"John" wrote:"Edg, you made an interesting point about sounds of a language. It sounds like you have developed a siddhi for determining the status of an individual based on what he or she speaks."
Edg: I doubt I have any ability that others don't have too. I really glommed onto Maharishi's statement that one could know everything about a person when they simply utter one word. It seems to me that everyone in the world believes it too -- "first impressions" who doesn't know this? If everyone here posted a video of themselves speaking one word, wow, what a revelation that would be to ALL OF US, eh? Point value is macro-value. Four decades ago, I was substitute teaching for a class in a school in which I'd never taught before, and a kid showed me the school yearbook. I looked at the faces and then would attempt to characterize each person, and I just kept getting "yep, yep, yep" from the kid. I think we're all able to make these judgments, and I would encourage anyone to attempt it and find substantial success at it and also maintain, as I do, that "I'm no psychic." Same deal for regional accents. When I listened to the three Danish accents, one sounded like a drunk talking, another sounded like a snooty English butler's hoitytoityness, and another seemed "businesslike." The "drunk" accent thus flavored my first impression of those speakers. Same deal with a southern drawl. Like that I can come up with the adjectives for my "emotional takes" cuz I practice doing this hours every day, but my emotional takes may not be any deeper a delving than anyone else is capable of -- I merely have practiced the skill of picking good words to convey such things -- metaphors, GAWD I love metaphors. Same deal for anything. Religions have first impressions, right? One's may be fierce, another loving, another oblivious. Doesn't matter what's actual, just that each of us will have a take that's entirely intuited. Here's a metaphor: the sound of language has the same impact that the the sound of music has one one. If a whole culture always is playing a Wagner tune for it's sound track, well, don't be surprised to find Gothic structures in the morality menus of the people. If a whole culture is speaking and sounding like polka music, don't be surprised if they have "more fun" there. I think we're all psychic to a godlike degree, but some of us deny it less and are able to "go with it" in daily life, while others cannot take the risk of the possibility of intuition-errors and must rely on other "facts" to make decisions. I go with feeling more often than not, cuz I can, but when I was working in big companies, I couldn't afford to "tell the truth" or "act upon the notion that someone was an asshole," because corporate structures tamped down such "honesty." This is the evil of corporate fascism. When I play with my grandkids, it's always about feel, energy, and tone -- everything is seen in a glance -- not a single word is necessary to know that love is afoot. Edg > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <vajranatha@> wrote: > > > > > > On Nov 4, 2007, at 10:02 AM, Duveyoung wrote: > > > > > I met this woman from Denmark at some ATR course, and we were > talking > > > about accents and how they "type cast" a segment of the culture. > > > > > > Americans raised in Alabama can be interpreted as "slow, stupid" > for > > > instance because of the drawl. > > > > > > She told me that written Danish was understood by the whole > country, > > > but that there were accents that were so different as to > constitute > > > being almost separate languages. (Chinese works the same > > > written/spoken way.) > > > > > > So I told her about the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and said that from > just > > > the sounds one could derive a snapshot of a culture that has some > > > practical heft. So I asked her to speak Danish, the same words, > to me > > > in the three accents, and then I would try characterize those > subsets > > > of Danish culture. > > > > > > I don't understand a word of Danish, but I completely nailed "the > type > > > of people" who used those accents. She was amazed, and so was I. > > > > > > It was so obvious to me, and I'm betting anyone in the world could > > > listen to those samples and come to the same conclusions. > > > > > > This is a known sociological phenomenon. One of the common examples > is > > how the British classify people into approximately 8 segments of > > society just based on the words someone first speaks, accent, etc. > > Your example of Alabaman's just goes to show, it's very likely a > > universal thing, and I do believe it does not depend on knowing > the > > language, merely the inflections. > > > > Of course if you were using the (common) TM bija, "aieeng", on > long > > courses you would've just been even more sensitized to it. > > >
