Thinking Herd

The question raised some serious questions ……. In fact they were ‘side-effect-questions’.
The question was innocent looking “Can you hear yourself think?”

I usually look at myself, and the answer pops out, if there is any.

The process of ‘looking’ , this time, refreshed a few memories. During early days of schooling, the thinking language was mostly a mixture of Hindi, Urdu, Malayalified-tamil, a little of telugu and Hinglish. Then good English crept in slowly. The fallout was disinclination to look at Grammar when it was formally taught. The rules got a back bench during the learning, but the marks were full when it came to ‘correct the following sentences” (I used to wonder, why it was not asked thus “what is wrong with these sentences” instead! ‘Correction’ was a teacher’s job, not we kids.) Now with withering age, the thinking has almost blanked out or at best it is a bit abstract or non-verbal!

Anyway, I regard thinking process to be a powerful tool to learning, if properly harnessed, and children should be taught early if possible the tricks of the trade.

I did enjoy answering this question, and the choice of the asker, to pick it up as a satisfying one came as a bonus.

Please try to see if we belong to the same herd.

Regards,
Psn(10th May, 2010)

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100508193705AAzHX9r

Can you hear yourself think?
Is it rare to literally *hear* yourself in your head? Like, when I read, I literally hear my voice, but it's just inside my head. I just started reading about this, I haven't read much but I intend to. Anyway, I decided to test myself to see if I was really "hearing" and I said different words and letters in my head and indeed they sound exactly as I would say them out loud. It's a quiet voice, but it's loud enough for me to hear at all times. The only thing I can't do is scream, I mean I can kinda scream but not really...haha so yeah...:P

My answer:
Unless you take efforts, this voice is the same as yours, of the same gender that we belong to!!! That exactly is the measure of our adamant-ness! We even refuse to change the gender of our imaginative voice. Only when we visualise with a strong effort, we attribute that voice to somebody we know. Children, though quite unawares, listen to the words in their head, using the same voice which taught them those words the first time. That is how the mannerism of pronunciation gets 'aped' with repeated learning. Over a period of time, with concerted efforts, they struggle and manage to pick up that shifted accent, and if they manage this quite well, the scores are better at TOEFL !!!

(We may add to the question, "what about songs, famous songs? Whose voice echoes inside?" and what about deep-engraved-abuses from disliked persons? The hi-fidelity of the voice is closest to 'real' when it echoes too often, and without our own permission!!!!????) A "punch-line" proposed to this answer as an addition is ....: "This noise of the voice inside is just like that "Fart", it is more lethal when it is less noisy or silent. That is why spiritual practices begin with chanting aloud, then chant inside with voice, and then go deeper into silent meditativeness"