Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

aybala50's picture

was it just me

Throughout class on Wednesday I felt like I was being spoken to about a foreign language. I have never played a musical instrument, I do not sing and I don't know how to read music. I found myself wondering if there was a difference in how we viewed the discussion on Wednesday depending on whether there was previous knowledge of music and no prior knowledge of music. I remember taking a foreign language class in the past and honestly, they felt pretty similar to me. When we were going over the different sheets of music I found myself looking for patterns, but still I was lost. I do not know what each symbol meant and even if I saw a pattern I could still make no sense of it. I feel like this is how language may also be. There are symbols, there are certain expectations of each symbol and then there are patterns of symbols that have a meaning for those who decipher it. The missing aspect for me was mostly that I didn't know what the expectation was for each symbol.  

Reply

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
4 + 6 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.