 |
 |
Glenn, On Thu, 12 Oct 2000 08:56:54 -0400 [log in to unmask] wrote: > If a deaf person understands how a violin creates a sound - can they still > really understand Vivaldi? Maybe not, but does this mean that someone of normal hearing ability is forever prevented from understanding Vivaldi by the act of understanding how a violin creates sound? As a student of aeronautical engineering I was pleasantly surprised that Barnes W. McCormack, in the preface to his textbook "Aerodynamics, Aeronautics and Flight Mechanics", included a poem (see below) by John Gillespie Magee Jr. I now see that he put it at the beginning as the I had no chance of understanding it having finished the rather analytical tome. ;-) > Bi-lingualists tend to have slightly less control over each language, and > tri-linguists less again (a personal observation in France). Is this the same > case between a designer and an academic? Even assuming your premise to be true, in being bilingual one has two languages competing for the same processing capacity. As a result, any reduction in capacity in the latter case does not appear to preclude the ability for both analytical and intuitive approaches to design, as they would not appear to compete for the same faculty. John Shackleton Brunel University, UK [log in to unmask] And the poem: Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung High in sunlit silence. Hov'ring there, I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air. Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace Where never lark, or even eagle flew. And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand, and touched the face of God. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%