The idea I was most taken with at this week’s symposium was the abstract of “what is this?”. When Adrian picked up the book and asked us to explain to him how to read, it really made me think about the part that language plays in our lives. How would we communicate ideas (or anything really) without it?
I’ve had a little taste of that at work when a customer who didn’t speak much English came in looking for something. In the end I think we ended up pantomiming and pointing quite a lot, but it would certainly have been easier if we could talk it out.
Thinking about this too much probably won’t bring anything good (Why is an orange called an orange? Who decided that colour should be called orange? Why aren’t bananas called yellows? It’s all just too deep for me I’m afraid.)
