Why didn't I watch this BEFORE my A2 English exam yesterday? I saved this in a playlist especially for the purpose of revision, and now after the actual event I've already found half a dozen points I could have included
It's strange to think just how popular behaviourist theories were in the 1950s. Humans were supposed to be a sort of blank slate where all behaviour, even language was conditioned by stimulus and reponse, and any differences between humans was down to the environment. The work by N. Chomsky & Pinker, also E.O Wilson in his Sociobiology text book helped overturn these theories and provided what I think is a far more accurate view of how behaviour is formed.
Agreed. I think that it's the problem that comes of basing simplistic hypotheses on hypotheses, or on semi-irrelevant data, rather than on relevant experimental observation. As though complex human behavior could be explained by comparing us to Pavlovian responses!
You might be interested in this (after about 4:30): watch?v=GvxjWNPJLoc
I added a link in a comment, but YT's latest round of newly-created bugs has made the comment section invisible.
i don't understand why the video had to find a person who spoke lousy Chinese (Mandarin) to represent Chinese and Chinese lanugage. So not professional!
Is your complaint against the language skills of the Mandarin-speaker or against the Mandarin language itself? Not, of course, that it matters in the least.
@jiajiahairui - your comment, actually, is a very interesting example of something I've observed. The current approach in linguistics tends towards descriptivism: documenting language as it is rather than as it "should be." Most linguists will say there's no "correct" way to speak, there are only the ways people speak.
However, I've noticed that Chinese culture tends toward prescriptivism; they'll very quickly criticize language as "不标准" as if that were a "bad" thing. Linguistically, it's not!
@anniejapannie a second thought, I realised that these interviewees are all second language learners. what I don't know is whether other interviewees except the mandarin speaker are all not speaking their first languages?
Gaga to indicate water lol I couldn't stop laughing Lady Gaga FTW
TheWizardWeiss 1 month ago
那個人說的國語也太差了點吧
Freidemo 3 months ago
is there a place to purchase this documentary (in total)?
thanks!
anid56 4 months ago
Why didn't I watch this BEFORE my A2 English exam yesterday? I saved this in a playlist especially for the purpose of revision, and now after the actual event I've already found half a dozen points I could have included
niriop 8 months ago
@niriop
Isn't that always the way!
EvolvedAtheist 8 months ago
Now THIS is a documentary I am going to allocate time to re-watch. Thanks for uploading this, I've been keen to watch it for a while.
BladesOfMunch 10 months ago
Thanks for this!
FriedDuck7 10 months ago
i am writing about this documentary for school. do you know when it aired?
AzCateify 1 year ago
@AzCateify Last broadcast on Tue, 15 Dec 2009, 03:00 on BBC One
DREAMINGSWEETHEART 11 months ago
Months :D ipads lol
invaderpink 1 year ago
2nd birthday? I did at in 6
invaderpink 1 year ago
It's strange to think just how popular behaviourist theories were in the 1950s. Humans were supposed to be a sort of blank slate where all behaviour, even language was conditioned by stimulus and reponse, and any differences between humans was down to the environment. The work by N. Chomsky & Pinker, also E.O Wilson in his Sociobiology text book helped overturn these theories and provided what I think is a far more accurate view of how behaviour is formed.
STEPHENWRAYSFORD33 1 year ago 2
@STEPHENWRAYSFORD33
Agreed. I think that it's the problem that comes of basing simplistic hypotheses on hypotheses, or on semi-irrelevant data, rather than on relevant experimental observation. As though complex human behavior could be explained by comparing us to Pavlovian responses!
You might be interested in this (after about 4:30): watch?v=GvxjWNPJLoc
I added a link in a comment, but YT's latest round of newly-created bugs has made the comment section invisible.
EvolvedAtheist 1 year ago
Why this is so blur????
MrJuliogalivan 1 year ago
i don't understand why the video had to find a person who spoke lousy Chinese (Mandarin) to represent Chinese and Chinese lanugage. So not professional!
jiajiahairui 1 year ago
@jiajiahairui
Is your complaint against the language skills of the Mandarin-speaker or against the Mandarin language itself? Not, of course, that it matters in the least.
EvolvedAtheist 1 year ago
@jiajiahairui - your comment, actually, is a very interesting example of something I've observed. The current approach in linguistics tends towards descriptivism: documenting language as it is rather than as it "should be." Most linguists will say there's no "correct" way to speak, there are only the ways people speak.
However, I've noticed that Chinese culture tends toward prescriptivism; they'll very quickly criticize language as "不标准" as if that were a "bad" thing. Linguistically, it's not!
anniejapannie 10 months ago
@anniejapannie a second thought, I realised that these interviewees are all second language learners. what I don't know is whether other interviewees except the mandarin speaker are all not speaking their first languages?
jiajiahairui 10 months ago