kogs Posted March 24, 2014 Report Share Posted March 24, 2014 Yes or no, the ability to learn languages and read books quickly is a sign of intelligence? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argent he/him Posted March 24, 2014 Report Share Posted March 24, 2014 Eh. It's a type of intelligence. Part of learning a new language is sheer memorization - can't speak without a vocabulary. But another, perhaps even more important part, is understanding how the different sentence and speech elements fit together, making the connections with other languages you know, and to an extent even understanding the native speakers' culture. There is memorization to languages, and there is science, and there is art. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kogs Posted March 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2014 There seems to be 2 instances where Brandon has associated learning languages quickly with intelligence and genius - Kaise in Elantris and Stephen in Legion. I can't remember now, but I believe Hrathen in Elantris also said something about Fjordin (the language) being a superior language. Of course just because Brandon wrote that in his books doesn't necessarily mean he agrees with it. From a personal bias stand point I can say that learning English is a lot easier than learning Mandarin, at least in terms of reading and writing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmingly he/him Posted March 24, 2014 Report Share Posted March 24, 2014 To be fair, Stephen could literally learn anything. His languages were just a really handy tool that he happened to keep around a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argent he/him Posted March 24, 2014 Report Share Posted March 24, 2014 From a personal bias stand point I can say that learning English is a lot easier than learning Mandarin, at least in terms of reading and writing. But that's comparing learning one language to learning another. The topic is about learning languages in general - or maybe as opposed to learning other things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senor Feesh Posted March 24, 2014 Report Share Posted March 24, 2014 I agree with Argent that it's only one type of intelligence. I'm only ok at learning languages, but I'm much better at numbers, and I'm reckoned pretty smart by most of my friends. Thing is, there are plenty of things I'm awful at - thinking laterally for example. I'm good at absract logic puzzles, but terrible at real-life applications to things. Does that make me intelligent or not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kogs Posted March 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2014 Good question. One could make a case that everything we coin intelligence is simply a matter of what we have memorized. Am I smart because I know 5 x 4 = 20? Maybe not, but for this one fact at least I know more than someone who does not know this multiplication fact. Doesn't the mere fact that I know something that someone else doesn't make me smarter (ie. more intelligent) than the other person? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightsworn Panda he/him Posted March 27, 2014 Report Share Posted March 27, 2014 Well... Lets see. You can teach and program a computer to read and learn languages. It might be smarter than you, but it really only is a complicated machine made of silicon, steel and a bit of gold and programmed by binary. Its nothing but an object that has had its power molded. It really depends on how you define "intelligence" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalenthas Posted March 29, 2014 Report Share Posted March 29, 2014 ST4RK, if you can teach a computer to read and comprehend natural language, then there are a lot of computer scientists who would like to speak with you. Natural Language Processing is one of the most difficult frontiers in programming, because the way humans construct sentences and the way computers understand them are not at all similar. As for reading/learning languages quickly, it shows up in a number of Brandon's works as a sign of intelligence. Susebron learns to read quickly in Warbreaker, and the fact that the Parshendi picked up Alethi quickly is a sign to Jasnah and Shallan that they aren't the primitives that everyone else assumes they are. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alina Two she/her Posted March 29, 2014 Report Share Posted March 29, 2014 Well, whether or not it's a universal sign of intelligence, it's evidently a skill that Brandon is pretty impressed with! I personally support the idea that it's a type of intelligence, because if that's the only indicator, I'm in trouble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightsworn Panda he/him Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 Posted 29 March 2014 - 05:36 PM ST4RK, if you can teach a computer to read and comprehend natural language, then there are a lot of computer scientists who would like to speak with you. Natural Language Processing is one of the most difficult frontiers in programming, because the way humans construct sentences and the way computers understand them are not at all similar. Go on cleverbot.com. It's a AI program that talks to you like a human. Besides, I didn't mean teaching a computer in a human way. I meant you could program an AI to understand words. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Joe in the Bush Posted April 23, 2014 Report Share Posted April 23, 2014 On the Subject of Kaise, do we know how many Languages she knows? I think Scientist have found a limit to how many Languages a Human can Know Fluently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argent he/him Posted April 24, 2014 Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 Think it says it somewhere in the book... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempus Posted April 24, 2014 Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 "Oh, four or five, unless she's learned a new one while I wasn't looking," Lukel said. "Though she's going to have to stop soon. Svordish scientists claim that the human mind can only maintain six languages before it starts to jumble them." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curiosity he/him Posted May 7, 2014 Report Share Posted May 7, 2014 Remember that Kaise is still pretty young, so she can absorb language much better than a 40-year-old could. She's had the opportunity to learn languages and has, to some degree, been encouraged by her parents. At this point, I think that Kaise can absorb knowledge faster than the average child, which points to some degree of intelligence, but she's still has that natural advantage of a child, that is, being able to memorize things at a faster rate. However, as has been mentioned beforehand, intelligence takes many forms and types, so this doesn't necessarily mean that Kaise is an absolute genius. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Left he/him Posted May 8, 2014 Report Share Posted May 8, 2014 Can I point out that computers can learn new languages and read books in a miniscule amount of time, and yet computers aren't intelligent.Yet. Although I don't think that A.I. can actually exist, I think that you can make it so that it looks remarkably like it-scarily so really- eventually you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference, but real intelligence still is limited to humans. But that's totally aside from the point-still I've seen much longer rambles than mine - What I think is that the ability to read and learn languages isn't a sign of intelligence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts