption that people like Carly, who do not respond to language like the majority of people, are unintelligent?  And do we have any way to prove that the intelligence is there without accessing it through linguistic means?

Are the two inextricably related?  I think not.  You can train your pet without speaking its language, and that requires intelligence on the part of your pet.  You assume that intelligence is there to some degree when you succeed with part of the training.  So why do intelligence and language have to be tied together in humans, at least enough for so many people to be shocked that this girl is capable of complex thoughts (though they were never heard before she learned to type).  They are not thoughts we would be shocked to hear from another girl her age.  So why is this labeled as “unimaginable” intelligence from one who happens to be Autistic?

I believe this is largely colored by our perceptions of language, and how many people consider it to be a distinguishing feature of human intelligence.  What do you think?

The entry you’ve all been waiting for!  Now I will tell all the stories of my adventures in Peru and my explorations of Spanish and Quechua. Be warned–this is a long entry, and although it does contain bits about Spanish and Quechua it is primarily about the trip and my experience.  Enjoy!

For those that haven’t seen the photos, you can check them out at my Flickr.

I’ll start by explaining that this trip was a retreat that was organized by Radiance Yoga studio. Now, the title of this entry is actually the name of the Tour we went on.  I’ll try and avoid names to protect privacy, unless the names are publicly available on other websites.

On October 21, I left the United States for the first time and flew to Lima via Miami.  We then flew from Lima to Cusco, making my first flight –oh yeah, forgot to mention this was also my first flight…*cue shocked reactions*… long story– actually 3 consecutive flights with all the transfers.

Now, once I got over the whole, well, floating in the air bit, I actually found the flights quite relaxing.  There were really only two notable moments other than the fantastic views, which were nonstop.  The first was before we even took off, and that’s because I didn’t know what takeoff felt like and kept assuming this was it (*sigh* for five or so times in a row, when really we were just moving to another part of the runway).  Then the engines revved up and I knew it was for real.

Continue reading →

Welcome to Saithseren.net, and my blog, Wordsmith.  Here I will share my adventures in language learning, although you are equally likely to find forays into other topics such as travel, Buddism, neuroscience, photography, and dancing….and I may even surprise you by finding ways to tie all these back to language learning!  I’m starting this blog along with a new year fast approaching and some accompanying new focuses.

My current project, and a primary focus of this blog, consists of finding the ideal approach to learning a second language as an adult.  Children have it so easy! Plop them into a new environment and they can pick up a language seemingly instantaneously with little effort.  While this isn’t actually true, it’s not too far from it.  But once you hit mid to late adolesence, suddenly learning languages requires an enormous amount of effort, and never seems to achieve quite the ease of fluency that younger learners aquire.

I am convinced this phenomenon is merely a flaw in our approach to language education.  Perhaps adults necessarily learn differently than children, but this should not mean that they cannot also achieve native fluency in a timely manner!  We just haven’t cracked open that mystery yet.

With that, I hope you’ll enjoy following me in my quest for the ultimate language learning approach!