Radiolab: Leopards, Language, and Mr. Fernyhough

This week, take a load off your eyes and just listen. One of the most influential pieces of technology to ever hit the human race is surely the radio, is it not? Radio, in all its forms, influenced our grandparents and will surely influence our great-great grandchildren. Years ago (and not too long ago, mind you) if you missed a show on the radio, you would either write to the broadcaster for a copy of the program or wait to hear it again…somehow. Today, with the invention of the internet, nearly everything is available for listening consumption at any time you deem worthy…many times in the form of podcasts.

One such podcast that has never let me down both in variety of subjects as well as entertainment value is the American show Radiolab:

Radiolab believes your ears are a portal to another world. Where sound illuminates ideas, and the boundaries blur between science, philosophy, and human experience. Big questions are investigated, tinkered with, and encouraged to grow. Bring your curiosity, and we’ll feed it with possibility. -Radiolab

With a new podcast every week, Radiolab is the perfect way to escape your routine and challenge your mind for twenty minutes to an hour a week on subjects ranging from natural selection and fate, words and language, or time and gravity (as well as many other subjects!) It is to this podcast that I highly encourage a bored blogger to visit in their spare time for it not only offers you a ears a world of entertaining sound but it offers your mind a new way to take in the world.  What with all this reading, our ears certainly are ready for some stimulation!

Radiolab is a member of WNYC radio as well as a part of National Public Radio.  Radiolab is supported, in part, by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, enhancing public understanding of science and technology in the modern world.

If you have not listened to it before, here are a couple good ones to get you started:

1) Words: Imagine a world without words!
2) Wild Talk : Animals with grammar? Words in the wild.

The Problem of Books: Linear Thought

In many ways, the idea that any matter can not be explained but only experienced is quite right.  Zen masters speak of giving an ideal lecture on the nature of Zen by simply walking into the room, ringing a gong, and then walking out. For in that sound and whole experience is all that is needed to fully comprehend everything.  Yet, we can not.

We are bound to words.  We are bound to words and words are bound to sensible sentences…and those sentences are bound to lines.  Lines do not in any way describe what actually exists they only serve to crudely translate to our limited minds what we have only begun to understand, and then those translations are interpreted as symbols.  Before continuing, please refer to this video I have edited specifically for this blog entry.  It is an excerpt from “Alan Watts: A Conversation with Myself” The initial spark for this entry most certainly were these considerations:

What must be expressed and considered is that language as we know it to be is too primitive and, as we evolve further and further, must too evolve and be improved upon. 

The BEST Thing to Happen to Language Learning…Ever.

 

If you are on a journey to learn a new language and already speak one fluently…but have not tried Lang-8, then you are in for a revolution.  Debuting in 2007, Lang-8 took language learning to the highest, most user-friendly, international stratosphere (and that was three years ago!) …and it has never looked back.

• The premise: Free Language Tutoring.

• How: Users of Lang-8 (Infinite Languages) write journal entries in a foreign language. Then, other Lang-8 users who are native speakers of that language correct them.  In return, those users’ journal entries are corrected by other Lang-8 members.  What often happens is that 2 members who want to learn each others’ native language meet, and thereafter frequently correspond.  A simple way to bridge divides between nations, reduce miscommunication, and further world peace?  Its name is Lang-8.

When Language Doesn’t Cut It

I am at a loss for words.  What do you say when no words will suffice.  I am simply,__________.

 

Life, Without Words: Photo Courtesy of D.L Ennis Photography

Language Lost: Foreign Language at Home

There is something inescapably despicable about the human mind when it comes to language: It sticks like memory foam in our mind.  For the vast majority of us language learners, foreign languages must be continuously tackled, studied, listened to, and written, over and over again in order to not simply improve but to retain anything at all!  Language is like memory foam because, just like the comfortable bedding, it will retain it’s shape if we leave it for a little while.  We lift our hand from the foam and the imprint remains…for a while.  Foreign languages can be just like this because we can take a break for a week, maybe a month, and not study a single thing and still return to right where we left off, completely unharmed…but slowly the imprint begins to fade.

South Korea Travel: Andong City

Forgive me for being a bit outside of my normal topic of language, but I thought it necessary to dispense some of my travel experience…

If you ever go to South Korea, check out the city of Andong.  If you ever go to Andong, heed my advice.  I traveled to there with weeks of preparation and phone calls under my belt…but of course~things went wrong.  Here is what I learned and what you must see if you are ever so fortunate as to have the opportunity to experience “The Capital of The Korean Spirit”:  Andong City.

Situated in the center of South Korea (and a bit to the East) is the city of Andong.

How To: Get There

By no means impossible to get to, Andong’s recent popularity boom has made it quite accessible by both bus and train.  Though the train may be novel, the bus is most definitely the way to travel.  The bus is fast (1~3 hours faster), cheap (about 15,000won or roughly $12), and very comfortable thanks to its plush, wide seats.

Directions: Go to Dongbu Seoul Bus Terminal (on subway line 2)and from there hop on one of the Andong-bound buses that depart every 20 minutes.  This will take you right to the Andong Intercity Bus Terminal in the center of the city.

Distances to Attractions: WARNING!

Though advertised by their website as all easily accessible via the Andong Intercity Bus Terminal, DO NOT BE FOOLED!  Though every tourist site in the city is technically on one bus line or another, the locations are far and the buses are few.  Not knowing this, I was in for a real headache.   This is my only warning:  Planning your Andong trip with the idea of getting from place to place via bus will frustrate and exhaust you!

So, how do you resolve this problem?  Simple: Rent-a-Car.  If I ever go back to Andong in the future, I will not think twice about this!  This is my one strong suggestion! Renting a car in Andong will save your mind, body, and soul as you come to realize the distances you must travel even by bus to get to some of the more amazing attractions.

The Amazing Attractions

1) Dosan Confucian Academy (Dosan Seowon)
2) Bongjeong Temple (봉정사)(鳳停寺）
3) Sinsedong Seven-Story Brick Pagoda
4) Jirye Artist Colony
5) Hahoe Village
6) Andong Folk Liquor: Soju Museum

When they say that Andong is the center of tradition and culture of Korea, they are not lying.  Within a one-hour radius of the center of the city are a dozen treasures (some literally are national treasures!) that are completely unique and breathtaking.  Here is a list of the places I went to see and can personally attest to their existence and worth.

Silence: The Language of Thought

Our Thoughts are a Universe

Within the confines of our mind in places where no one may ever be able to map out precisely, lie our thoughts and emotions, our feelings and hopes, fears and secrets.  Inside our minds lie our unspoken words, our shouts of pain and joy.  In this vast confined space of our brains and beyond into the ether lie what no one will ever be able to hear but is there nonetheless: Our Personal Dialogue.

To say that it does not exist would be ridiculous! Consider only the moment that is NOW.  Upon the reading of the word “NOW” you evoke the feelings and all memories associated with that word, the memories may lead to more thoughts and feelings and–if you never returned to reading my blog but instead expounded on the internal energy you possess from the word “NOW”–you very well may drift off into an eternal internal personal dialogue.

Consciousness: Impossible sans Language

Every thought, every consideration, every observation, and every emotion is realized in our consciousness though the medium of language; without language, conscious human thought is impossible.  In other words, without a language as a medium, none of our human experience could even exist.

SOS in Korea

The idea occurred to me prior to any kind of reading into the subject (later research found such references to this idea in such books as The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language by David Crystal) and I was struck at the realization of how deep the repercussions of a world without language would be.  If such a catastrophe were to occur and all knowledge of language of any kind were to disappear from our race, I concluded, we would plummet instantly into an animalistic, prehistoric, and utterly instinctual state.  Literally overnight our financial status, thoughts of loved ones, future plans (for the nest 10 minutes let alone the next 10 years), and our own well-being would revert to a level of importance no higher than eating and relieving oneself for the time being.

The New JLPT: Review & Essential Tips

Japanese, long noted for its high level of difficulty, has become increasingly difficult to master this year with the onset of the new Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) format.

Background

In the past as is the case still today, the JLPT was divided up into several sections based on reading, grammar, and listening.  However, whereas in the past your passing score was based on your overall score, this year’s test-takers will need to pass every single section in order to be awarded proficiency in that level of Japanese.  What this means is that in order to pass the exam one must be proficient in all levels of Japanese (except speaking).  In other words you may be a fantastic reader and have a high level of kanji-recognition, scoring high in the first section; but should your ear be green and unaccustomed to spoken Japanese then your chances for passing are slim. Slim still are your chances should the opposite be true.

Another change that has been made this year is the addition of a new level between the old level 1 (the most difficult level) and 2.  This change means that the JLPT now offers 5 levels of proficiency examination.

This year I have had the privilege of being in South Korea for the summer where the test is offered twice a year (as opposed to only once a year in the United States).  My aim was 一級 (ikkyuu), the highest level of Japanese proficiency. Note: Ikkyuu is now known as N1.

How to Teach English in Korea

There is nothing more deceptively challenging as teaching English.  I majored in Finance and Japanese and came to Corea to, among other things, discover the culture of a nation almost entirely unknown to nearly every American of Caucasian descent; to grow introspectively in patience and understanding in the scheme of the greater social structure of Corean society (primarily that which concerns life in Corean middle schools); to eat Corean food, and—most significantly—to spend time with my girlfriend of then one-and-a-half years and get to know her family, where she grew up, and (with a bit of luck) blossom together in a beautiful and meaningful relationship.  What I discovered was that teaching English in Corea, though on many levels a rewarding and enlightening experience, is a land laced with mines of depression and setbacks, frustrations and stress.  It is a process of self-discovery that needs the very best of one’s personal determination and a mind so free and empty so that all words and daily activities, all information of any kind, can simply pass through your consciousness without maiming it permanently.

Playing in a Stream

When I was asked recently about motivation I realized that the topic and therefore problem of motivating students was one that actually dealt not with the students but with you, the teacher, and your own level of motivation.