Althouse: "Hannah Jenkins speaks English in the morning and German in the afternoon. It's not a routine she chose to adopt - but something her brain requires her to do."

October 17, 2018

"Hannah Jenkins speaks English in the morning and German in the afternoon. It's not a routine she chose to adopt - but something her brain requires her to do."

"It all started with a cycling accident.... Hannah eventually came to on a busy ward in the Royal Berkshire Hospital with no idea where she was, what had happened or why, in her mind, no-one spoke English. 'I couldn't understand anything,' she says. 'I felt as though I'd woken up in a foreign country and I couldn't understand why people weren't speaking to me in a way that I could understand.'... [Doctors] contacted her next of kin, her sister Margaret, who asked to speak to Hannah. As Hannah sat in her hospital bed she chatted away on the phone, relieved that she was finally able to communicate with someone. This bemused doctors, because previously she had only uttered the odd, indecipherable word. Hannah had so many questions for Margaret, one of them being why the doctors weren't speaking to her in English. 'They are, Hannah,' her sister replied..."

From "I woke up unable to speak English" (BBC).

36 comments:

Nonapod said...: "The doctors didn't know I could speak German," Hannah explains. "It wasn't until they spoke to my sister that they realised."

That's odd. I don't speak German but I can at least identify it as German from the sound. German is fairly distinctive.; 10/17/18, 12:23 PM
Unknown said...: Will I be able to speak German after the surgery? ...; 10/17/18, 12:27 PM
Achilles said...: One thing about machine learning/ai.

It will work nothing like the human brain.

We have no idea how the brain works.; 10/17/18, 12:30 PM
Amexpat said...: My father had a very hard time speaking after his stroke, but he was able to sing. Actually he sang better after the stroke, he could carry a tune which he couldn't do before.; 10/17/18, 12:32 PM
Fernandinande said...: "I woke up unable to speak English"

That happens to millions, if not billions, of people every day.; 10/17/18, 12:44 PM
Seeing Red said...: Fascinating.; 10/17/18, 12:44 PM
JohnAnnArbor said...: Sounds like an Oliver Sacks anecdote about one of his patients.

I bet a clever job placement person could figure out a job where this would not be a hindrance.; 10/17/18, 12:49 PM
MadisonMan said...: Really interesting piece. The human brain fascinates.

Don't be raised in multilingual families I guess is the secondary take-away.; 10/17/18, 12:52 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Maybe Warren needs to be slapped around enough to bring out the Cherokee she learned as a child.; 10/17/18, 1:03 PM
Yancey Ward said...: At least she wasn't reduced to speaking gibberish.; 10/17/18, 1:04 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: JohnAnnArbor said...

I bet a clever job placement person could figure out a job where this would not be a hindrance.

Pretty much any job in Germany?; 10/17/18, 1:06 PM
n.n said...: The brain prioritizes for frequency and depth. It's similar to initiating a search, halting the active process, then recalling a memory some time later.; 10/17/18, 1:17 PM
JohnAnnArbor said...: Maybe Warren needs to be slapped around enough to bring out the Cherokee she learned as a child/

Fun fact: the Cherokee writing system was invented by a guy who understood the importance of writing to the white settlers and wanted that for his own people.

ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ; 10/17/18, 1:18 PM
n.n said...: We have no idea how the brain works.

While there is a correlation and a basis for scientific research (i.e. observation, deduction), perhaps even inference (i.e. created knowledge), we don't... cannot know if the brain is the origin or expression of consciousness. It's a limitation that is inherent to characterization of a system from inside.; 10/17/18, 1:25 PM
Susan said...: I had a pontine stroke last December. I had severe difficulty speaking although my listening comprehension was fine. I could read out loud with perfect fluency and I could sing just fine even without reading the lyrics. I still struggle with nouns and names but otherwise people don't notice I have trouble unless I am really tired when I tend to stutter.

It's been a weird experience for sure.; 10/17/18, 1:44 PM
daskol said...: n.n.: Antonio Damasio thinks one day, on a laboratory table, we'll be able to study and understand consciousness. he's no mysterian.; 10/17/18, 1:47 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: n.n said...

...we don't... cannot know if the brain is the origin or expression of consciousness.

True, in the sense that we cannot ever know anything.

However, if we were to build an A.I. that passes the Turing test, and include a discussion of what it is like to be conscious as part of that test, then we would have as much evidence that the A.I. was conscious as we have for our fellow humans.

At that point I would be comfortable saying that the hardware/software/wetware was the origin of consciousness.

Of course it is entirely possible that a God with a perverse sense of humor ( and, looking around, it is pretty clear that if there is a God, he has one ) could decide to attach a soul to a human-created A.I., just to screw with us...; 10/17/18, 1:54 PM
Rob said...: This is why we don't want socialized medicine. When you wake up in a U.S. hospital, you're speaking English, goddammit.; 10/17/18, 2:04 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: I'm 1/1024 Japanese, so I only speak Japanese at sunrise.; 10/17/18, 2:07 PM
Roughcoat said...: Of course it is entirely possible that a God with a perverse sense of humor ( and, looking around, it is pretty clear that if there is a God, he has one ) could decide to attach a soul to a human-created A.I., just to screw with us...

That's actually a very good idea for a story, or a novel. May I use it? Please say yes, because I think I'm going to use it.; 10/17/18, 2:11 PM
J. Farmer said...: Ignorance is Bliss:

I don't have firm opinions on AI, and I think there is a lot of techno-triumphalism surrounding the discussion. But here are some interesting perspectives on the Turig test that I think people interested in the subject may find worthwhile. The first two are Noam Chomsky, and the third ins Marvin Minsky.; 10/17/18, 2:21 PM
Rocketeer said...: The first two are Noa5m Chomsky, and the third ins Marvin Minsky.

Chom-Min-skynet smiles.; 10/17/18, 2:51 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Roughcoat said...

May I use it?

Yes. If it gets made into a movie, I get 0.1% of the gross receipts. ( World-wide. And that includes merchandising. ); 10/17/18, 3:15 PM
Fernandinande said...: Ignorance is Bliss said...
...consciousness.
...soul...

Is there some connection? Unconscious people don't have a soul?; 10/17/18, 3:25 PM
John Pickering said...: what, did Ann fall off her motor trike?; 10/17/18, 3:26 PM
jimbino said...: This same effect can be totally replicated through hypnosis. Others too, like age regression to before birth.; 10/17/18, 3:30 PM
DKWalser said...: I've always found the 'language center' of the brain fascinating. When I was serving a church mission in Italy, one of my fellow missionaries was born and raised in Montreal. His parents were Czech and spoke that language at home. On the street, the kids spoke English. In school, they spoke French. In school he studied German. And, there he was in Italy, speaking Italian on a daily basis. That was five languages he kept straight inside his head.

Well, he kept those languages straight except for the first 15 minutes or so in the morning. He might be awake enough to shower or fry an egg before he could say his first word -- in any of his five languages. He could understand what was said to him, but he just couldn't respond with anything that anyone (including him) recognized as spoken language for the first few minutes. Then, as if his language center was suddenly in gear, he was articulate for the rest of the day. Weird stuff.; 10/17/18, 3:35 PM
JaimeRoberto said...: My dad has hydrocephalus which means that fluids accumulate in his brain. Before he had an operation to lessen the impact he'd do all kinds of weird things. Most memorably he was walking his bike up the driveway when his legs just started running. He had to fall to the ground to stop himself, but his legs kept flailing away. The brain is fascinating.; 10/17/18, 3:58 PM
JaimeRoberto said...: At home I speak Slovak with my wife and English with my kids. Several years ago we went on vacation in Croatia with my wife's best friend and the friend's Austrian boyfriend. I'd speak Slovak with my wife and her friend, German to the boyfriend, English with the kids, and Croatian/Slovak to the locals. I was exhausted by the end of the trip, and I'd get seriously tongue tied.; 10/17/18, 4:02 PM
Leo said...: I was born in that hospital and one of my favourite, bloggers makes a post about it. :); 10/17/18, 5:43 PM
Mr. Majestyk said...: Was the lady wearing a bike helmet?; 10/17/18, 6:03 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: "...and when I came to, I was speaking Esperanto like a native!"; 10/17/18, 6:49 PM
Assistant Village Idiot said...: I had a patient at our psychiatric hospital around 1980 who had just had an auto accident, and arrived speaking German, understanding no English. We had a woman from Czechoslovakia (remember that?) who spoke German who interpreted for her. We found a man with the same last name in a book of phone numbers in her purse, who turned out to be her son. He insisted she spoke no German, having arrived in America at the age of 8 in 1948 and refusing to speak German because it was associated with "bad things."

36 hours later she spoke English again, but no German.

In late-stage dementia, she will speak German but no English again.; 10/17/18, 7:59 PM
Just asking questions (Jaq) said...: The sisters were brought up in the UK speaking German and English, by polyglot parents. Their Austrian mother spoke four languages and their father, a language teacher from England, spoke seven.

It's almost like the family was hit right in the spot of their deepest pride.; 10/17/18, 9:32 PM
Tina848 said...: As someone else mentioned, this happens to dementia patients too. As their brain changes they revert to their childhood language, even if it is 60+ years later.; 10/18/18, 10:44 AM
Bill R said...: If she had been left with the ability to speak only Spanish would she qualify for Affirmative Action?; 10/18/18, 11:07 AM