Answerin' Your Questions

In the course of today's lesson, a WHOLE LOT of questions not related to Spanish (of course) came up. Here are some answers to the ones I can remember.

Which is the correct spelling, gray or grey?
Grey is a variant of gray. This means that gray is the original form of the word.

Why isn't there just one way to say things? Why are there all these words that mean the same thing?
Remember that language exists so that people can communicate. Also remember that languages are first spoken, and then written, then people spend years trying to construct explanations for why the language looks and sounds like it does. Think about how many different kinds of people there are... short, tall, interesting, boring, blond(e), dark-haired... the evolution of a language is very similar. In my opinion, it is GREAT that if I want to say something is amazing, I can also say it is wonderful, exhilarating, phenomenal, life-affirming, spectacular, incredible, or fabulous.

New words are added to our language every year. Some of the words are slang, but others have to do with products or concepts that have not existed before, and so new words are created to apply to those things. Language changes every day.

When were records invented?
That depends... the technology (if you want to call it that) was utilized by Thomas Edison in 1877. From that time until the early 20th century, the record we know today went through a lot of morphing... feel free to read the Wikipedia entry about it.

How can deaf people learn to talk?
Sound is vibration. High-pitched sounds vibrate quickly; low-pitched sounds vibrate slowly.
By feeling these vibrations and mimicking them, a deaf person can learn to represent sounds that are recognizable as words. As you can imagine, this is very difficult. You might want to watch The Miracle Worker, which details Helen Keller's life, to see a depiction of this process.

Why do blind people wear sunglasses?
Not all blind people do! But as for the others, well, there are several reasons for the sunglasses. Some people are blind because of a physical deformity, which the glasses hide. The eyes of some blind people are still incredibly sensitive to light, and the glasses offer protection. If you are interested, the National Federation for the Blind website has a lot of fascinating information about blindness, Braille, and how blind people learn to "see" with canes and helper animals.

Were there any other questions? Like I said, these are the ones I remember.