Different signals in a language (Lesson 376)

In 33-34 pages, the author talked about at least three types of signal are uesd in a language. There are the tones, the context and the facial expressions of a language.

Firstly, as the author said, every language must use the tones to convey the information. The tones have up-downs and can express a variety of emotions. For examples,a rising tone likely means doubt or curious, and a downward tone likely means certain.

Secondly, not only the tone, but also context is very important for a person to understand a language. Every language has some words that have the same pronunciation. Everyone also has a different accent meanwhile. Take the example of “tall”, some people pronounce like chinese ‘tao’, some people pronounce like ‘toll’. It is the difference between American style and Australian. It’s not big deal. At that time, the context is improtant. “We lie down in the tall grass”, in the sentence above, it must be the “tall”, not “toll”.

Lastly, the author gives an example of the importance of the facial expressions. Obviously, learning angthing starts with the imitation. The pronunciation involves the facial muscles. Observing the expressions that allows us to better understand what the person is saying.

I was greatly inspired by these ideas. We always think a language just many more words and phrases, and try to remember them all. But in reality, many people still don’t understand what foreigners talking about. So maybe it’s not that you don’t learn hard enough (actually learn hard is very impotant ), it’s just that your method can be improved a little more. Everyone can learn a foreign language. They need some skill and methods. It a good method that imitate accent through looking at the local people’s expression. They should connect words and phrases, understand the conversation from the big picture. I think the foreign learner should contact the real foreign environment. There are so many ways, like listening the foreign podcast, watching the foreign video. Obviously, it’s best to talk to the foreigners.