A Journal for Walking Over Fallen Fences

A strong way to help learn a language has occured to me: Memorize entire paragraps of texts, as opposed to just merely looking up the words.

Consider for a moment some text from my earlier blog entry about Claude Shannon: “In a given text, some words tend to appear together, whereas others do not. [Shannon] demonstrated that you can generate random words in a way that sounds like meaningful English, provided that each random word is paired with a word that it is often paired with. Meaningful-sounding gibberish works even better when using word triplets.”

When studying a language, by memorizing paragraphs in their entirety as opposed to simple lookups, you create a neural network of frequency patterns. Words are seen in their proper context, not with strangers but with friends.

Memorizing random words from a dictionary, would be like memorizing “clock unibrow sizzle roping the a scatterbug.” It can be done, yes, and Gertrude Stein would be happy, but until one reaches the point of Joycean linguistic transcendence, memorizing paragraphs will more greatly aid the jump from fragments to fluency.

If this holds true, then those who have talented their minds to the skill of total recall, such as theatre actors and orators, are best suited for polyligualism.

In Porto Allegre, Brasil, Susan and I spent a few days living with the Ananda Marga Community. We’ve been visiting groups throughout Latin America who create economically self-sustaining communities that are outside of the mainstream system. We are shooting a half-fiction/half-documentary film with the working title “Outlaw Culture.”

Founded in 1955, Ananda Marga is a rooted in Hinduism, with over 200 branches worldwide. Its guru, Shrii Shrii Anandamurti (1921-1990), is said to have reached enlightment, and is the next incarnation of a reincarnation chain that includes Lord Maheshvar (Shiva) and Lord Krsna (Krishna). They view themselves not so much as a religion, but as a path. This path has two main wings: meditation and social service. Their meditiation aspect is mystical and hinged on the mantra “Baba Nam Kevalam,” which means, crudely, all there is is love.

All initiates into Ananda Marga are given Hindu names by their initiating guru, called Dadas. Initiates use their Hindu names within the community, but use their birth names when doing things outside Ananda Marga. We were brought into the community by Ravindra and Krsna. Very nice people, who have plenty to say about world events and art. They live on a kind of farm with Ranjan, Madhumita, and their guru, Dada Cittabodhananda.

Dada Cittabodhananda is a generous and kind man, and is the social cooridinator for all of Latin America. He, along with all Dadas, dress in totally orange outfits.

Dada Cittabodhananda offered to teach me meditation, and I accepted. I went to his private meditation room at 8:00 AM, and there he taught me all the key points for the community, including a personal mantra. To my surprise, he offered to give me a Hindu name, which normally takes a long time to receive. The name he chose is Maheshvar (Shiva), the Hindu deity of creation, destruction, and fire.

I have left Brasil now, and am in Montevideo, Uruguay. Susan and I are looking forward to the many communities ahead of us.

http://www.anandamarga.org

Visited the Circo Picolino today in Salvador. They are a non-profit circus dedicated to their self defined revolution.

Talked with Anselmo Serrat, a long grey-haired, sassy middle aged man. I spoke Spanish and he spoke Portuguese and we joked how it worked out.

He founded the school, which has come to take kids off the poor streets and train them in circus arts. It provides income, and gives a kind of mobility to people with no social privilege.

Picolino started something spreading across the country. The movement grew to so many that Brazil started the National Circus Coordination Office to help support the phenomen.

Earlier in the week in Salvador, I was held up at knife point twice (successfully fended off both attackers without harm or money loss - a very friendly city otherwise). The first knife attacker was a young boy of about age 12 to 15. I could tell he was likely a homeless orphan or from one of the poor favelas. This circus connects with boys and girls from his background to prevent similar futures.

Their photoblog:
http://www.fotolog.net/circopicolino