Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Tell Us How You Smell
Think back, knowers, or observe yourself on the fly: identify and share a moment of knowledge from the past month that incorporates both Language and Sense Perception as ways of knowing. Write a concrete knowledge question, extracted from that moment, and then answer it with equal clarity. As a reminder, here's a KQ formulation guide. Please use it's vocabulary. This post is due Wednesday night by 9 pm.
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Moment of Knowledge: I was at Puffer's Pond (a lake/pond like area in Amherst) with a friend and there was the smell of flowers and what not in the air. At one point, he said "something smells dank" while we were swimming. Thinking that the word dank had negative in connotation, I began interpreting the smell of the lake / air in a slightly worse way. Basically, thinking that the pond smelled bad and the air was humid and sticky. However, as I found out later with the help of urban dictionary, dank is actually positive in connotation and he was using it to describe the smell of barbecue coming from the shore. Due to my interpretation of his language, my sense perception changed, from good to bad.
ReplyDeleteKnowledge Question: Should the knowledge that opinions of our peers differ from our own affect our interpretation of the world around us?
My answer: I think that, even though I do not think that it should, the opinions of peers do alter our own if they are communicated. Knowing these facts can either destroy our interoperation of ourselves and the viability of our ideas or enhance our own self worth and certainty in our ideas. Either way, the communicated ideas of peers, especially those who we look up to or admire, can drastically change both our own opinions and certainty of our own ideas.
Earlier this month, I found myself trying to describe the taste of a guanabana fruit. The guanabana, a tropical fruit not commonly seen in the United States, is delicious. I can't explain it to you, and couldn't explain it during this moment of knowledge. I found myself trying to use language to attempt to share deeply personal knowledge, based in sense/perception which was impossible to easily convey to another person who had never tried a guanabana fruit.
ReplyDeleteHere's what you've all been waiting for: a knowledge question.
How can language limit our ability to clearly understand and share our own experiences?
From this somewhat awkward moment in a conversation, I learned that personal knowledge is often primal and difficult to share. I found myself doubting what a guanabana fruit actually tasted like, and in attempting to remember it, I found myself feeling distanced from the taste. Additionally, the person to whom I was speaking was unable to understand what a guanabana fruit tasted like. In this instance, language severely limited my ability to share my knowledge. It also limited my ability to clearly remember the taste of the fruit.
Earlier this month, I shared the "What I Carry" personal narrative assignment from English class with my sister. I wrote it on my family's (somewhat) unique approach to food and cooking and, upon reading it, she immediately asked to show it to her boyfriend because she felt it perfectly captured the essence of what our family life was like (I believe her exact words were "omfg dude this is literally the meaning of #swartzenlife. semantics.). Through my language, I was able to elicit the feelings, tastes, smells, and memories of my family and my childhood from John, thus allowing him to better the Swartzenclan.
ReplyDeleteKQ: Can an emotion be as fully experienced and understood secondhand as it can firsthand?
I think that in this instance, the emotions and associations Anna and I had with food in our family dynamic were transferred very, very effectively to John. However, I don't think that my 4 page paper fully appreciated or communicated the tiny details which made up the whole childhood experience, and in that regard, I don't think it really was on an equal level with having been there, but I do think it came closer than one might think.
I was in Weaving class the other day and Sara was talking about how was going to be disappointed because the color she wanted to use for her project had been discontinued. I was over by the closet where the yarns are kept and I saw a cone of yarn that to me looked to be nearly the same color. However, when I pulled it out to say that perhaps she could use that one instead, Sara looked at me and said that the colors weren't really all that similar. One, the color Kaleigh wanted had pink in it while this one had blue. Yet as I put it back and walked over to my project, which had a large amount of the color Kaleigh had planned on using, I still could not see much of a difference.
ReplyDeleteThis led me to the KQ: To what extent can language influence what we interpret seeing?
In this particular case, Sara's language did not change or affect what I saw very much. I think that when I looked back at the original option I noticed that one was warmer than the other but other than that I did not see a pink vs. a blue in the options.
Moment of knowledge: Recently, I was walking with my mom around the pond in our local park, enjoying the sound of the spring peepers and breathing in the smell of fresh tree blossoms. My mom interrupted my reverie to ask, "Are you excited for IB exams?" Or at least, that's what I thought she asked, because I was too absorbed in the sensory nature around me to clearly understand her words. When I responded to her question (in a very sarcastic manner), she looked confused and clarified, "No, I meant to ask if you were excited for IB DANCE!", thus resolving our brief moment of poor communication.
ReplyDeleteKQ: In what ways can sense perception affect our ability to share and receive knowledge?
In this instance, my acute sense perception (being engrossed with sensory details of the park) served as a distraction that made me less attuned to social cues and verbal communication cues. Thus, I was not able to effectively receive the knowledge that was being presented to me. When I tried to interpret and share my opinion in return, I was not actually responding to the original knowledge at all, which made my answer appear out-of-context and bizarre. In this way, sense-perception hindered my ability to share and receive knowledge.
Moment of knowledge: This past weekend I went to the bonfire Meg was hosting at the firepit on the field. It had been a while since I'd had a campfire, and even longer since I've been camping. The smell of the burning marshmallows and the feeling of heat from the fire reminded me of all the years my parents and I went camping, and I was really starting to miss it. I excitedly began trying to describe how the smells and the warmth reminded me of my past experiences to the surrounding people, but from their reactions they didn't seem to be making the same connection as me. Or, they at least were not experiencing it in the same way I was. Obviously they were experiencing the current campfire, but not the one from my memories. My description was not able to convey what I was feeling to the extent I wanted it to.
ReplyDeleteFrom this, I have a KQ: How can language be a barrier when sharing knowledge of sense perception?
To answer this in terms of my moment of knowledge, I feel like the language I was using was incapable of conveying a feeling the same way physical sense perception could. Language can be a barrier because description can only be so effective when it comes to describing sensory-related things. These two ways of knowing are absolutely capable of overlapping, but when it comes to sharing a physical feeling, sense perception gets the job done more effectively. When you can only rely on language, the person will not have the same experience.
When I was applying for a pre-college program for this summer, I felt that it was a difficult process when I first looked at the application online. The questions that I need to answer in my application made me feel that they were complicated to answer and hard for me to make them perfect. I thus assumed that it was difficult for me to be accepted by the program. However, as I went on the process and finally had my interview, as what I did not expect, the admission officer did not ask any serious questions such as what my academic goal is. Instead, she only told me some facts about the college such as residential life, and asked me if I have any questions about the program. She talked to me with gentle tones of welcoming me instead of making me feel that the program is selective. After the interview, I have gained much more confidence of being accepted than the first time I looked at the application.
ReplyDeleteKQ: To what extent can other people’s use of language overthrow our beliefs derived from our own visions?
I think other people’s use of language and our own sense of perception both play an important role on how we view events and form our opinions. Depending on different situations, one can overthrow the other according to the sequence they come and the effects they carry. In my situation, the interview comes after my first vision on the application. In addition that the interviewer is one of the person views my application, her use of language while talking to me is much more effective on me than my own sense of perception on the application visually.
My moment of knowledge is from a recent softball game. During the game, one of my teammates asked me if I thought it was bothersome when the opposing team would cheer really loud every time I started to pitch. I told her that I could not hear what they were saying, although, I clearly did hear them I just did not listen, but rather focused on the pitch. She proceeded to rant about how they were cheering obnoxiously and how it is impossible for me not to hear it. Next thing I know I find myself hesitating to pitch because I had paid more attention to what the opposing team was cheering.
ReplyDeleteI formulated the following KQ based off the above moment of knowledge: How can selective hearing be attributed to language and acquired knowledge of the type of language being used?
In this case, I adopted selective hearing in the pitching circle during the game without realizing it until someone pointed it out to me. When I learned of the negative connotations behind the cheers of the opposing team I focused less on the next pitch and more on what was being said. This situation demonstrates how selective hearing can be attributed to language after the type of language is brought to one's attention since it shifts the focus of the knower. In this instance, my focus was shifted from pitching to listening to the cheers.
Earlier this week a friend of mine recommended a song to me by FKA Twigs and raved about how much she loved the artist and her sound. Upon hearing the song I agreed with my friend that it had a unique and refreshing sound and was enjoyable to listen to. However, the more I listened to the song, the more I realized that I probably would not have liked it or added it to my song playlist if I had just stumbled across it on my own. This led me to listen to more music from FKA Twigs and I realized that, as much as I tried to keep my friend's love for the artist in mind, I actually did not care for this artist's music at all (except for a rare few).
ReplyDeleteExtracted KQ: How can the use of our own sense perception independent of sense perception of others help us understand and properly interpret new knowledge?
Within this moment of knowledge, my sense perception independent of ideas from others allowed me to interpret new knowledge by canceling out the influence of those individuals. Originally from hearing positive reviews of the singer FKA Twigs and a specific song, my sense perception was influenced by language upon hearing the song, causing me to like something that I otherwise would not have thoroughly enjoyed. Upon listening to more music by that same artist on my own, I was able to experience a similar situation void of the sense perception of my friend therefore allowing my own sense perception to help me decide that I did, in fact, not enjoy the music as much as I initially thought. This allowed me to form new knowledge of my own in relation to FKA Twigs and my interpretation of the majority of her songs.
My moment of knowledge is from a tennis match. During my tennis match the score for the sets was very close and I wanted to win very badly.I was loosing the current set 15-40. I was the one serving, so therefore I had to state the score before every serve. On the side line people were chatting about our match. I heard someone say "I think the score is 40-30" so when I went to the line to say my score with I said "40-30" instead of what the actual score was, 15-40. This result in my opponent shooting up and telling me the real score and me sheepishly apologizing and saying that was what I meant. From this moment, here is the knowledge question I have formed.
ReplyDeleteKQ: How can sense perception and memory cancel out knowledge that is concretely known by a knower?
The answer to this question depends on the situation. In this case, my knowledge that the score was 40-15 was canceled out by hearing someone else say that score was 40-30. Something that also played a vital role to the canceling out of this knowledge was emotion. Because I was very nervous, hearing this score made me think "I wish it was that score" and I probably said it out loud because subconsciously, I wished if I said it that the score would become true.
Moment of knowledge: Last week, I had taken some bread from the dining hall and it had tasted really bad. I was surprised because normally the rolls in the dining hall taste good. When I sat down at the table with my friends I took a bite of the bread, made a disgusted face as the taste hit me, and said sarcastically, "This bread tastes great." Most of my friends agreed, but one of my friends responded by saying "Yeah, it does." Because of the terrible experience I had had with the bread, I assumed that my friend was agreeing with my sarcasm, but later it turned out that my friend thought that I was not being sarcastic with my original statement and she was agreeing with the statement that the bread was good. So I took a bite of her bread and I realized that I, and some others at the table, had somehow ended up with the few bad rolls and that most of the other ones, including hers were good.
ReplyDeleteKQ: How can sense perception alter the interpretation of the language used?
Answer: With this moment of knowledge, my sense perception of the breads taste altered my understanding of my friend's intentions with her language. She meant to agree that the bread was good and I interpreted it as her agreeing the bread was bad. Because I had used sarcasm in saying that the bread was good, and it obviously wasn't to me, I assumed that my friend was being sarcastic as well. Also, her sense perception told her that the bread tasted good, so when I said that it tasted good sarcastically, she assumed that I genuinely meant that it tasted good. In this case, both of our sense perceptions led us to interpret language differently.
When someone stole my money, I was not angry when I saw the empty wallet because I thought I should have lost more money than I did. So I felt a little happy about it. Thus, I did not use any bad language on the thief like I normally would do.
ReplyDeleteKQ: To what extend can expectation affect the attitude of one’s language in response of one’s sense perception?
Answer: When I say the empty wallet, I was not angry and blame the thief immediately, because it was better than what I thought. I could have lost more money if my friend paid my back in cash the day before. So when the situation is better than my expectation, I tend to not get much angry and use the language very harshly such as cursing.
RWS: I spend a surprising amount of time at a loss for words. In one instance I was in Ma'ah's room and I realized that I left my hat on her bed. Since she was closer to the bed I turned to ask her to hand me the hat. However, I forgot the word for hat at that moment and instead I said, "Ma'ah can you hand me the thingy." Despite my lack of clarity, she picked the hat up and handed it to me.
ReplyDeleteKQ: In what ways can other ways of knowing help fill the knowledge gaps left by the primary way of knowing involved?
Answer: Sense perception came into play because Ma'ah saw that I had left my hat on her bed and therefore she immediately understood what I was talking about when I asked for the "thingy." In this way the observations she made using sense perception aided her in understanding my request although the language was unclear. In other cases the same concept is applicable. For example in cases where reason alone is not doing a good enough job of convincing a knower to believe the knowledge I shared with them, I have tried to use emotion as well. There have been times when I gave a tour and facts about the school were not enough to interest the person, thus I began to talk about sense of community and student experience to try and elicit an emotional response. The ways of knowing are so interconnected that it is very difficult to isolate just one that is being used in any single moment. Thus, a knower can often identify other supporting ways of knowing which in this case was sense perception.