Erwin's StarOffice Tango

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 ) Permalink Kommentare [3]

Kommentare:

Erwin! I live with a polyphonic person; the speaker of several languages. What is fascinaing is that early first words in the a Mother toung is how the brain thinks. Then this first laungage is translated into the current language (English) As to sights and scenes of California you remember them in English, not your mother toung. It seems to me ! that not being able to respond to all inkblot words isn't a serious matter. Being gezwungen: happens! " when people look at me , for the reaction to a word, and i look stunned; well that is my current state " Thanks for sharing. I wonder if bilingual people dream in the mother toung ? ~ ah off the topic. cheers GerwingR

Gesendet von BOMBOVA am März 20, 2005 at 08:07 AM CET #

I'm a polyglot myself and recognise your brain's behaviour. I think that you remembered the California landscape because you the name of that bird is something you learned in English, so all the mental images are related to these words: "Red-winged Black Bird". You learned "cat" in German, so the mental images belong to the word "Katze", the word "cat" is only a translation for the word that belongs to your images.

Gesendet von Lucas Vieites am Juni 14, 2005 at 04:39 PM CEST #

I think that's what George Orwell taught us in his novel 1984 when it came to "Newspeak". Creating a new artificial language so people are unable to have words for freedom and rebellion and are furthermore unable to even think about it.

Gesendet von Frank Sautter am November 14, 2007 at 03:19 PM CET #