Boyd Varty: What I learned from Nelson Mandela

"In the cathedral of the wild, we get to see the best parts of ourselves reflected back to us." Boyd Varty, a wildlife activist, shares stories of animals, humans and their interrelatedness, or "ubuntu" -- defined as, "I am, because of you." And he dedicates the talk to South African leader Nelson Mandela, the human embodiment of that same great-hearted, generous spirit.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Blog 3: Words, words, words

This week's podcast is from RadioLab, entitled "Words".  I highly recommend that you listen to this and bring it to the table of class discussion as it will enrich and inform your experience in our Language discussions. It describes, in depth and through a true story, the way language contributes to thought formation. Very interesting.


Also, Patrick posted this youtube link to a song on his last blog response. I'm not sure if you saw it, so here it is again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APw9ES0JpZo It's worth really listening to the words! (Thank you Patrick!) If any of you find supplemental things out in the world, please share!!


*Correction to the dates of Blaise Pascal's life: Born 1623, Died 1662. 


Sunday, February 3, 2013

Quotes to Ponder:

"Language is the dress of thought."--Samuel Johnson

"Almost all education is langauge education."--Neil Postman

In your experience, has language ever been insufficient as a means of expressing thought? What role does semantics (the various ways words can hold meaning) play in this kind of limitation? Is there a role for body language or language inference when communication is translated from one language to another? And finally, do you believe that there should be one universal language that everyonel learns? What are the implications of this?

(Responses due by Saturday, February 9, 2013)
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