Gengo

If you’ve ever needed any more confirmation about the amazing ways in which the body and mind work, you’ll no doubt be intrigued to learn that your brain expends around one fifth of your body’s energy, as confirmed in today’s article originally published by The Conversation which talks about the difference between seeing and recalling visual information. According to the article’s writers, when we see things that are in front of us our brain picks up the most simple features first before gradually building up a more complete picture. When we recall previously-seen information, however, the process appears to work in reverse and we start with a more abstract picture before honing in on the finer details. This could help to explain why our mental images often feel weaker than what’s in front of us. In the words of the article’s writers, ‘imagination may have more to do with the brain activity it silences than with the activity it creates’, which is a powerful if at first counterintuitive way of thinking about how our minds work. Whether you’ve ever considered how the mind’s eye sees things or not, the article will make you think more about how we process and recall information. https://lnkd.in/eCSeFVy9

Can you remember the last time you just sat and let your mind wander? If your answer to this question is ‘no’ then you might be interested to read today’s article originally published by The Conversation which extols some of the benefits of getting bored. Boredom, as the article tells us, can improve problem-solving and creativity, improve memory and learning, and even push us to challenge ourselves and embrace positive change. Boredom can also act as an early warning sign that we need to get out more, spend time in the company of other people, or simply read or create more, while moments of boredom can also give us space to reflect on our lives while also prompting us to find ways to make life more meaningful. As well as telling us why it’s so important to allow ourselves to become bored, the article provides some useful tips on using thinking time more wisely and productively. One of these includes engaging your mind in advance of idle moments so that you have space to go over things you were thinking about previously, and if you’ve ever studied before going for a walk then you’ll understand how it’s sometimes in the quieter moments when concepts best sink in. Other tips include engaging your mind with analytical problems or creative projects to prevent boredom from turning into a worry spiral, and engaging in so-called ‘wakeful rest’ by daydreaming or doodling in order to help consolidate memories and retain new information. While we live in a world where it can often feel harder and harder to disengage to the point of getting bored, the article explains why it’s often worth switching off literally and metaphorically in order to bring some of the creativity and meaning back into our lives. https://lnkd.in/guJUAd8E 

Are the best programmers linguists or mathematicians? Today’s article originally published by MIT News ponders this and many other questions, diving deeper into the similarities and differences between how our brains process natural language and computer code. According to lead researcher Anna Ivanova, the answer lies somewhere in between. On the one hand, while learning a language and learning computer programming involve somewhat similar processes, reading computer code does not actually activate the areas of the brain that are involved in language processing. On the contrary, reading code activates the same so-called multiple demand network that is used for cognitive complex tasks such as solving crosswords, which could create the impression that code-reading is more strongly associated with solving logic problems. Yet reading code appears to primarily rely on different parts of the multiple demand network than mathematical or logic problems do, which indicates that understanding computer code is a process on its own that is not entirely related to either processing language or processing mathematical information. This is different from either of the two widely-held schools of thought around learning computer programming - that in order to be good at it, you have to be either talented with language or talented with maths. The article, which is short but remarkably intensive, goes further into research that has been conducted to understand how the hardwiring of our brains has responded to the relatively new field of computer programming and gives an interesting insight into how we approach different tasks in the computing and non-computing world. Whether you know anything about cognition or not, the article will make you think differently about how we process information. https://lnkd.in/eJ4MPXC 

Being truly present in the moment is arguably one of life’s biggest challenges. In this month’s mindfulness and wellbeing updates we’ll be thinking about how we can focus more on the here and now.

In this month’s translation industry updates we’ll be looking at how we can boost our language-learning experience with native content, regardless of where we are in our language-learning journey

Bad Bunny’s performance at the Superbowl in February may feel like a million years ago now but his legacy in inspiring a new generation of young people globally to learn Spanish continues. Today’s article originally published by Language Magazine looks at how students in China are using reggaeton songs to learn Spanish and in some cases translating the lyrics for their peers on online platforms. The article indicates that there are whole online fan communities dedicated to translating the work of artists like Bad Bunny for fans based in China who don’t always have easy access to formal study materials for learning Spanish and are looking for a way to engage with songs while feeling like part of a wider fan community. This has grown over the years and popular translators such as Benito and Lia have translated dozens of songs and gained numerous followers in the process. Some of the challenges for the translators include finding ways of working with culturally-specific references with no obvious Chinese equivalent, though the fact that some translations have been viewed well over a million times gives the impression that the translated content still resonates with a Chinese audience. Successes include creating a sense of community and helping the world to learn Spanish, as well as enjoying the power of music. Spanish is by many accounts the second most widely-studied additional language after English and it seems this trend is likely to continue, particularly since Spanish is one of the major languages of the internet and therefore a perfect language for anybody, anywhere in the world, to study. Whether you’re a reggaeton fan or you just like reading about interesting new cultural synergies, you’re sure to find the article interesting.  https://lnkd.in/emJfNDXW 

If you dread hearing yourself speaking on voice notes, especially when a friend or family member decides to play them back while in your company, you’re not alone. Today’s article published by Big Think features medical doctor Neel Bhatt’s take on this quintessential social minefield and describes the physical and psychological factors that make the experience so alienating. On a physical level, we hear our own voices slightly differently from other people around us because a lot of the sound is internally conducted through our skull bones rather than through the air as other people hear it, meaning that we’re effectively hearing our voices through our own head rather than through the air as everyone else is. On a psychological level, the disconnect between our own perception of our voice and the way it actually sounds to other people is unsettling because our voice plays such a key role in how we perceive ourselves and how we believe other people respond to us, meaning that on some level hearing our unfamiliar-sounding voice on a recording shakes our very sense of self. The good news is that we are typically far more judgmental of our own voice than anyone else is, as evidenced by research described in the article, meaning that it’s very unlikely that our voice elicits the same negative response in other people as it does in us. If that’s not reassuring enough, it’s worth reading the article in its entirety for some perspective on this age-old challenge and some confirmation of the fact that so-called ‘voice confrontation’ is a very universal phenomenon. Whether you love, hate, or are indifferent to the way your voice sounds, you’ll certainly still find it interesting.  https://lnkd.in/emXaJsuV 

A thousand new words apparently join the English language each year. In order to prevent dictionaries from becoming the size of houses, it seems logical that some of the older words might sometimes have to give way to newer and more relevant terms. But how does this process actually happen? All of this and more is explained in today’s article originally published by Quartz magazine. Apparently it’s fairly infrequent for words to be definitively removed from all dictionaries, and even when this happens it’s the result of a careful evidence-based process which can include the analysis of billions of words’ worth of language databases drawn from a variety of sources to help determine whether the word is still used in contemporary contexts (so-called ‘quotation evidence’). Normally if a word has no quotation evidence from the last one hundred years or so, it’s deemed obsolete, but even then it might not necessarily be delisted. In some cases, even when a word refers to an extinct concept (such as an ‘albertype’ or early type of photograph), the word is retained in some dictionaries because it might need to be used in very specific contexts, in this case possibly by historians. Over and above this, as the managing director of the 2,305-page Collins English Dictionary argues, there’s always the possibility that somebody might look up a given word at some point and need to be able to find a definition for it, meaning that even if a word isn’t necessarily used across all dictionaries, it’s likely to be in one of the larger ones, or at the very least retained in online references. There’s something charming about the idea of long-forgotten words waiting for a curious reader to discover them again, and the idea that even the most antiquated terms can be gone but not forgotten. If you’ve never considered how dictionaries are compiled or maintained, you’ll enjoy this informative article. https://lnkd.in/e_6TDTrq 

The Japanese speakers among you may already be familiar with the term ‘tsundoku’ (積ん読 ) which refers to the habit of buying books without actually reading them. Today’s article originally published by The Conversation describes this very relatable practice in more detail and goes into some of the reasons behind it. Apparently bulk-buying books is not just a whimsical habit but actually a product of evolutionary psychology. As described in the article, our brains are hard-wired to reward us for future pleasure since this function would have played a pivotal role in ensuring that we stayed out of harm’s way by sourcing food before actually getting hungry, or setting up shelter before actually being caught in adverse weather. And while buying books with the anticipation of future enjoyment is hardly a critical survival mechanism, it’s still a product of the same process with the same end results, to the extent that psychologists have even recognised positive anticipation as an important factor in our overall wellbeing. These days our living environment has changed but many of our behavioural traits remain the same, which probably helps to explain why stocking up on books is such a universal habit across cultures. Of course, the article seems to be written with the assumption that we buy books with the active intention of eventually reading them and enjoying them, while there’s arguably a whole different sub-phenomenon consisting of buying books that we secretly know we’ll never get around to because they’re so intellectual or arty, and it would be interesting to know which thought processes (if any) influence this habit. Whether you’ve accumulated a massive pile of books that you’re fondly anticipating getting stuck into or you’re guilty of having books sitting around that you know you’ll never read at all, you’ll enjoy the article and its ideas on evolutionary behaviour.    https://lnkd.in/ds8w-FBT

Can you ever learn everything in another language?