Someone told me recently they had never met anyone who thinks quite as much as me. I am sure there are plenty of people who would argue with that, but it did made me think (see what they mean?): I do agree that I think an awful lot, and most of the time I am thinking about language, culture and people, and how these three interconnect. So rather than defending myself for thinking too much, or trying to get people to understand me, I thought I'd share some of my 'thinkings' with you (who says I shouldn't I make up words?) to see what happens!
As my blog name suggests, this is not meant to be a write-up of deadly-serious academic findings - just some of the thoughts that pop into my head, stuff that I wonder and think about, or that I have experienced and come to my own conclusions about. The head that these things 'pop into', by the way, belongs to a multilingual, native German linguist, private language tutor, translator and mum of two bilingual (actually by now more like tri- to quadrilingual) kids. That's who I am - at least in the linguistic sense!
If you can identify with (or if you disagree with) some of the unofficial linguistic 'findings' I am hoping to share, or if you are puzzling over some of the same linguistic mysteries that I have been trying to get my head around for years, I'd love to hear about it! Who knows what linguistic nuts we might be able to crack together!
One of the best things I ever did was to go back to Uni a second time to do a Masters in Applied Linguistics. Studying linguistic theory and learning how to apply it practically to language teaching was a dream come true! I felt I finally had permission to analyse all these things that make so many people's eyes glaze over when I talk about them, and I also found in my colleagues 'partners in crime' with whom to share the sheer pleasure of it!
I have been into linguistics from an early age. I remember when I was no older than 8 asking my Dad, a translator: 'What's it called when you find out where words come from?' He said Etymology and I said that's what I wanted to study! Well, I didn't and went into translation and teaching instead, but that hasn't stopped me guessing wildly at the origin of words everywhere I go!
For instance, my favourite pastime as a passenger on long car journeys is looking up what all the weird and wacky English place names really mean. There's a place name dictionary under my seat for that purpose! I used to think that Hemel Hempstead, a town near where I live, was a 'heavenly homestead', from the Dutch 'Hemel' meaning heaven...but it turns out it's not quite as romantic, as 'hemel' is actually from Old English meaning 'undulating'... oh well, at least I was right about the homestead bit!
Anyway, enough rambling about who I am and what I do. The thought I wanted to share today is this:
Ever noticed how we use the names of things to help us think? For instance, perhaps I'm not the only one who, when I'm looking for something, says something like: 'I need a...now, what's it called again?' Now you would have thought that I already know what I'm looking for so I could just go and find it without the need to also name it But I wonder if naming something focusses your mind and helps the thinking process? Perhaps that's why God told Adam to first of all give everything that had been created a name, to enable him thereby to think about the things around him and so to begin his own creative journey? And perhaps this is also why it has been said that young children who are deprived of speaking their first language in the home may have difficulty formulating concepts in their minds to help them understand the world around them, simply because they can't name things as effectively in their second language?
In a similar vein, a quirky thing I have observed is that when I'm looking for an object (e.g. scissors), I sometimes mime the action which I want to do with the thing that I am looking for, again to help me think about it and find it! I guess this fits in with the idea of different learner types (or thinker types): ones that learn (or think) by saying things, and others by doing things...
Anyone identify with the above? Who knows, there may be people who think without words...
