Tok Class: Language

During today's class, we did a task where we needed to create our own language based on a given setting. In my group, we were asked to create a language that would be used by people living near a volcano. We came across several difficulties, it was difficult to differentiate between sounds and letters. I believe that the basis of every language is a set of letters, however others disagreed and believed that using familiar sounds was more important. They did raise several interesting points where they believed that sounds from nature, in this case a volcanic eruption, should be used in related words. We created words that acted as a root, then derived several words, which seemed like the way we would go about in creating a language. It was important for words with connected meanings to have similar sounds. When thinking of what would be the basic words we had to create, we found the most important aspect to be that of survival. As a result of being a group that lives near a volcano, calling for danger was an important section of language. That way we would be able to communicate things when needed. Therefore most of our language was related to this, then we created more elaborate words we might need. Some people in class commented that our language was similar to Latin, how our language consisted of roots and derivatives.

TOK class: sense and perception

During today's class, we conducted an experiment where we smelt different items, and tried to identify them, without seeing them. This experiment showed us the importance of the sense of smell, and how senses are connected. Many were not able to identity several smells without being able to see them however those who could see found it as an easy task. When discussing the task afterwards, we noticed that some people could identify the smell however did not know the word for it. Often, they knew the name of the object in a different language and could not explain it in English. This connects two important ways of knowing, senses and language. They are interconnected in the way that we express what we experience. It was interesting to see how some people of certain cultures knew more smells than others. This is a result of the use of these items in their cooking or smells more often. In some instances, there were several smells in the same item and one may overpower the other. For example, in cinnamon tea, the smell of the cinnamon overpowered the smell of tea and most people identified it as cinnamon.

This experiment helped us to become familiar with one of the ways of knowing, sense and perception. It also showed us the importance of cultures and experience when it comes to identification. This shows us how the ways of knowing are interconnected and proves their importance further.