"Covered Wagon" (c) 2012

The serendipitous appearance of these two sources in today’s media is notable.

From Neil MacGregor’s book A History of the World in 100 Objects, (c) Trustees of the British Museum 2010, published in the US by Viking Penguin, and in audio installlments on WNYC-FM, discussing a North American buckskin map (probably Piankashaw, Ohio River Valley)  from 1774-75:

“What the map shows above all is rivers … where the people are grouped together, not the land over which they roam and hunt. This is a map about communities, not about geography, about habits of use, not patterns of ownership… The Native Americans, like everybody else, mapped what mattered to them. Tellingly, although the map includes all the rivers, it shows almost exclusively the settlements of the Indians. Virtually none of the European settlements are there. St. Louis, for example, … already a great centre of trade and communications, just is not shown. European maps of the same area do effectively the same in reverse, showing the European settlements but not the Indian ones, plotting the space not in use. Two quite different readings of the same physical experience: you could hardly have a better demonstration of a central Enlightenment problem, the difficulty of any society in trying to understand another.

If the Indians didn’t understand the notion of exclusive land ownership, the Europeans could not grasp the Indians’ intense spiritual relationship to their land, the notion that the loss of earth was in some  measure the loss of heaven. David Edmunds, Professor of American History at the University of Texas, elaborates:

‘…You  have to understand that land for tribal people is not a commodity. It … was a place where you lived, that you shared, that you utilized, but it was not something that you particularly owned… Land is so important and place is so important to tribal people that history for them is more a function of place than of time…’  ”

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And from Nicholas Kristof’s column (“Poverty’s Poster Child”) in today’s (2012-5-10)  New York Times, writing of the Native American (primarily Sioux) reservations at Pine Ridge, Rosebud, Cheyenne River and Crow Creek, SD:

“The latest Census Bureau data show the … lowest per capita income in the entire United States in 2010 … half the population over 40 on Pine Ridge has diabetes, and tuberculosis runs at eight times the national rate. As many as two-thirds of adults may be alcoholics, one quarter of children are born with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, and the life expectancy is somewhere around the high 40s — shorter than the average for sub-Saharan Africa. Less than  10 percent of children graduate from high school. … even though the reservation system is largely failing in the West, there are bright spots. One is the growing number of American Indians getting a good education. Another is that initiatives to emphasize traditional Sioux culture and spirituality seem to have boosted community pride and helped wean some families from alcohol and drugs.”

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The relationship between these two passages, to me, could hardly be clearer.  Our perceptions and interpretations of time and of space, of our relationship to nature are three significant aspects that help define the differences between/among cultures, differences rooted in deeply held values and the experience on which they are based. Over time the values continue to interpret experience, and experience shapes and defines values. Our culture and its values (and sometimes our disagreements with them) guide us, provide a foothold  in a world and ascribe definition, meaning and value.  The loss of this earth, our cultural grounding,  can surely mean as MacGregor states,  the loss of heaven.

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See also: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/-UqCYd_4Rfy85epzSvpaQA

Since in an earlier post we referenced studies that indicate knowledge of a second language may in fact help stave off the effects of some forms of dementia for a while, we wonder if being bilingual is helpful with this language-specific syndrome.  Does it attack language function ability no matter where it resides in the brain, since it is believed that one’s native language is not resident in the same area of the brain where languages categorized by that brain as “foreign” are later housed?  We’ll try to find out if there are any data on this.

Corks, Collection

WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE!!
Who hasn’t heard that expression many times, especially perhaps as an adolescent, frequently from parents?  This is the first in a new series of posts featuring idiomatic expressions in English that are bound to confuse many non-native speakers.  This is the kind of language native speakers generally use without thinking, the kind of language we need to “watch” in many interactions in today’s global world, because it doesn’t communicate what the words seem to mean.

Of course, this is also the type of expressions non-native speakers often love to learn. So if you forget to “watch your language” and use one of these the-whole-is-breathtakingly-different-from-the-sum-of-its-parts expressions and have a chance to “teach” it when you notice that you are not understood, it can also be fun, both for you and the other.

Today’s language to watch:  “What are the damages?”
This might be fine if you’re an insurance agent talking with a client about a recent unfortunate event (Lemony Snicket, anyone?), but it’s an expression that will confuse the non-native-speaker clerk at the wine store when the ‘hidden question’ is how much they’re going to charge you for a gift bag for the wine you’re taking to a party this evening.  Reality posting; just witnessed exactly this 15 minutes ago.  And now … for my glass of wine! Have a good weekend!

“I would rather decline two drinks than one German noun.” – Mark Twain in “The Awful German Language” (from “A Tramp Abroad”)

Richard Brod, Yale University, 1966

In the January post (Languages and Perspectives), we opened up the subject of the effects of being bi- or multi-lingual.  We continue to  encourage you to weigh in on the subject in terms of your experiences and thoughts on the matter, and in the meantime, we’ll share additional relevant information as we come across it.

One focus of additional current interest in bilingualism has to do with brain function and aging.  In his 2010 book Bilingual: Life and Reality (Harvard University Press), François Grosjean cites a study in which 184 patients diagnosed with some form of dementia were examined.  Fifty-one percent of them were bilingual. The members of this sub-group all spoke English as one of their languages and were regular users, at least throughout adult life, of both of their languages.

When the authors of the study compared the age of onset of dementia symptoms of the two groups, they found that “the bilinguals had a mean age of onset 4.1 years later than the monolinguals (at 75.5 years versus 71.4 years).”  The authors attribute this gap in favor of the bilinguals to the “attentional control that bilinguals use to govern their languages”  (such as choosing, suppressing, activating) as being related to “other complex mental activities that appear to protect against dementia.”  They suspect that bilingualism does not affect the existence of pathological factors but rather “enables the brain to better tolerate” them.

“Voilà, Viola!”

Zwischen zwei Stuehlen / Between Two Chairs (c) Kathryn Buck

In a January 7th New York Times op-ed piece, Cuban-born Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria, author of Cuban Fiestas and professor of Spanish and comparative literature at Yale who moved to the US in 1959 as a young boy, included the following observation:  “I also latched on to my native [Cuban] culture by making the study of Spanish and Latin American literature my life’s work, and  in a sense I relived my traumatic acquisition of English as a teenager by learning French and Italian at the University of South Florida with pathological zeal.  When I spoke those languages I assumed new personae; they were shields against an American culture I still could not quite absorb. Instead of freezing me into a role, the 1961 break in relations between my two countries transformed me into a man with several voices within my own head, a perspective that has informed my literary criticism, I believe.”

Questions:  Do you have — or wish you had — “several voices” within your own head that help make you more effective in multilingual/multicultural environments? What are your experiences and perceptions regarding the ways in which knowing more than one language affects your work, other interactions and perceptions?

Today opens a new dimension — blogging — in our ability to be in touch with you and to exchange, in both directions, information.

This space will include information on language per se, various languages, cultures, relevant news items, interesting articles, etc.  And your questions and comments — please participate!