The drive from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem takes about 50 minutes though every once in awhile I hit traffic and it takes up to 1.5 hours. And since all the radio stations are either in Hebrew or Arabic, I resorted to listening to various podcasts to entertain me during the daily drive. As of right now, the line up includes: Planet Money, Marketplace, This American Life, Freakonomics, and Radiolab. They are all great, and I especially enjoy This American Life and RadioLab because of their storytelling. If you have recommendations for any other podcasts, please let me know. I do not quite have enough material to fill a week's worth of driving.
Anyways, I was listening to a RadioLab show this morning that they did sometime last year titled "Words." And it just blew my mind. I highly recommend taking an hour and listening to this episode.
The main mind blowing point of the stories is that words are not just a tool for communication between people, but it also links thoughts within one's own mind. And the power of words or more specifically language is that by providing a way for the mind to link these thoughts, it enhances cognitive ability. And the more developed the language, the more developed the cognitive ability. Two stories in the podcast that really capture this are the one with the rats and babies and the second about deaf kids in Nicaragua. And if you think about it, is it possible to really think without some sort of language? Language and words provide a way to tie things together and create new understanding. The development and application of math as a "language" are just extensions of this notion. I wouldn't understand much physics without it.
Anyways, after hearing this podcast, I couldn't help but remember my first week in Israel when I attended an energy conference. Everything was in Hebrew, but I had headphones listening to translations. And I noticed that the tone of the speeches tended to be more aggressive than I was used to. An Israeli colleague explained that Hebrew vocabulary tended to be more black and white and not to have many words to span the gray areas. And because of that, Israeli's tend to come off more aggressive. At least that's what my colleague claims. I guess it doesn't have anything to do with their history of persecution. :)
Anyways, I was listening to a RadioLab show this morning that they did sometime last year titled "Words." And it just blew my mind. I highly recommend taking an hour and listening to this episode.
The main mind blowing point of the stories is that words are not just a tool for communication between people, but it also links thoughts within one's own mind. And the power of words or more specifically language is that by providing a way for the mind to link these thoughts, it enhances cognitive ability. And the more developed the language, the more developed the cognitive ability. Two stories in the podcast that really capture this are the one with the rats and babies and the second about deaf kids in Nicaragua. And if you think about it, is it possible to really think without some sort of language? Language and words provide a way to tie things together and create new understanding. The development and application of math as a "language" are just extensions of this notion. I wouldn't understand much physics without it.
Anyways, after hearing this podcast, I couldn't help but remember my first week in Israel when I attended an energy conference. Everything was in Hebrew, but I had headphones listening to translations. And I noticed that the tone of the speeches tended to be more aggressive than I was used to. An Israeli colleague explained that Hebrew vocabulary tended to be more black and white and not to have many words to span the gray areas. And because of that, Israeli's tend to come off more aggressive. At least that's what my colleague claims. I guess it doesn't have anything to do with their history of persecution. :)
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