If You Drink and Drive, You Should Forget About Driving Ever Again!

February 20th, 2010 Thomasso

Last night while I was heading home from work, I was passed on the road by a rather rude driver who was just in too much of a rush that everyone on the road was in his way, so he tail-gated, honked his horn and swerved contently to get around you. Finally he passed me going towards Fort Langley on Glover Road, just pasted the 232nd Street turn-off to highway #1. I kept to my lane, gave him some extra room so he could at least have some space to make his manoeuvre before he had a head on collision with the on coming traffic, and then he was gone.

After I got home, I decided to do a little shopping. I hopped back in the truck and headed off to Walnut-Grove, where “low and behold” there was that same rude driver again, stopped by the police getting a breathalyser test. The officer has his stash of beer cans on top of his car, and I could see the look on the driver’s face as he was lead to the police car when I drove by.

I am somewhat perplexed that after all the TV commercials and anti-driving ads, that people still think it is wise to drive while having a few drinks? I mean honestly, you are endangering all the people around you when you are driving intoxicated. You are not in full control of your faculties–even though “you” think so. And with the beefed up laws that we have now, with costly fines and a possible criminal record, not to mention the loss of your driver’s license, you would wonder that people would think twice about getting behind the wheel of a vehicle and driving off after having a few belts.

I hope that the system has done its job and has taken one more inconsiderate driver off the road. If anyone wants to argue with me on this one, then I will start with by saying this is a safety issue from all aspects. Unsafe drivers need-not-drive.

Posted in Diatribe, General, Law, Law and Order, Social Justice | No Comments »

Once Again I am Happy it is the Weekend

February 12th, 2010 Thomasso

I am tired and sore from all the classroom time I have logged in the past week. On top of work, reading over 300 pages of high intents text about statistics is enough to drive anyone into a state of craziness. Between all of my classes I have to deal with work too as we have taken on new contracts that are extremely demanding. But my classes are my biggest chunk of the daily pie chart of time, and the search for sleep is getting out of hand as that part of the pie chart is getting nibbled away. Yes, I complain about this a lot—I know that. What can I say, I’m a whiner when I’m tired.

Statistics is a really weird subject because all most everyone in the class is suffering from denial, or they shutter like it was the new AIDS epidemic, or they complain about it like they are about to be tortured by the rack when they have to show up to class. The language of statistics too is really wired because you are using common words in the most unique way. For example, “mean” is something like average, or “regression” is really predicting the future. The formulas are really algebra on steroids. And worse yet, there are multiple version of the same standard used by the various profs who teach it, just ask about the “X-bar.”

I found myself daydreaming at work too from lack of sleep. It was the weirdest sensation as I was reading my email, and found myself drifting off thinking about taking a trip over to Europe. I snapped out of it when I thought I could taste the salty air off the coast of Italy. Then I starting surfing the net looking for cheap flights right after that. That was bad I tell you—never go on a holiday searching spree surfing the net while at work. Surfing the web while at work is not good if you are back logged with numerous tasks. Though I did find some sweat deals. But I need sleep, and a better schedule to maintain my mental health with.

I got another job offer in the mail today. Last September I attended a trades-fair at the University, and I have being getting a steady stream of replies ever since. This company is located in New York State and seems really eager to take on graduates from anywhere around the world in the field of Criminology, though not in Forensics, but in Psychology which is right up my alley. I think I would have an issue with leaving Canadian soil though, but there was a listing from a European company too that looked very interesting. The European one was looking for researchers/crime experts… gulp…, more Stats, but hey it’s closer to Italy than Vancouver is. I really don’t think finding work is going to be a problem when I graduate.

Well, another Friday night is upon us, so I’m going to read for a few hours then call it a day. I need to get up fairly early tomorrow to do some on-line work with one of my classes—those pesky lab assignments for French. Then later on I have a video-conference with my classmates on Chicago—topic, International Crime between Canada and the USA, which will probably be dominated by the “War On Drugs” that everyone is talking about here in British Columbia.

Posted in Bitching about work, General, Homework and deadlines, University classes | No Comments »

A Mini Crime Wave, or is it Just the Background Noise of a Growing Society: Fort Langley on Video.

February 7th, 2010 Thomasso

Last year the local market had them installed, the Bank had them since I could remember, and I even have one: closed circuit video are everywhere, and more are to come. The local market, also know at the IGA, had them installed just last year after experiencing a record breaking year of theft. It was so bad there that the owner was almost looking at taking drastic measures to curve the financial loss it was incurring on his business. Once the video system was installed, they were able to use the images to show police who was steeling when they fled the store. For me, I had my vehicle broken into three years ago and I had to do something about it. My landlord was unable to offer any solutions, and they certainly did not want to install my camera, but after checking with law enforcement and legal experts, I was able to go ahead with the installation without my landlord’s approval. The camera has stayed ever since, even with many threats of legal sanctions, and a visit boys from the Township By-law office by them, my trusty little camera keeps a vigil eye on my vehicle. Oddly enough my vehicle has not being touched ever since?

Those same people who do not like me having a camera facing my vehicle, just had their “cash to change” vending machine broken into this last week in their laundromat. Guess what, they are now in the process of install the camera in their laundromat facing the vending machine! The thieves attempted to smash into the machine using some crude tools, and they gained access into the build by a flimsy window. Although they did not get any of the money inside the machine, they made a mess of the place.

But there are other lessons to be learned from the IGA and Laundromat experience. These buildings are prone to darkness and hidden sections when closed after business hours, ideal for thieves to lurk around. Environmental elements can be employed to lower the likelihood of thieves looking for “hiding” places like lighting and bars on the windows. A theory that says that thieves only like easy targets means that you must make it as difficult as possible for the theft to be not worth while and uninviting. Where I live, lighting is a big problem, that is, there is not enough of it. In fact, when thieves travel, our section of town seems to be where they prefer to move through becuase of the darkness. On several occasions now I have being awaken by police banging on my door asking me if I heard anyone running through my back yard. “Not since I fell asleep four hours ago,” I tell them.

I wonder if there is a correlation between the economic downturn and the growing population in our little village? Probably not.

I know that if you don’t nail it down, light it up, put a camera on it, alarm it, you are going to loose it. Thieves will “scope it out” and when they find something easy to take, they will waste no time to do it. Opportunity is something that thieves will take on in a moments notice. Timing is everything becuase it may not be there the next day.

So smile–you are on TV. I see cameras going up everywhere in Fort Langley.  But I should caution you if you are deciding to put up a camera in your neighbourhood for yourself. Check the law, rules and local by-laws. You have to post signage that you have a video surveillance system in operation, and you can’t capture audio while your camera is on. And obviously, you can’t aim it at your next door neighbour’s house, or through other people’s windows, only on your property.

Hey, video is changing the way our society looks at itself, and it seems to be crime driven. I can see all of us soon living in a gated community with cameras everywhere, check-points and ID checks leaving to and from our towns. Heck, all it would take is one good terrorist attack in the area to put all of us on high alert and straight in to paranoia. We may see cameras as intrusive now, but after an attack, we may all want one. Too bad though, I really like Fort Langley, and the small town atmosphere it has. I guess that is all changing as the population grows.

Posted in Criminal Law, Criminology, General, Law and Order | No Comments »

The Sue-ability Scale

February 5th, 2010 Thomasso

Lawyers, you may not want to read this, this might be a tough pill to swallow? These are my personal thoughts based on my personal experiences with Civil Court.

Justice is a weird thing. I have studied it to death and it still leaves me scratching my head wondering, asking why-and the answers become as vague as following a white car in the middle of a snowstorm. I have found that justice in Canada is only for those who are rich, or are very clever. That in most cases if you are being sued in civil court, it is better not to participate than it is to waste your time with the process of jurisprudences; and flip side to this, if you are rich, you are an easy target than compared to someone who is poor and homeless. Seriously, of the five people in my life that I have brought to the halls of justice, only one took the pledge and participated. The other four knew the system well enough not to bother, and I found it (almost) impossible to seek my claim, costs, damages and compensation. In fact, the one time that I was the respondent, it was easer to go on with my life than it was to play the game. To this day, the company that I had an agreement with is still out the initial $72.00, but they are also out on their costs too, so it pays not to bother with Canadian Justice if you have nothing to loose. Was it worth my time to show up—I’m still evaluating that?

I now know that there is a scale that the professionals follow when they go out on suing expeditions. They automatically drop anyone who has no money; who is renting; earning a low wage; has no bank account; has little or no identification, i.e., drivers license or birth certificate; uses aliases and moves around a lot. However, for the poor there is this thing called Small Claims Court, or the Pauper’s Court as it is called in my circles, but you still need to pay to use it though. When I studied Medieval legal systems of European cultures, Small Claims Court to me has a reminiscent quality of early continental European courts where the jurist is free to adjust, amend, vary and control all aspects of the hearing and decisions—although you can appeal in today’s court. One day I was helping a friend fight for his money from a debtor, and once it was our turn, the sitting judge read the Statement of Claim, then threw up his arm up with the documents in hand and said, “You expect to me rule on this? I think you should go back and talk to this person and make the effort on collecting your money before you go into my court.” Perhaps it was because we were not wearing $900.00 suites at the time? I’m still in awe to this day about that?

If you do have something to loose like a house, wages, assets, or your respondent has too, then going to court is the way to go. I have also seen the dual effects of court at play many times as the monetary and psychological costs play their toll and all parties. The trouble is, court is not a guaranteed bet. Just when you thought you had the full force of the law on your side, you are hit with a sucker-punch and your case falls like a house of cards. In one case of mine, I filed for a garnishment of wages and the respondent’s employer decided not to cooperate. The business told me that he does not work in their department any more. I found myself having to take extraordinary measures to track down who this person really worked for before I could I proceed with the action. This involved two days of driving by this guy’s work every ten minutes searching for what door he came out of. Then once I saw him walking out to go home, I went into the building and had to do some quick lurking. I asked one of the managers that I was looking for my “friend.” When I confirmed that that was the respondent’s employer, I then went to the manager’s office to serve the garnishment order. I received two out of the five payment to fulfil the debt, but then they stopped as the guy quit his job and moved elsewhere. I just recovered only my court costs in that case. Was it worth it? At least I got to play the psych-game with him.

Posted in Criminology, Diatribe, General, Law, Law and Order, Social Justice | No Comments »

Escaping from the Tomb – Trying to Write a Single Post

February 4th, 2010 Thomasso

In my little crypt called the office/bedroom, I sit. I have tired on several occasions to write a post, but every time up until now I had being either tired, busy or distracted. The main reasons are the bits of homework and alternating mid-terms from each of my courses that are always pulling at my available time. It seems that for each week I have at least one mid-term to study for and write. This doesn’t include the continuous weekly assignment from my Stats class, nor the constant rushing of French assignment that are done on-line through the course website. From Sunday to Wednesday I work in over-drive, trying to keep up, on top and ahead of the courses. Though though?

The end is near. With just a couple of courses left, I will completed my gaols. Already one of my “certificates” arrived by mail last week. I now have my courses completed from the Justice Institute, and along with  my Associates Degree in Criminology is now complete. In less than five months I will earned enough credits to earn my Bachelor of Art in Criminology, and then on to graduate school, which I have already started. Possibly, with some hard work, I will be invited to go into a Honours program, but that is still up in the air as the application process only allows students to apply once a year in January. I missed the boat with not having my language – thus French classes – ya, poor me.

I’ve already had my first long talk of the reality of working in the field of Criminology & Psychology among the realm of Corrections Canada -  if you hate your job now, wait ’till you start working as a Psychologist. My prof from my 4th year, who did his doctorate degree on studying sex offenders, told me this. He was dead serious too. I think this was that “talk” that the master says to his students before they embark into the world with their new skills, but it is hard to tell if he was just having a bad day or not? This was the same guy who told me that if I really wanted to learn French I should buy some French soft porn. I would have a small but effective vocabulary, but not very helpful if I was stuck in the middle of Montreal or Paris. Yes, Criminologists do have a sense of humour.

I’m running into old high school buddies – it’s the weirdest thing. Out of the blue this strange looking man, balding, grey hair and surrounded by four teens comes, starts walking up to me saying, “are you Tom?” Then next thing I know I’m being propelled back to 1989, and we start talking about the “good old days.” But due to our busy lives we agree to keep in touch and exchange numbers, then we continued on our way. That is another post, and for another time, but I can assure you all that I learned some very interesting things about people I knew a long time ago from my youth.

I like to say some things about Stats before I close. I got into a argument with a friend about statistics. My friend claims that there is absolutely no way that you can say anything, like make predictions, or assumptions, or correlations about the population from polling just a handful of people and call it a fact. To my friend and the rest of you, I say this: Scientists always start off by proving that their hypothesis are wrong, and they go to the extremes to prove that. If the effect is not significant, i.e., in the top 5 percent of the scores, than it does not pass as significant. A good scientists will always post their data, along with their assumptions, so that their peers, or you, can test them. The goal is that this give the rest of the scientific community a chance to replicate the data and peer review your findings – proving that you are valid, or off your rocker. Only those who have mercury running through their veins do stats for a living and have the title of statistician I should add.

Posted in Criminology, General, University classes | No Comments »

Rush, Rush, Rush-Push, Push, Push-Go, Go, Go!

January 29th, 2010 Thomasso

I love it when all of a sudden everyone around me starts realizing that the deadlines are right around the corner, and they have fallen behind, that they start to pass the buck onto me–do you find that for yourself too? A really good example is when you are part of a team and your project is due, and you have some team members who are “a bit slow,” and when the day finally arrives to submit, they freak out and start blaming everyone else except themselves as they show up unprepared. I have fallen victim to two such scenarios already this month, and my reaction has not being pretty.

First, I had a presentation to do with a five member group of which we were to present findings from our research on “Increases in Crime, Looking at the Correlation Between Policing and the Games in Vancouver for 2010.” We had set up a series of five meetings and only three of us made it to all of them. The other two members seemed to have put their parts off until the very last minute and literally left the rest of use hanging during the presentation. It was awkward! The second project was also class presentation, but this time I got to work solo. I like working by myself a lot more than in teams becuase I can achieve way more in a shorter period of time, and pass with flying colours. But, for whatever reason, the team concept seems to be the way corporate Canada wants to move, so the University pushes us in that direction–it is sad in some respects. I think it is just to match the slow and dumb with the fast and  smart, but who am I to judge the merits of what the world wants? But working solo means that you still need to rely on others during the process to finish, and my problems started from receiving the incorrect information from the library–a honest mistake–but no one wanted to admit that there was a mistake, or pay for fees from the first batch of files I had ordered. I refused to pay for the first set of text becuase they were not what I wanted. For some reason, the customer is always wrong, according to library’s resource department. The mistake was clearly theirs, and the acquisition paperwork clearly stated what I wanted, and it was very different from what I received the first time around. Perhaps this will get resolve soon?

Even my work has this problem too with fellow employees passing the buck and denial of wrong doing when the pooh hit the fan. Sure, this is natural, and every workplace has at least one bad apple in it. I use the “butt-covering” method to combat workplace buck-passers. In my department, I have learned to keep originals and only give out copies of important documents. I have already seen one employee try to “fraud” paperwork, and it did not go over to well for that person in the long run. I also learned not to panic when confronted with accusations by other employees, especially from other departments, but always give them space, let them talk, and allow them to sink their own ship without taking everyone with them. The art of working in teams has no bearing on performance or efficiency, I am finding, but it has everything to do with personal merit and longevity. Workplace attrition is always the best hope for those who are incompetent. So the lesson here is teams and buck-passing go hand in hand–trust no one, and look out for number one!

Now I am rambling.

The last 15 days have flown by so fast. My workload from my classes is incredible in my opinion. French is sucking up most of my time. To do the on-line work takes well over eight hours to complete for each chapter. That is way too much time required for the course. I know that the majority of the class is flying by in the course, but I never had any formal French, so I am aiming for just a pass. Yes, it take a lot longer for me to memorize and learn the spelling, but hey, I am starting from scratch. My instructor has so much patience with me–he deserve a lot more than he is getting credited for.

Statistics, or hard based Algebra? Woo-Hoo! No comment. All I can say here is that I am a SPSS sufferer, and I want to use open source so bad it hurts. Micro$oft can kiss my butt! Whoever thought that a crappy program that is worth $800.00 is a good thing for students to work with–they are sniffing glue. I will never pay for crap–especially $800.00 worth of it! I’ll take “R” any day over SPSS! OK, I am frustrated with SPSS–I admit that–don’t sue me.

At least it is Friday. Maybe I can catch up on some sleep? Naugh… An’t gonna happen.

A bientôt mon amis

Posted in Bitching about weather, Bitching about work, Diatribe, General, University classes | 1 Comment »

Living in the Null Hypothesis World

January 23rd, 2010 Thomasso

It is 8:23am on a sunny Saturday morning here on campus in Surrey, (BC – not go get mixed up with my British friends who live in the original city of Surrey) and the birds are up, and probably there is a Bee buzzing around somewhere too as you would think it is April or May around here. I am here because I have no choice. If I want to pass my exam coming up this Wednesday in my Statistics class, I have to be here. It boils down to software and textbooks, or the lack there of.

Here is my rant:

There is a big battle among many institutions and their students and faculty members on what is, or should be, the accepted tool/product for statics. Right now in my class it is SPSS, which is a wonderful tool for spitting out any statistical information you need from your hard earned data, but it is not cheap, and as I found out, it is not the only game in town. To buy the licences for SPSS, with all of its modules and updates, it is a whopping $800.00 to get it working for one year. On the other side of the coin, there is “R,” which does exactly the same thing, and many have argued that it is less buggy that SPSS. R, is free under the GNU/ Open Source agreement, so there is no real intensive for the creators to push their ware, other than the textbooks. SPSS textbooks are about the same price as the ones for R, but SPSS seems to go through more revision than R, so their textbook list are always updating. I can hear the cash registrar ringing louder and louder as I type this out.

I am very familiar with R as I have worked with it for several years now. SPSS is a challenge because it is very different to use and operate, and its look and feel is like ridding a Volkswagen with no shocks when compared to R, the Ferrari, as I see it. Part of the problem is Micro$oft, since 80 percent of the computers on campus have it installed, there is a natural tendency for the Window$ salesmen to push the statistical Micro$oft product along with it. And when you are limited to running homogeneous software for that O.S., you will get the hook, line, and sinker with an $800.00 gorilla attached to it.

In the free world, the standard is set higher with R as I see more and more people running it for their research needs. R seems to be, in my world, the standard. But I am puzzled why I read that places like MIT, in the U.S., R is the software to use in research, while in my humble little University, SPSS is the benchmark. Oddly enough from the two comparisons I did, R and SPSS give you are same answers, and you still have to use a third-party software because each still has a lousy graph creation tools. The problem is that data sets are non compatible between R and SPSS.

I am on campus because I cannot run SPSS at home because I do not have the $800.00 to use it. Sure there are lots of illegal copies of SPSS floating around, but I am past that stage in my life. I have R, but it is totally useless to my prof if she can’t open my data up to mark it. I am also behind because I could not initially afford all of the textbooks at the beginning of the semester. For the first half of January I managed to live on $82.55 because the rest of my budget went to getting 3/4 of the needed textbooks. On my last pay day, on week three of the semester,  I finally got the last textbook, the SPSS book at a cost of $170.00. Now you know why I am so behind on my studying—it is very tough to do without textbooks when you can’t study for the assignments and exams.

I’m not going to use the world scam here because I know University is really only for those who can afford it. I do have the option of dropping the course and waiting for another instructor who would hopefully use another piece of software, with cheaper textbooks, but we are not getting any younger here—right. But I can make one guarantee, I will not be using SPSS in the real world, it is R for me all the way baby!

Posted in Diatribe, General, Homework and deadlines, University classes | No Comments »

I Applaud the BC Court of Appeal’s decision on Insite

January 16th, 2010 Thomasso

One of the greatest contradictions of Canada’s “sheepish” war on drugs as been the connection between the cost of health to our healthcare system and the battle to regulate what the State thinks is good or bad for its citizens. The criminalization of drugs is a recent phenomenon that is just over a hundred years old, and was born out of attacking specific marginal and ethnic groups. Canada has a very deep cultural love affair with illegal narcotics, and none could be more so than with marijuana. But for whatever stance you choose in your ideology, albeit the left or right, the drug culture in Canada isn’t going to go away any time soon, and we have to deal with that.

Insite was born out of long term thinking and the concept of rehabilitation; in other words, having a safe place to be that offers hope is a better approach than by pushing it underground and letting the long term effects eat away at our society. The logic behind Insite is simple: safety and hope. The people who use the facility are addicted to drugs, and are at the bottom of the social ladder. Further criminalization is not going to “fix” them, but rather push them deeper into marginalization.

The nay-sayers seems to start off with the line, “If you prohibit drugs and the use of it, then that will fix the problem… .”

I argue that the nay-sayer, has not found the root cause of the problem, but has only made it even worse than the act of using the drugs in the first place. The nay-sayer needs to ask why that person has chosen to take the drugs in the first place. However, it is easer to criminalize something than to fix it—well, that seems to be Canada’s current model. But to become homeless and drug dependant means that that person has issues that go beyond the act of taking drugs. Then you reach a point where you have no where to go, you become vulnerable, and as a result you become more visible. From Hitler to Harper, the right-wing thinking is to invoke prohibition against specific marginal groups that do not appeal to middle and upper class standards, and to simply criminalize something that does not adhere to those standards seems to be the answer.

What insite does is to give these people the chance to use clean needles to inject themselves with in hopes of stopping the practice of sharing needles. The AIDS epidemic, and many other diseases too, has a direct correlation with this group of people with the sharing of needles, so it would make sense to offer clean needles than to deal with growing numbers of AIDS victims. Safety too is an issue with Insite because if that user needs further treatment, or decides to move towards kicking their habit, then there are people right there on site to offer that help. When the user is in the facility there are staff on hand that can promptly offer help if that person is in distress. I think it is far better than having someone injecting drugs in some back alley in the middle of Vancouver.

I totally agree with the British Columbia Court of Appeal on their decision to keep the jurisdiction of Instie with British Columbia’s authority, and thus allowing the facility to stay open without Federal interference. The Federal government should stop wasting our tax money on fighting this. Remember that the majority of Canadians did not vote for Harper!

Posted in Criminology, Diatribe, General, Law, Law and Order, Social Justice | 2 Comments »

If I Told You What Time it is, Would You Believe Me?

January 14th, 2010 Thomasso

In my own little stunned world I walk aimlessly around bumping into things as I think about all the stuff I need to memorize for next week’s quiz/exam/test. One person asked me what time it was, and I answered with what I read from a broken watch I was wearing. Now I would not even believe myself if I looked at it and was late for a class. Among other things besides the broken watch, I have a schedule that does not allow for any error or delay. My work and classes are so tightly pack together that one train, traffic jam, vehicle breakdown would throw the timetable into chaos. The distance I travel from one town to the other to meet the deadlines is ridiculous in my opinion, but so many others do it to, so I cannot be that stupid.

I wrote in my French assignment, “Quelle heure est-il?” but I could not pronounce the phrase out loud, so my instructor asked me to focus on saying each word aloud several times on my own. This is the problem I have with French. Phonetics is my weak point becuase I have no way of pronouncing each work correctly other than the world wide web for guidance and some poorly laid out dictionaries. The instructor asked me in my last class in French, “What time is it?” And I spewed out something like, “il est deux heures dix.” Even though I should have said something that sounded like, “eel ay duh ur dees,” (it it 2:10hr) it came out something like, “el a hu hur dess.” He was very kind and patient, and accepted the answer, but quickly moved onto the next student.

My next big adventure is advance statistics, or my fourth class of Stats. Now, I have a choice on whether or not I should have this course. This is considered one of the five evils in university on the Liberal Arts side of academia. I’m taking the challenge becuase this course will allow me to move past my four year degree and into any program beyond, like an honours degree. To have this with a BA is a very good mark of achievement, and it will open up a lot of doors. But it is one of the five evils, and it carries with it a very high attrition rate among third and fourth year students. There are two main reason for taking this course now in my overall course load: An Olympic size break, and the prof who is teaching it this term. The university is shut down for almost four weeks in February for the Olympics. Bonus! And the prof who is teaching it this term has a very good reputation for teaching Stats–she  is almost a legend on campus and becuase of this her classes are always packed.

[Tom Whining Alert - Ignore this line] This term’s textbook list is a hit to the wallet! I have to wait until tomorrow to buy the rest of them becuase the bill is about $500.00.

So Stats is going to be action packed reading once I get my books for it as I have a quiz and lab for next week, and over 70 pages of the first two chapters should have being read already. On top of that, 70 more pages of text have to be read and understood by next Thursday for that quiz. The lab I have to do on campus, and the average amount of time to do it is roughly four hours! Could you imagine someone pulling off five courses like this per term–you would never sleep.

In my own little world I walk around aimlessly bumping into things trying to memorise everything… .

Posted in Diatribe, General, Homework and deadlines, University classes | 2 Comments »

Will Tom Ever Speak in different Tongues?

January 12th, 2010 Thomasso

I remember in my grade eight English class how my teacher, Mr. Phillips, said that English is the hardest language in the world to learn and master. After years of post secondary education, studying Philosophy, Human Development, Language Arts, Child Psychology and Biology, for an anglophone to learn another language is far tougher than the struggling two year old is with English, or the language spoken in the house. I really believe that people like Dr. Steven Pinker got it right when he said that our brains are wired for language, but biology has put it so that we do this very early in our development between the ages two and three becuase communication is so important to us both as individuals and as a society.

For adults to learn another language it a through struggle, well, especially for me anyway. I already learned my mother tongue, English, and I have gotten by with it very well. However, the powers that be, who set the standards for academic studies, have decreed that all students who wish to master in their graduating studies must have a language component in their curriculum to graduate. For me, I have chosen the language of French. So the question of having being a uni-linguist for more than thirty years will no doubt have an impact on my ability to master the French language.

Speaking French, I will always have the anglophone accent in my words, and will probably have the verb and noun mix-ups that make English such a twisted language too. Oh, and then there are the masculine and feminine nouns too which really messes me up. Then there is the reading, writing and listening skills that go along with learning any new language-did I say this was going to be tough already?

I bring up Dr. Seven Pinker into my post because he studied in great length how the mind creates language. Like I said before, the mind is wired from birth to start communicating, so when a child reaches the age of two or three the language has taken shape and the child has copied its parents sounds right to the pronunciation of the dialect. When you really break it down, a two year old starts to form words into sentences that are understood by their parents and others around them. Language is really complex, yet a child can master it a few months. But it takes more effort for an adult to learn an new language than a child. Once the circuity has being formed, the brain has a hard time relearning language, but this does not mean that it is impossible, just requires more energy and time.

For a really good read on language development and child/adult psychology, I recommend, The Language Instinct, How the Mind Creates Language, by Dr. Steven Pinker, 1994.

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