Understand your barriers
So I caught myself in an odd way of thinking about Cree that's actually brought insight into English. Funny how that works.
You see, something that's made it hard for me to learn a second language is my need to know the precise meaning behind each of these new words. I find I resist taking in these sounds when I don't fully understand them. After all, didn't I do that with English?
Thinking about it some more, I realized: maybe not. What do I actually "know" about most of the English words I use? Take a word I just used a moment ago: "understand." Ironically, I'm not entirely sure I 'understand' how the make up of the word carries or connects to the concept it embodies. Under stand? Stand under what? After a while, I sussed out that it's somewhat metaphorical — so, if you understand something, you are aware of the ideas which "stand under" it.
Or so I am guessing. And that's my point. The stories or underlying meaning that lay behind much of our words — what some call their etymology — is typically hidden to us. And yet we somehow carry on. Can wanting to know everything about the words you're taking in effectively constitute a barrier to learning?
I wonder, I wonder.
ekosi,
Rick
Sipitakanepihk
(at Blue Quills College)
You see, something that's made it hard for me to learn a second language is my need to know the precise meaning behind each of these new words. I find I resist taking in these sounds when I don't fully understand them. After all, didn't I do that with English?
Thinking about it some more, I realized: maybe not. What do I actually "know" about most of the English words I use? Take a word I just used a moment ago: "understand." Ironically, I'm not entirely sure I 'understand' how the make up of the word carries or connects to the concept it embodies. Under stand? Stand under what? After a while, I sussed out that it's somewhat metaphorical — so, if you understand something, you are aware of the ideas which "stand under" it.
Or so I am guessing. And that's my point. The stories or underlying meaning that lay behind much of our words — what some call their etymology — is typically hidden to us. And yet we somehow carry on. Can wanting to know everything about the words you're taking in effectively constitute a barrier to learning?
I wonder, I wonder.
ekosi,
Rick
Sipitakanepihk
(at Blue Quills College)
posted by Rick Harp at 12:46 PM
3 Comments:
Hey Rick!
It's funny, Germanic-based words are supposed to be simple, direct and easy for dummies to understand, but "understand" really is pretty hard to understand.
For what it's worth, the German word for "to understand" is "verstehen," which in English would be literally translated as "to stand about" (unless I'm mistaken -- I'm no expert). I assume the expression in both languages refers to standing in such a position so as to be able to see something clearly -- whether you're standing under it or about it. So, either you're standing under something, or you're standing about it -- and still you may not fully comprehend.
Ah ... and, with "comprehend," we encounter the Latin. At last!
Good luck with it all!
Ed
PS. Where do you think "encounter" come from?
Can wanting to know everything about each word hinder learning? Hmm I don't think so. I ran across this same issue in my English and Ojibwe classes. I came to understand *haha* that the English language can be a harsh one and that a lot of meanings we attach to words is arbitrary and full of binary oppositions: white black, love hate.
I like Ojibwe. It's full of humour, very descriptive/ picturesque (if I can say that); words often sound like what it means to describe. ex: opwagan = pipe (oHpwa-gun). The way your mouth is shaped and the resulting sound of the first few letters.. is pretty close the the shape your mouth would make and the sound you would make if you were actually smoking a pipe. *hahahah*
That was funny when I learned it. I had a giggle that day in class. It seems to me, that wanting to know everything about the words in Ojibwe, is a much nicer/ lively lesson *smiling*. Maybe it's similar for the Cree language as well?
Much respect,
-- Makoons/ Nods
What if words are more like tools than like windows or mirrors or pictures? Then the point of learning a language wouldn't be to learn what words mean, but how to use them. To 'understand' would be more like 'understanding' how to ride a bike than like being able to list all the various definitions of a term.
The later Wittgenstein argued that using words was a case of following a rule, and that in all such cases the ultimate test of whether one is following a rule correctly is not whether one's actions correspond to an abstract standard or meta-rule or whatnot, but whether some other, actual, person can recognize that one is, indeed, following the rule, i.e. using the word correctly. (This view of language was influential for sociologists of knowledge, which is how I came to know about it.) The point is in favour of thinking of meaning as a kind of practice, rather than as a relation of correspondence.
Maybe behind language, behind the use of words, there's an experience that is wordless.
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