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From: cam@edai.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm    cam@uk.ac.ed.edai   031 667 1011 x2550)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: How fast can one learn a language? (Re: IQ is not static ...)
Message-ID: <520@edai.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 20 Aug 89 15:24:54 GMT
References: <3549@csd4.milw.wisc.edu> <4431@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> <3558@csd4.milw.wisc.edu> <504@dcdwest.UUCP> <3612@csd4.milw.wisc.edu> <485@edai.ed.ac.uk> <3800@csd4.milw.wisc.edu>
Reply-To: cam@edai (Chris Malcolm)
Organization: University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh
Lines: 47

In article <3800@csd4.milw.wisc.edu> markh@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Mark William Hopkins) writes:
>* In article <3612@csd4.milw.wisc.edu> markh@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Mark William Hopkins) writes:
>*
>* So back to my original point: whatever intelligence I possess that is over an
>* beyond what is regarded as normal intelligence is solely the result of my
>* own special training in the learning process itself...
><those who are "behind" what is regarded as normal or high intelligence can
>catch up, with the right training, in due time>
>
>In article <485@edai.ed.ac.uk> cam@edai (Chris Malcolm) writes:
>* Your phrase "in due time" is interesting.
>
>More specific, you ask?  Okay, then let's say a month in a highly intense
>and special course to, say, become proficient in (... let's find something
>real "hard" ...) Newtonian Physics.  That's what I mean by "in due time".

Being able to _learn_ Newtonian physics is a question of _docility_; the
hard thing is _inventing_ Newtonian physics for the first time. That
takes a mind of very rare and extraordinary power, such as Newton showed
in many ways that he had. Learning what someone else already knows is
kid's stuff; _real_ intelligence is evinced in learning what nobody else
knows yet, but which is sufficiently important that the schoolkids of
the future will be taught it.

>     What, indeed, are our limits?  Well this is a question that has come to
>mind a couple days ago.  With the right material and right kind of training:
>
>     How fast can a human being master the basic essentials of a human language?
>
>I offer the following challenge:  I believe that it is possible to accquire a
>long-term grasp of the basic vocabulary (say 500 syntatic/function morphemes,
>2000 basic specialized vocabulary items), and basic syntax in 1 day.

Many adults who move, in adulthood, to a new country which speaks a new
language, manage to get on in the streets and bars of their new country
for the rest of their lives with a 2,000 word vocabulary. That you can
acquire even just this vocabulary in just one day, let alone some
grammar too, is remarkable. And you claim that this is not a private
innate skill of your own, but one which anyone can learn. I'm sure that
if you can make a good case for this there will be no loack of research
funding agencies willing to give it a whirl. Why, it would only take you
a fortnight's work to learn 14 foreign languages to this level! That
would be pretty convincing, and a pretty cheap experiment, too.
-- 
Chris Malcolm    cam@uk.ac.ed.edai   031 667 1011 x2550
Department of Artificial Intelligence, Edinburgh University
5 Forrest Hill, Edinburgh, EH1 2QL, UK