From: bill.sloman@ieee.org
On 1/02/2026 8:36 am, john larkin wrote:
> On Sat, 31 Jan 2026 21:42:27 +0100, Jeroen Belleman
> wrote:
>
>> On 1/31/26 16:34, john larkin wrote:
>>> On Sat, 31 Jan 2026 11:21:44 +0100, Jeroen Belleman
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 1/31/26 00:53, john larkin wrote:
>>>>> On Fri, 30 Jan 2026 22:49:12 +0100, Jeroen Belleman
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 1/30/26 21:00, Nioclás Pól Caileán de Ghloucester wrote:
>>>>>>> Bill Sloman wrote:
>>>>>>> |-------------------------------------------------------
----------------|
>>>>>>> |"Languages aren't learned any faster if you learn them
oung" |
>>>>>>> |-------------------------------------------------------
----------------|
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> It is much easier for a child to learn a language than it is for an
>>>>>>> old person.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> An often repeated myth, entirely untrue.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Adults can learn a new language in much less time than a
>>>>>> child, provided they are motivated and immersed. Those are
>>>>>> the keys, motivation and immersion.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Jeroen Belleman
>>>>>
>>>>> Adults rarely acquire a new accent at native level.
>>>>>
>>>>> https://news.mit.edu/2018/cognitive-scientists-define-crit
cal-period-learning-language-0501
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> John Larkin
>>>>> Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center
>>>>> Lunatic Fringe Electronics
>>>>
>>>> True, but those natives probably don't have the linguistic
>>>> abilities of the foreign speaker. Your thinking is shaped
>>>> by language, and speaking more languages is enriching.
>>>>
>>>> I'm native Dutch, but I've been told I have a French
>>>> accent now.
>>>>
>>>> Jeroen Belleman
>>>
>>> Which language is best for thinking about electronics?
>>>
>>> I think circuits in pictures, not words, but people are very
>>> different.
>>>
>>>
>>> John Larkin
>>> Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center
>>> Lunatic Fringe Electronics
>>
>>
>> That has to be English, I think. Anyway, for quite some time now,
>> English has been the common language of science and technology,
>> electronics included. It has been French for a while, and Latin
>> for a long period before that. And ancient Greek before that, and
>> and ,,,
>>
>> Jeroen Belleman
>>
>
> English is shockingly irregular.
Not really. It's just another language which evolved. Imagining English
was ever designed is plain silly.
> One word can mean six things and
> there are a zillion words to express a concept.
Quite a lot of word meanings are context dependent. Dictionaries deal
with this by quoting word use in the various different contexts.
> Plus there are places like the UK with their own weird versions.
At one level English is the language spoken in England, and the
derivations spoken in the US and Australia are the weird versions.
Some of the oddities of US English reflect the fact that some of the
evolution of British English over the past few centuries didn't make it
across the Atlantic.
> Given the concept that ambiguity generates creativity, maybe English
> is a good language to invent in.
The idea that ambiguity generates creativity is one that I haven't come
across. Google throw up a few examples from the past few years, so it
may be currently fashionable word salad.
Ambiguity didn't feature in any of the ideas I've had that ended up
patented, nor in any of the 25-odd ideas that my father got patents for.
I'm not familiar with all of Alan Dower Blumlein's 128 patents, but the
none of the ones I do know about had anything ambiguous about them.
--
Bill Sloman, Sydney
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
|
