Language and Ph.D. programs

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Funny, I totally agree with the original article. I had to take Latin and French back in my high school days. The only thing that they've given me is the ability to use obscure abbreviations and phrases and to understand a few Eddie Izzard skits. Programming languages have been far more useful because of the relation to computational cognitive models. I imagine literature written in C would be pretty terrible, though.

Nebuchadnezzar (talk)18:30, 24 March 2012

Not if you're a robot.

GodothasArrived (super crazy fun time!)18:32, 24 March 2012

what does a snippet of "c" code look like? is it mostly numbers? or lots of funny symbols or what?

I kinda wonder if it's not just a generational thing, or an American thing, this idea of not learning languages and not thinking they are important. Dad has his phd in theology, from maybe the 40s? at most, 50s, and he had to learn latin, greek, and hebrew before he even declared his major as an under grad. He knew french and german from HS.

My husband, and most europeans for that matter, of course speak english, but generally also german and italian and french. he's 42 now, so again, maybe it's no longer true, there.

Pink mowse.pngGodot What do cats dream about?19:14, 24 March 2012

Some simple examples.

USians have the privilege of much of the world using English and generally not being in close proximity to other countries that use a different language (US-Mexico border excepted of course). For me personally, language has always been simple -- a matter of replacing one set of referents for mentalese (if you want to be Fodorian about it) with another. Math, programming, and statistics feel like just another language to me. Other people seem to think differently, of course.

Nebuchadnezzar (talk)19:27, 24 March 2012

Clearly there MUST be C poetry out there. I'll have to look.

Most experts say math and music are in effect, just another language, so it's not surprizing you find them easy. my hubby is an excellent math person and a pretty darned good amature music type. He probably sees them the way you do. He also thinks in picures like you. I think in words. voices, in side my head, echo, things that we said.

Pink mowse.pngGodot What do cats dream about?19:32, 24 March 2012

Math has never been my forte. Although, music in a way has been able to be translated to me as another language. But not by reading it. Just by listening. I think in colored letters, and scriptured images. And music actually affects those images like a catalyst. If that made sense?

Dumpling (talk)19:54, 24 March 2012

You're not a synesthete are you?

Nebuchadnezzar (talk)19:58, 24 March 2012

...Shit. Am I? I didn't even know...everything was...pretty much on point. I mean, I knew I sounded weird when I explained to people, but I thought it was just me.

Dumpling (talk)20:12, 24 March 2012