I always say that the most talented linguists are programmers. This is due to their way of thinking, or, if you like, with some professional deformation.
To expand on the topic, I will cite a few stories from my life. When there was a shortage in the USSR, and my husband was a little boy, his parents got sausage from somewhere and served it on the table for the holiday. The guests left, the boy looked at the sausage left on the table, cut into neat circles, and asked if it was still needed. “Take take!” parents allowed. Well, he took it, went into the yard, and began to teach the neighbor's cats to walk on their hind legs with the help of sausage. Mom and dad saw and were indignant at the squandering of a scarce product. And the boy was perplexed, and even offended. After all, he didn’t steal it on the sly, but honestly asked if the sausage was still needed ...
Needless to say, this boy, when he grew up, became a programmer.
By adulthood, the IT specialist has accumulated a lot of such funny stories. For example, once I asked my husband to buy chicken. Larger and whiter in color so that the bird is. He proudly brought home a huge white ... duck. I asked if he really didn’t think at least for the price (duck is much more expensive) whether he was buying the right bird? The answer to me was: “Well, you didn’t say anything about the price. She said the bird was bigger and whiter. I chose the largest and whitest plucked bird from the entire assortment! Completed the task." I breathed a sigh of relief, silently thanking the heavens that there was no turkey in the shop that day. In general, there was a duck for dinner.
Well, and a lot of other situations in which an unprepared person may suspect hard trolling and even be offended. We walk along the delightful southern beach, I dreamily say: “Oh, I really want something delicious ...” He, looking around, carefully asks: “Do you want a narve of cactus fruits?”
I pouted, caustically asking him if it had occurred to him by chance to take me to a cozy cafe with cakes, for example. The husband replied that he had not seen a cafe in the area, but the fruits of prickly pear, which he noticed in the cactus thickets, are very tasty, and may well satisfy my request. Logically.
Take offense? Hug and forgive? Laugh?
This feature of professional thinking, sometimes provoking oddities in everyday life, can be used by IT specialists in the difficult task of learning English.
The way of thinking illustrated above (not being a psychologist, I would venture to conditionally characterize it as formal-logical),
a) resonates with some principles of the human subconscious;
b) resonates perfectly with some aspects of the grammatical logic of English.
Features of the subconscious perception of the request
Psychology believes that the human subconscious understands everything literally and does not have a sense of humor. Like a computer, with which an IT specialist “communicates” more time than with people. I overheard a metaphor from a practicing psychologist: “The subconscious is a giant who has no eyes, no sense of humor, and who understands everything literally. And consciousness is a sighted midget who sits on the neck of a giant and controls him.”
What command is read by the subconscious giant when the midget-consciousness says: “I need to learn English”? The subconscious accepts the REQUEST: “learn English”. The simple-minded "giant" diligently begins to work on the execution of the command, issuing RESPONSE: the process of learning. You will learn that in English there is a gerund, there is a verb to be, there is an active voice, there is a passive voice, there are tense forms, there is a complex object and a subjunctive mood, there is an actual articulation, there are syntagmas, etc.
Have you studied the language? Yes. “Giant” completed the task - you honestly studied the language. Have you mastered English in practice? Hardly. The subconscious did not receive a request for mastery.
What is the difference between learning and mastery?
Study is analysis, the division of the whole into parts. Mastery is a synthesis, an assembly of parts into a whole. The approaches are, frankly, the opposite. Methods for studying and for practical mastery are different.
If the ultimate goal is to learn how to use the language as a tool, then the task should be formulated literally: “I need to master English.” There will be fewer disappointments.
What is the request, so is the response
As mentioned above, the English language has a certain formalism. For example, the question posed cannot be answered in any way in English. You can only answer in the form in which it is given. Thus, to the question “Have you eaten the cake?” can only be answered in the same grammatical form with have: “Yes, I have / No, I haven't.” No "do" or "am". Likewise, on “Did you eat the cake?” the correct answer would be “Yes, I did / No, I didn't.”, and no “had” or “was”. What is the question, what is the answer.
Russian-speakers are often perplexed by the moment when in English, in order to allow something, it is necessary to answer in the negative, and in order to prohibit it, in the affirmative. For example:
- Do you mind my smoking? — Yes, I do. — (You banned smoking in your presence.)
- Do you mind my smoking? — No, I don't. - (You allowed to smoke.)
After all, the natural instinct of the Russian-speaking consciousness is to answer “yes” when allowing, and “no” when forbidding. Why is it the other way around in English?
formal logic. When answering a question in English, we respond not so much to the real situation as to the grammar of the sentence we hear. And in grammar, we have a question: “Do you mind?” — “Do you object?” Accordingly, answering “Yes, I do.” - the interlocutor, responding to grammatical logic, states “Yes, I object”, i.e., forbids, and does not at all allow the action, as would be logical for situational logic. What is the question, what is the answer.
A similar clash of situational and grammatical logic is provoked by requests like “Could you…?” Do not be surprised if in response to your:
- Could you pass me the salt, please?
the Englishman says: - Yes, I could.
... and calmly continue his meal, without passing you the salt. You asked him if he could pass the salt. He replied that he could. You didn’t ask him to give it to you, “Would you…?” English speakers often joke like this. Perhaps the origins of the famous English humor lie just at the junction of the contradiction of grammatical and situational logic ... Just like the humor of programmers, don't you think?
Thus, when starting to learn English, it makes sense to reconsider the wording of the request. After all, when we come, for example, to a driving school, we say: “I need to learn how to drive a car”, and not “I need to learn a car”.
Moreover, working with a teacher, the student interacts with his cognitive system. The teacher also has a subconscious mind, which, like all people, works according to the “request-response” principle. If the teacher is not so experienced as to “translate” the student's request into the language of his real needs, the teacher's subconscious mind may also perceive the student's request as a request for learning, and not for mastering. And the teacher will enthusiastically respond and satisfy the request, but the information proposed for study will not be the realization of the true needs of the student.
“Be careful what you wish for” (C)? Looking for a telepathic teacher who can translate your requests into the language of your real needs? Correctly formulate 'request'? What needs to be emphasized. With a competent approach to business, programmers should be the best at learning English, both because of the peculiarities of their worldview, and because of the peculiarities of the English language as such. The key to success is the right approach.
Source: habr.com