Sonntag April 10, 2005
Could you imagine filling out your tax forms in Latin?
This morning I was wondering if people can actually get citizenship of the State of the Vatican City. I found out, you really can. What astonished me even more was the fact that one of the official languages is Latin. Not according to Wikipedia, but to another book, Italian is also an official language.
I had to think of my Latin lessons back in high school. Except for religious songs and phrases in my church and historic documents, Latin appeared like a "dead" language to me. Now I found out that it is even an official language of an independent state, even though a very small one. Could you imagine filling out your tax forms in Latin?
( Apr 10 2005, 04:23:28 PM CEST )
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Sonntag März 20, 2005
Fascinating Mind
Yesterday, I discovered, or should I say realized, something very interesting. I don't know if it is just me or if this is true for most people. However, if it is, it might be useful to know and to keep in mind.
A few months ago during one of the several communication trainings that I have taken at Sun we were told a few simple words and had to reply by explaining what pictures popped up in our heads. I was pretty frustrated, because the instructor said "cat" and nothing appeared in my mind. Why didn't I see anything? Why did nothing show up? What's wrong with me?
In a presentation training a few months later something similar happened. We were given a random word and had to do a spontaneous little presentation about a vivid life experience that had to do with the word. Again, my head was blank! I was shocked and frustrated!
Was my life so boring that I simple did not have any experiences that I could connect with these words and talk about? Was I such a nerd that I missed true life?
The next second I discovered something very interesting. I translated the words into my mother tongue (German) and boom ... as soon as I thought about the equivalent German word all kinds of pictures and memories popped up in my mind.
The issue was not that I did not understand the English words. I definitely knew what a "cat" or "penguin" was. However, it seemed like my brain stored memories and pictures only under words of my mother tongue, my native language.
Yesterday, I found out that my theory was wrong. My wife and I talked about birds and she mentioned the English name of a Californian bird which does not exist in Germany: "Red-winged Black Bird". When my wife said the name of the bird I immediately saw Lake Elizabeth in Fremont (California) where my wife and I often went for a walk in the evening Sun during the two years we lived in the US. I could even hear the strange off-key song of the bird. Apparently my brain is able to store memories and pictures under a different language, but now it looks like the first language simply wins. Since my mother was from the Netherlands I also speak and understand some Dutch. The next thing I'll try is to find out is how my brain reacts to Dutch words. ;-)
As I said in the beginning, I don't know if my brain is representative for more brains or even every human brain, but if I'm not a special case, people should be more conscious about what language and images/examples they choose for their presentations. Even if people speak and understand English (or another language) they might perceive statements in a completely different way.
( Mrz 20 2005, 07:14:53 AM CET )
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