A New Year -- Another New Book

 Here's a book review I posted on Amazon recently.

I am currently plowing through Dr. Iain McGilchrist's "The Matter With Things" but read something else from time to time to give my brain a break. Having seen a review of "Blink", I realized the reporter, Gladwell, and the Oxford neuroscientist were addressing many of the same phenomena; so this was my most recent "time out". 

For those who read parts of Gladwell thinking, "This couldn't possibly be true", read McGilchrist and you'll realize that "Oh, yes, it certainly could!" If you find Gladwell lacking in depth, try "The Matter..." which offers 1,333 densely packed pages explaining the functioning of the brain's left hemisphere (mostly conscious) and right hemisphere (mostly unconscious) plus the consequences for individuals and society in the way the brain is used. 

I really enjoyed "Blink's" stories because Gladwell looks for optimum ways to deal with practical, everyday situations. Focusing on a broader picture, McGilchrist feels that our Western world is less happy and effective, today, due to our culture's inflated use of the brain's left hemisphere. 

I would love to see a conversation between these, two, authors! Or, perhaps, Gladwell the journalist could interview McGilchrist the scientist. One can only wish.

A New Year -- A New Link

 I found a study that McGilchrist would love.  Well, he probably knows about it.  Here's "Hand Matters: Left-Hand Gestures Enhance Metaphor Explanation".

Now, this has great implications for teaching phrasal verbs, probably the most diffcult segment of the English language to teach, because they are all metaphors!

There are two ways that gestures enhance understanding.  The article says "(a) gestures express information valuable for the listener, and thus play an important role in how people communicate ... and (b) gestures can influence cognitive processing of the speakers themselves and determine the contents of their thoughts and speech...."

There's a big challenge I face in writing a dialog with "stage direction" for the hand gestures.  Gestures vary from culture to culture except for pointing and grabbing. And even those do have slilght variations.

Hmmm.

A New Year -- A New Idea

McGilchrist mentions that two of our most basic instincts are to point and to grasp.  

Even animals point.  The dog paws at the door to say, "I need to go out!"  Or he nudges his empty water bowl with his nose to say, "You've let it get empty. Do something!"  My cat points with her eyes.  She sits in front of her food bowl, looking at it meaningfullly, then looks at me, then back to the bowl, which means, "Feed me now, human!"

As homo sapiens, we can combine those actions wirh appropriate words to help embed a new vocabulary in memory.   Below is a sample dialog I wrote in my head while sitting in the hospital.  The scene is acted out standing in front of a table covered with objects or pictures of objects lined up against the wall.

Marcella: (Looking at objects and pointing.) Is that the new ultapip I've heard  about?  

        I've always wanted one!
Jason: (Also pointing.)  That small, yellow thing? Yes, that's an ultapip.  

        It's free so take it.
Marcella: (Grabbing the object.)  Great. I've got an ultapip! 
Jason: (Making a grabbing gesture.) Well done!

In most people language is processed in the left hemisphere. Body movement on the left is usually processed on the right and vice versa. But it's more complicated than that. In any case, to encourage mobilization and coordinization of all parts of the brain, do the pointing and grabbing with your dominant hand, then repeat it with the other hand. 

This dialog would work to teach a new noun.  Unfortunately, students have more difficulty memorizing verbs.  I'll have to try a group of action pictures using gerunds.

A New Year -- A New Book

 And hopefully a new class to teach soon!  I've updated my resume and actually sent it out to one job posting.

Meanwhile, I'm completing some "remdial" reading.  Shortly before my son landed in the ER I had ordered Iain McGilchrist's 2-volume work, "The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World".  It says a lot about how the left and right hemispheres work with a lot of implications for effective learning (and teaching).  

I finished most of Volume 1 while sitting in the hospital watching my son sleep on and off.  When he was awake he hallucinated and I spent my time trying to bring him back to earth.  Then while he napped I'd read more about what creative realities your brain comes up with when only part of it is working.  When reading, from time to time I'd glance up at him, now slumbering, and think, "Yep, that's right on!  So true!  You're not kidding!"

More to follow.

A Tranquil Christmas!

And a hopeful New Year is rapidly approaching, minute by minute.  If I want to complete a December blog entry I have to start typing!

Sadly, I have to report that, about a week after my last post, Oliver crossed over the rainbow bridge. However, he was 18, had lived a good life, and died at home in his sleep.  You can't ask for much more than that.

December was uneventful.  Uneventful is good!  I had time to get several household things fixed which I'd postponed ever since moving in, plus unpack decorations in time for Christmas visits.

I received a solicitation for a new teaching platform which the programmers claim is better than Zoom and free (for the moment anyway).  I need to try it out.

Looking forward to getting back in the saddle in January.

Dear Students, Friends, Relatives, Colleagues, Blog Readers, and Other Wonderful People --

I have been out of touch for quite a while; so will try to catch you all up with this letter.

As you may know, in May of 2023 I downsized by selling my house and buying a townhome where the HOA takes care of outside maintenance and the cost of heating is much less. It was just in time!

Although I succeeded in getting the basics unpacked over June, July and August of 2023, my plans to go back to teaching ESL in the fall changed when my son, Ralph, quit breathing and his heart stopped. Luckily, a quick-acting friend, with the coaching of 911 on the phone, was able to apply CPR until the paramedics arrived to continue as they rushed him to the ICU.

A year later we are doing OK.  Ralph is on oxygen but has a treadmill and is working on gaining strength.  He has a portable oxygen unit enabling him to get out of the house and drive short distances safely on his own.  

I went back to the unpacking/reorganizing task which also took an unexpected turn when the floor of the finished basement flooded due to a malfunction of the HOA's irrigation system! Of course the HOA paid for remediation and recarpeting. It looks better now than it did with the prior owners' do-it-yourself carpet-remnants for flooring.

I went back to Jazzercise to keep my fitness up.  Hippolyta, our cat, is always fit. Oliver, our dog, got a dog-cart (a set of wheels like a wheelchair for dogs) which helped keep his spirits and his fitness up through the very end of his life.  Sadly, he passed away in his sleep a few days ago at the age of 18.

I must give a shout-out to the grandkids and their wider families who have been so helpful and supportive though all of this, especially the eldest, David.

I have joined Senior Planet, a technology-oriented division of AARP, which is offering a course in hosting Zoom meetings. The goal is to become more adept in the finer points, such as managing  rooms with the intention of one day starting up ESL classes again for everybody in a group at least once a week.

The Holiday Season already upon us!  I hope you all have had a good 2024 and are also looking forward to an adventurous 2025. 

PS: Dog carts are great.  Oliver was so glad to be able to stand up again to eat his meals!

End of July already!

I guess if I want to have a blog post dated this month I'd better write one fast!

My furniture was all moved into my new address as of May 24.  My old house was sold and my bridge loan paid off as of June 1.  This summer I have done little but fill out paperwork, unpack boxes and try to get everything moved around/fixed up.  

There is still no light at the end of the tunnel.  However I've also spent some time with my youngest granddaughter who, also, just moved into a new place and is getting settled.  It's funny how helping someone else to put together their furniture with a screwdriver feels like taking a break.  And I do schedule a little time to unwind each day.  Every evening I walk my dog or, rather, as a Jack Russell terrier, he takes me for a vigorous walk.  All the kids in the new community have now met Oliver.  I have a rule that it's OK to pet him but only one child at a time.

Later, I read myself to sleep with something light.  I just finished "The Crime That Binds" by Laurie Cass,  This is the latest in her murder mystery series featuring Minnie Hamilton, a librarian who drives a bookmobile with her sociable cat riding along.  As someone who loves books, Minnie often plays around with words, as I do. When contemplating "toastiness" and "sogginess" to describe a microwaved sandwich, she just has to look them up.  Merriam-Webster recognizes only "sogginess" but a wiki dictionary does, already, cover "toastiness".

Then follows a passage in the book that just blows me away:

"...I felt an odd sense of comfort. The world changed around us, sometimes at breakneck speed and sometimes so slow that only rocks could understand the long-term impacts. Language, however, moved with us."

It's true. Language is always changing. This annoys many people, like members of the Académie Française, created by the French to halt the process or at least slow it.  The Académie is also charged with creating appropriate new vocabulary as the need arises. But, to their frustration, people often ignore their terminology, instead adopting the words that spring up, organically, without effort, as society moves forward.  Sometimes new expressions even lead the way by inspiring people to investigate and adopt new ideas.  It's a bit like being walked by a Jack Russell terrier.