Research Book : Baby Knowledge

   What do you think how much infants know? I could get this question while I read the first page in the book. Before I read the book, I guess babies may not know anything like a white paper and, they can learn the world after birth. In the book, the author also said that adults misunderstand children such as “children were essentially defective adults… children’s knowledge was like poetry but not like science.” The first chapter answers children’s knowledge.

    The author suggests that “babies are a kind of very special computer.” The babies already know how to deal about people, things and language. Their thinking is programmed by evolution. Thus, they have the system when they are born.

     Many experts agreed with this opinion that babies know much more than we think. Socrates though “children have virtue in their genetic code.” Also, Piaget showed that “babies’ view of the world was so complex, and as highly structured, as the adult view. And babies were searching for the truth about the world around them.”

     Sometimes we are surprised when children do unsuspected acts or talk like an adult.   So, that the author describes a baby as “special computer” points out babies are smarter and acquire much more and faster something than we though. After now on, I’ll read about how the children learn about people, things and language. I expect that I can get new information

"The Scientist in the Crib"

  I should choose a book for my research paper. There were a lot of books on the list. I have to decide what part I prefer. I choose "The Scientist in the Crib" in 'Language and the Mind/Language Acquisition' part. The book is written by Gopnik, Alison, Andrew N.Meltzoff, and Patricia K. Kuhl. The subtitle is 'What Early Learning Tells Us About the Mind' 
  I have interested in education and I major in education. In addition, I teach Korean for Korean-American kids once a week. I always wonder how the kids learn language. Sometimes I got surprised at my students because I never teach some words my students, but they can use new words correctly.
  I didn't read the book yet, but I think the book is helpful to teach my students and I can understand my students better than before I read the book. I expect the book let me challenge and solve my questions.  
 

My Relationship to Language

   I have spoken Korean since I was born in Korea. I usually speak Korean with my family and Korean friends. However, after I came in the U.S, I start to speak English in school with teachers and foreign friends. It was very hard for me. I think I learned Korean from my parents. They taught me “father” and “mother” in Korean first and I could speak “father” and “mother” first. I think language happen to people from parents because people learn how to speak by their parents. 

   Deutscher’s article said that "the hypotheses, our mother speech limits what we can think, is not correct because the habits of mind that our culture has instilled in us from infancy form our tendency to the world and our emotional reactions to the objects we face, and their experience." For example, each language focuses certain type information such as sex or time. In addition, different languages let us speak about space in different way like egocentric or geographic coordinates.

   I thought mother language can restrict our language because mother teaches language to her children, but I can extend my mind by the article. Not only mother language but also culture and people’s experience influence our language. I also learned second language English after childhood. During studying English, I felt difficult because English is different culture from Korean and English is spoken different way. In my experience, I could learn second language when I understood other culture.

   I start to wonder about language. What is different between monolingual and bilingual? Can bilingual understand different cultures?