I have been now in Japan twice three weeks and my lack in Japanese language skills is well, spectacular. I just cannot learn the simplest phrase like good night or excuse me. And I am ashamed it. But then again, it’s actually not my fault; it’s my brain’s fault! Let me tell you why. According to Jeff Hawkins in his very enlightening book On Intelligence (he is the founder of Palm and Treo) it is how our brain works. Did you know that if we read a text, we actually skip across the lines and just pick up familiar word-patterns and our brain actualizes the meaning (if you do not believe me, read a line of text reading every letter instead of whole words)? Or if you listen to someone: You actually do not have to carefully pay attention to every single word. Your brain looks for patterns and fills in the gaps, creating meaning (just try to have a conversation in a noisy pub). Our brain stores patterns of almost everything. Whatever we learn gets stored as sensory patterns in our brain (the brain has enough storage to store every sensory input of your life). Here another example that highlights the difference to computing: How do you catch a tennis ball hurled at you? Think about it, you just have less than two seconds to do the right movements to catch it. This is how it works: Your brain recollects patterns from memory of how to catch a ball. It accordingly adjusts your arms and body from the very moment you realize the ball flying towards you. So you stretch out the hands and open your hands in less than a second (no way you can think about it in this short time). As the ball gets closer the memorized patterns take over and woosh, you catch the ball (and it is proven that no batter or tennis player can see the ball on the racket: our visual sensory is way to slow). A computer in contrary would have to calculate the trajectory of the ball, the speed, and the angles and then calculate the body position and angles of the arms, fingers etc. He would have so much to calculate that the ball would be lying on the ground for seconds before the computer would have completed the calculations and acted. If you do not believe me try to find a robot (e.g. computer) that can catch a ball. This makes it also clear why repetition and drill is crucial for learning (sorry, that’s the bad news).
The same happens in learning languages: It is about memorization and creating patterns. Some people are just better in creating audio-patterns, others are better in creating visual patterns (that would be me). So what did I learn: I lack Japanese pattern building skills (maybe my strong individual spirit inhibits me)! Yes, I am still ignorant, but at least a happy ignorant.
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