"You can never understand one language until you understand at least two." Geoffrey Willans


Are you really you? A unique individual? I wouldn't be too sure. You Only Think You Had a Choice!


" . . . one of the disquieting discoveries that studying foreign languages brings is the awareness that your own can be a trap. By providing a steady drip of pre-fabricated words and ideas, your only tool for thinking and feeling can just as easily become a tool for not thinking, for not feeling; and when forced to do those without words and ideas, you realize how many of your so-called thoughts are nothing more than clichés grafted onto you by the language with which you grew up."--Benjamin Moser.

Wasn't just words we learned as children. We learned combinations of words--aka preconceived ideas that come in phrases sans wrapping paper and ribbons but nevertheless gifts you could not refuse. Some were lovely like "look both ways before crossing the street", other not so much, like, "we belong to the only true church." Don't forget your the impact of your formative years.

So at some point you somehow or other figure out it's not only not the only true church, but is in fact a cult and you want out and out you go at any cost. But, you take your inherited set of words with you. The ones already formed into sets of pre-formed automatic ideas waiting eagerly in the wings to make you believe you know what is what. Not so easy to leave those behind because so far, they are the only ones doing laps around your cerebellum.


I am reading a book by acclaimed writer Jhumpa Lahiri just published, "Translating Myself And Others" and puts forth the idea that learning a new language is the key to leaving behind all that was instilled in the head since birth and is actually other people's thoughts and words. "Translating" she writes, " forces you to doubt the validity of every word on the page." No more regurgitating automatically what has been stuffed in your head by your parents, your teachers, your peers, or Fox News.


" The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." -- Wittgenstein.


" It is a bit demoralizing to realize that every word we speak or write--everything we use to express everything we feel-- is not ours but was bequeathed by unseen generations. As infants, we absorb language unconsciously; in learning another language, this process becomes conscious." -- Moser


This a great metaphor for starting a new life after Mormonism; starting over without the clichés that have been tatted onto us. A new language. Learned consciously. Discriminatingly. And more words to choose from this time. This times nouns crashing into adverbs and then rolling over and landing on unsuspecting adjectives and forcing verbs to raise their eyebrows and join an unexpected and winking conga line.


Jhumpa Lahiri began writing in Italian rather than either of her native languages specifically because she wanted to turn all the rote, the automatic, on its head. She then translates into English and does not get the same words, or, thoughts and ideas, that would have come through if she had written in English first.

So, you still don't want to learn Italian or Japanese or Swahili? Bantu? What about finding words all mashed up in a book you usually wouldn't read, or a magazine that never interested you? What if the words are so foreign--- though in English --- that you have to read twice or three times. Like in the Science section of a paper or a treatise is so off the wall you have to consult a dictionary just to understand the title?


I find Lahiri's posit fascinating. I do relate as learning two other languages changed a lot for me. Even being on the Mission in Argentina and learning Castellano made an immense change in my thinking as I learned a culture as well. The words were not my words. The ways were not my ways. Had to use words consciously for a change. Had to wonder why I did as I did ,when, I saw how they did. Had to consider their way.

We had to question everything. That should include ourselves.


Your amygdala, hippocampus and prefrontal cortex will thank you if you do. Those are the parts of the brain that take the most stress from being indoctrinated I have read.


Again, "You can never understand one language until understand at least two." Geoffrey Willans

Due to lack of use, my command of Spanish is down to "Burrito Supreme!"

I've always wanted to learn Russian just to read those great authors without English translation.

Thanks for the new plan of that's exactly what I'll do.

And have the chance to think differently. A pure adventure. A new world, that.

you don't hear of many people who know Russian. My brother learned Russian in the army. He was in West Berlin before the wall came down. He did translation for German and Russian aircraft, obviously translating the Russian for the government. When he got home, he went to college some years later after he raised his son, and his major was Russian and his minor German.

He had a brain hemorrhage at age 42. Just happened to be at UofU and they said if he hadn't been, he would have died. He lost the speech center of his brain. I saw him "speak" the first time to a doctor. He used sign language. Our grandparents were deaf. He took speech therapy for 5 years and he can speak English. He also lost peripheral vision and can't drive. He is disabled, but takes care of himself and walks to my other brother's home (my parents' home) to check up on him, who has been disabled since birth.

I saw some of his books. I don't know how they read that stuff!

I'm so sorry that happened to your brother, Cl2. I know you have worked hard to look out for him.

If there is a "Brother's Keeper," it's you.


Love you, my friend.

Kathleen look at https://www.duolingo.com It's free and a good starter program. At least with Ukrainian there is also some alphabet help.

Thank you very much, Susan. I think this will be very enjoyable. :)

Kathleen Wrote:
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> I've always wanted to learn Russian just to read
> those great authors without English translation.


I'm doing that now (learning Russian).

A good and easy tool is www.russianforfree.com - excellent methodology ( my profeesional view as a former language teacher).

Do you know of a good Ukrainian version?

The quotes are all well and good, but among native born Americans, active Mormon males as a group have one of the highest, if not the highest percentage of bilingual people in the country. That does not seem to have made them better than average thinkers.

Calling Mormons who had foreign language missions bilingual is a stretch. They are more like 1.5-lingual in my experience.

Maybe they are more successful in life than average. Everybody I kept track of from my mission is a college grad, even the sisters. Of course that may just say something about who I keep track of.

Besides me, who is the most average person you've ever met?

Nah, you're at least one Standard Deviant away from normal.

"Everyone is weird to someone, somewhere.  The key to success is monetizing that weirdness."

--Judic West, in his Salutatorian speech on the occasion of his graduation from the Dale Carnegie MLM Institute of Pious Intrusion.

All the children are above average.

I believe Garrison Keillor was, like EOD, at least one Standard Deviant away from normal.

The thing with Mormons is that everything gets lost in translation.

Learning a language in order to spread your own agenda is not the same as learning a language to understand the ways of others and enrich your understanding of communication
.
Mormons don't understand exploration. They think they have planted a flag on top of a mountain they have never even climbed.

Done & Done Wrote:
--------------------------
>
> Mormons don't understand
> exploration. They think
> they have planted a flag
> on top of a mountain they
> have never even climbed.



But they hear and/or read Conference talks about that mountain from men who thought about climbing the mountain, and they humbly agree that four years of Seminary, a mission, marriage in the temple, a BYU diploma and then a lifetime of service to the church is how you prepare to climb that mountain!

One thing that hit me very hard early on in my mission was the phrase "I know the Church is true". When this mantra of mormonism is translated verbatim into my mission language, it is ridiculous. Investigators looked confused, and nodded politely. It made me think, what in the heck have I been told my whole life.