language

"If no language is learned by adulthood, one will never be learned"

That is included in the study guide for chapter 3 of my psych 100 class. I disagree. Wholeheartedly. I don't care what the research says- it's not impossible. It may be statistically unlikely, nearly impossible, or an unbelievable challenge for both the language-less adult and the educator. I read a book about a man who was born deaf and raised in Mexico. He never learned a language, and at about age 30, he finally began to learn one. It was an extremely difficult journey for him, but he did, however, eventually learn american sign language. The difficult connection for him at first was just understanding that there are words for certain ideas. That that thing right in front of him has a name. What's a name? That's what he had to learn first. And once he learned what a name was, his whole world began to open, and he began to learn language. What a wonderful story. Don't you think? I think so.

I disagree with that statement because it is contrary to what I believe. I believe in miracles, and I believe that if it is God's will, then an adult of any age can learn language- a first language. It may be difficult, but it is possible.

Language is an amazing thing, don't you think? I've always been fascinated by it. You see, communication is at the core of everything in this world. Take, for example, your neurons. A message recieved by the dendrites, processed by the cell body, and then sent along the axons and finally delivered at the terminal branches of the axons. This whole process is merely communication. Sure, it's not the same type of communication that we humans employ between one another, it's an electrochemical communication, but it is communication nonetheless. Our whole body operates on conversations similar to this one.

In fact, the whole world is just one big conversation. Really, it's true. Chlorophyll, for example, and the sun (am I getting my facts straight or am I confusing my biology just a bit?)- I mean, the sun's rays are communicated to the plant, which (by its chlorophyll) "hears" the sun and accepts the message, internalizing this message for its benefit.

That is how life is. Every aspect of life is a conversation, a dialogue. Genes, for example. We just have to figure out the genetic language in order to have a fluent conversation with our genes and thereby understand them better. I am currently communicating with my computer- by giving it input through the keyboard. Though, the keyboard isn't a very good conversationalist- he just digests what I have to say and then spits it out- giving me the same thing I put in, but in a different form.

I think it would be fun to help bring language to a language-less person. Can you imagine life without language? Life without having a name for everything? Walking at school and not thinking, "locker... hallway... boy... book... girl... classroom... chair... water... teacher..."? What a life!! To recognize and yet not have a name, I most certainly cannot imagine living like that. It would be awful. It really would.

I really think sign languages are a blessing from God for some of his language-less children. I wonder about kids like F____, T____, and D_____. Will they ever learn language? Will D____'s sentence mostly comprise of "yes, no, maybe" and other little grunts? Will F____ ever use a realy word? Will Jake ever learn to speak? Or at least read. how lovely would that be, to be able to open and rad a book after years of really really wanting to.

Well, that's one page. Good night- it's 11:28 and I'm tired. Tomorrow I get to listen to people from the UW. That should be interesting. It just means that I have to skip going to Russell Ridge. I should work on my rough draft tomorrow; and read some history, considering unit two is due on friday and i haven't done anything at all about it... grr... History. I don't like that stuff. And Psychology, well, I should just study, so I get better than a 78.181818....% next time. Blech. Okay, well, good night now!

Oh, PS- Jon F called me right in the middle of driver's ed! And of course I forgot to turn the phone off, so here comes the hokey pokey... "whoops... I say quietly, hoping no one notices. Well now, good night.