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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6714 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes  Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 33 of 41 28 September 2006 at 8:09am | IP Logged | ||
This is precisely where Nietzsche makes the error: memory is not a box with fixed dimensions, it is more like a muscle that grows bigger if you train it. The limiting factor is the actually the time we use for putting things into our brains. If we spend all our waking hours on only one kind of knowledge (such as learning languages), then we don't have any time left for other kinds of knowledge. And those 24 hours do not grow when we spend them, so the only thing we can do is to spend them wisely. This doesn't mean that time spent on learning languages is wasted. Point 1: We can in principle study those other subjects through more than one language and thereby use our time on two subjects at a time, point 2: Languages is ALSO a worthwhile occupation (as valuable as reading Nietzsche) which deserves attention from at least part of the population, Point 3: Even though a world with only one language might be more practical from a purely economical point of view, our world is not monolingual and we should base the evaluation of our studying on that fact, not on what would be logical in some fictive monolingual world. Edited by Iversen on 28 September 2006 at 8:17am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Captlemuel Groupie United States Joined 6733 days ago 58 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Mandarin | Message 34 of 41 28 September 2006 at 11:25am | IP Logged | ||
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The amount of something that is contained in something is limited. The concession is that memory can take in that limited something: that limited something can be committed to memory. Nietzsche may in fact mean to say that memory has a limit. But the sentence, because of the concession, seems to say:
I say learning many languages fills the memory with words, not with facts and ideas, but I concede that only a limited content (content that is limited: a limited amount of something) can be committed to man's memory. Incidentally, I too am of the opinion that memory grows larger each time something is committed to it. Last night I came across a book about Nietzsche. Its title is: ‘What Nietzsche Really Said’. Edited by Captlemuel on 29 September 2006 at 10:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Captlemuel Groupie United States Joined 6733 days ago 58 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Mandarin | Message 35 of 41 29 September 2006 at 2:29am | IP Logged | ||
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Perhaps this one makes sense:
Learning many languages fills the memory with words (not with facts and ideas), although man can commit to memory only a certain limited amount of content (from each language). ‘In his ‘middle,’ or ‘experimental’ period—in his books Human, All Too Human; Daybreak; and The Gay Science—Nietzsche experimented with short bursts of prose, each of them a distinctive (and often ambiguous) insight.’---from What Nietzsche Really Said. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6714 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 36 of 41 29 September 2006 at 2:46am | IP Logged | ||
I would to chop up the quote from Nietzsche in two parts and then slightly modify statement number two 1) Learning many languages fills the memory with words (not with facts and ideas) 2) Man can commit to memory only a certain limited amount of content within a certain time frame ... and these two lead to nr. 3: 3) .. So if you want to learn (non-linguistic) facts and ideas, you shouldn't spend all your time on learning languages 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Captlemuel Groupie United States Joined 6733 days ago 58 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Mandarin | Message 37 of 41 29 September 2006 at 2:59am | IP Logged | ||
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At any rate, the translations are invariably ambiguous, and the concession in the translations seems to me illogical. One thing is certain: trying to make sense of this particular sentence has driven me nuts. I'm done. That's it. Adios.
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| alexptrans Pentaglot Senior Member Israel Joined 6776 days ago 208 posts - 236 votes Speaks: English, Modern Hebrew, Russian*, French, Arabic (Written) Studies: Icelandic | Message 38 of 41 29 September 2006 at 3:04am | IP Logged | ||
You can learn a language and then use it to learn all the facts and ideas expressed in that language and weren't available to you before. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6714 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 39 of 41 29 September 2006 at 3:07am | IP Logged | ||
Well you are in good company, - Nietzsche himself went nuts. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6714 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 40 of 41 29 September 2006 at 3:17am | IP Logged | ||
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OK - revised version:
I would to chop up the quote from Nietzsche in two parts and then slightly modify statement number two 1) Learning many languages fills the memory with words (not with facts and ideas) 2) Man can commit to memory only a certain limited amount of content within a certain time frame ... and these two lead to nr. 3, 4 3) .. So if you want to learn (non-linguistic) facts and ideas, you shouldn't spend all your time on learning languages 4) .. but leave something for other subjects (with the added possibility of reading stuff about those subjects that otherwise might be inaccessible to you if you didn't know other languages) I think Nietzsche has got enough comments now, at least from me. Edited by Iversen on 29 September 2006 at 3:53am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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