"Brainman" Daniel Tammet shares this thoughts about Icelandic, David Letterman, and whether or not he feels that planets have genders.
And don't forget to look for Daniel's book, Born on a Blue Day, available in hardcover and paperback.
Q: Do you use numeric assignment to learn new language? Have you tried to assign numeric or color mapping to remember the face of recent acquaintances?
Thanks,
Michael in Lawrence, KS
A: I don't use numbers to learn new languages, but I do use colors and textures as with numbers. Like with numbers, I see words in various colors and textures and I'm often able to link these to the word's meaning to help me remember it. For example, the Finnish word tuli, meaning "fire" is orange, so the color helps me to remember what the word means because fires are orange.
Q: What do you wish to do with your great cognitive power, i.e. search for an answer to cancer, become a school teacher, international interpreter?
James
A: I'd like to set up a foundation one day to support educational programs in numeracy and literacy. I'm also planning to work in linguistics because by learning more about language it will be possible to learn more about how the brain works. I also want to support language conservation efforts, because I think linguistic diversity support is just as important as environmental conservation work.
Q: Is there a language or languages that you enjoy the most, in terms of sound and structure? Was Icelandic the most difficult to learn?
Thanks!
Siobhan in New York, NY
A: I think my favorite language of the ones I've learned so far (and yes the most difficult in many respects) is Icelandic, both in its sound and structure. Many of the words are particularly visual and associative, which suits my style of thinking very much. An example is the word hugmynd which means "idea" — it comes from the words hug ("mind") and mynd ("picture"), so in Icelandic an idea is literally a "mind picture."
Q: You've said that too much mental stimulation, like going to the supermarket, makes you uncomfortable. How are you then able to cope with something that much more stressful, like being on the David Letterman show?
Take care,
Dora in Easton, PA
A: I enjoy having the opportunity to share my story with others and to talk about ideas and beliefs, which I consider interesting and stimulating. Appearing on the Letterman show was fun for me because David was a very thoughtful host and the audience was extremely friendly. David reminded me of the number 117, which also helped put me at ease!
Q: Is there anyone in your family that has similar abilities to you? Is it genetic at all?
Paul
A: I do believe it is genetic. My younger brother Steven has taught himself to play the guitar and Greek lute and is currently teaching himself Chinese. He has memorized large amounts of facts and figures and reads constantly. He is also a very warm, friendly and decent young man who is coming to terms — like me — with his autism (Asperger's).
Q: I have the synesthesia where numbers and letters and colors have gender and personality. I wonder if synesthetes tend to give the same personalities to the same numbers. For example, to me 4 is a girl who loves 5 and 5 loves 4, but is also secretly in love with 9. The same is true for the letters R, S and T: S and T are a couple, but T also has his eye on R. I don't give relationships to colors, but they do have genders: red is female, blue is male, green is male, purple is male, yellow is female. Planets, too — all planets are male to me except Venus and Uranus. Does any of this make sense to you? Do you have similar patterns?
Thanks so much for answering my question.
Abigail in Oregon
A: Research indicates that for some numbers or letters synesthetic perceptions are surprisingly uniform. I don't think of colors or planets as having genders, but it does make a kind of sense to me (many languages ascribe gender to objects like tables or even abstracts like hope or peace).