Comments on: Your brain on language

By: rajshree

rajshree — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:12:21 +0000

very interesting n creative…..liked it!!

By: Monica Flitcraft

Monica Flitcraft — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:56:28 +0000

I am a student in CST 229 in Philip Tirpak’s class and have been asked to respond to this podcast.

I really enjoyed listening to this podcast since I am bilingual as well (half Korean and half White). I grew up in South Korea being surrounded by the Korean language and instantly learned Korean and was considered my first language. However, once I went to an American school and was surrounded by only English speaking teachers and students, I instantly went through a Silent Period, and then one day learned English and now speak it perfectly and with that, lost a lot of my Korean speaking proficiency. It’s interesting to know that through language, you can learn its culture!

By: Connie

Connie — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 17:43:50 +0000

I loved this podcast! Learning about the “Silent Period” explains a lot. I try to learn a bit of the language of whatever country I am traveling to next. I have experienced the Silent Period many times and it is fascinating, comforting and frustrating to know that it is natural. Now the question is how to go through the Silent Period & come out the other side before the trip.

By: Wes Dopkins

Wes Dopkins — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:15:06 +0000

The speaking sideways section was kind of interesting. The German word for it is, assuming I understood it correctly, fremdschämen. That’s the expression I’d use when referring to Costanza, anyway. It is also similar to how I would translate it into English, i.e. “to be ashamed for someone.”

By: Deb Kellogg

Deb Kellogg — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 02:33:25 +0000

I found this podcast very interesting since I am myself bilingual in both English & German (and that was great German sentence structure!). I heard German growing up as a child, but didn’t begin to systematically learn it until I reached high school. (My parents communicated in English since my father’s first language was Norwegian.) I,too, went through a “silent period” when I first moved to Germany to study, and like the others almost woke up one morning speaking German without even thinking about it. I have been a German language teacher/professor for more than 30 years and very much appreciated the comment that you don’t learn just words & grammar; you learn an entire culture. Second language aquisition for an adult is different than for a child; in fact, some doubt whether an adult learner can ever become a truly bilinguage speaker. This podcast answered some of my own questions and addressed issues that, for me, were very inteeresting & highly relevant. Danke sehr! (thank-you very much)

By: Krysthal Siles

Krysthal Siles — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:55:34 +0000

I find this subject very interesting and I have a question.
My mother tongue is Spanish, but I’ve learn to read first in French. Now I live in U.S. and learning English, has been easy for me.
I would like to know if speaking several languages could be enherited or is enviromental? All my paternal family speaks at least 2 languages.

By: Sunil Kumar

Sunil Kumar — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:11:24 +0000

interesting to know a westerner was interested to speak in Hindi.I am an Indian,Indians speak multiple languages.We speak our mother tongue,the language of the state we are settled (26 states in India),Hindi the national language and English.sometimes a Indian would know more than 4 Indian language and 2 international language(Arabic or French).English for us, is a “work” language,the majority of the world deals with English,which makes English very important. A comment by Katherine about the word “kal” or tomorrow or yesterday. It has nothing to do with kaali or goddess of destruction.It has something to do with Kaal or time. The word for seconds would be “Shun”. we also use “palak jaapak (Blink) roughly equal to a second .The vedic civilization as different units of time,you can check for Vedic time units in the Vedic Scriptures.