I recently spent a few weeks in Europe. I spent a lot of time feeling like an outsider, as people would speak in English to me and in their normal language to everyone else.
There are a few situations that stand out in my mind that really make me question how natural “natural languages” are. Across “natural” language barriers, there are so many ways of communicating.
This past weekend, I was in a café with my mom. At the table behind us, there was a mother with twins. They looked a litle bit different, so we didn’t realize they were twins at first. Watching my mom watch those children and try to ask their mom questions about them was interesting. It was easy to see how much their mom loved them and at the same time, how exasperated they made her, even for my mom while she didn’t speak their language.
Another situation that stands out was watching a mom try to convince an 11-month old baby to eat some fruit. The mom would put a small piece of fruit into the baby’s hand and then put the baby’s clasped hand with the fruit into her mouth. The baby kept putting her clasped hand with some fruit inside of it into her mouth, taking it out with a big smile on her face, and offering it to other people, including her mom.
How else do we communicate naturally without using words?
Pictures. Expressions on our faces. Love. How we dress and present ourselves.
Throughout the world, people fall in love and raise children, whether they’re rich or poor. Do we love our children less if we are rich or poor?
My question is – is natural language, i.e. English, French, Spanish, Japanese, etc., really the most natural way to communicate? How often do you find yourself spending time having to spend time thinking about how to express your ideas in words, but they make perfect sense in your head?
Natural Language: How Natural is it?
I recently spent a few weeks in Europe. I spent a lot of time feeling like an outsider, as people would speak in English to me and in their normal language to everyone else.
There are a few situations that stand out in my mind that really make me question how natural “natural languages” are. Across “natural” language barriers, there are so many ways of communicating.
This past weekend, I was in a café with my mom. At the table behind us, there was a mother with twins. They looked a litle bit different, so we didn’t realize they were twins at first. Watching my mom watch those children and try to ask their mom questions about them was interesting. It was easy to see how much their mom loved them and at the same time, how exasperated they made her, even for my mom while she didn’t speak their language.
Another situation that stands out was watching a mom try to convince an 11-month old baby to eat some fruit. The mom would put a small piece of fruit into the baby’s hand and then put the baby’s clasped hand with the fruit into her mouth. The baby kept putting her clasped hand with some fruit inside of it into her mouth, taking it out with a big smile on her face, and offering it to other people, including her mom.
How else do we communicate naturally without using words?
Pictures. Expressions on our faces. Love. How we dress and present ourselves.
Throughout the world, people fall in love and raise children, whether they’re rich or poor. Do we love our children less if we are rich or poor?
My question is – is natural language, i.e. English, French, Spanish, Japanese, etc., really the most natural way to communicate? How often do you find yourself spending time having to spend time thinking about how to express your ideas in words, but they make perfect sense in your head?