Communication B-eakthrough! Eureka! (part 1)

If you read this blog, then you know that I have been teaching Fig, gradually, but consistently (not my best attribute usually). What have I been teaching her? Specifically, 13 colors, which I have given single or double syllable names. Some of the names are Japanese, some are derived from Japanese, some are picked from Crow language, or from phonics. I may need to change some of them over time.

ah-white, ko-black, ha-brown, ka-pink, arr-silver/gray, rah-gold, no-clear, aka-red, oh-orange, ki-yellow, do-green, ao-blue, oa-purple, is that 13?  

My wife has complained several times: Why don't you just teach Fig English words for the colors. Wouldn't that be much more interesting? You were listening to a talking Crow on the internet the other day. That was cool! 

I have explained this to her several times now, but she is either not as interested in Crows as I am, or she is not so impressed with my braininess. She sarcastically called me Professor the other day, in fact. She has a great sense of humor. I am not a professor.  

Anyway here is what I am up to. If it makes any sense at all...well, I leave that up to you to decide. Suggestions, comments, and what-not are always welcome.

Why new words? Why not human language? I am after all, an English teacher.

Well, you have to go back to the beginning. When I first got Fig, on her first day of fledging, when she badly broke her already wounded and infected wing, she was already indoctrinated into the world of Crows. She spoke fluent Crow in fact. I had heard that Crows could, that's COULD learn to mimmick human language, but I had no idea if, or when Fig would be likely to do so. I was just as curious about her Crow language as I was to know if she would speak human. So, at first, of course, we (my family) mimmicked her. This was only natural.

The next step in my mind was to wonder, hmmm, are we just mimmicking, or are we really talking? Are we communicating? Let's see if she will mimmick our words. The obvious choice was, hello, right? I mean, it's useful and a bit endearing. Much to my surprise, Fig started mimmicking hello in short order, after less than two weeks. Her pronunciation was and is far from perfect, but she's keeping at it.

The next step in my mind was to seriously deeply wonder, hmmm, is communication possible, and if it is, how will I know when it really happens for sure? So I started making experiments. I would teach Fig with flashcards daily. Gradually, she is repeating more and more. She loves language time. She gets very excited. Study time for her can go for about an hour. That seems to be her limit for language study, then she wants to preen, and prepare for bed. Me too. 

Anyway, I thought a lot about how to go about communicating with a Crow, and it quickly became obvious to me from my experience with Fig, that it would be of great benefit to identify sounds which she can easily say if communication is to go both ways. I looked carefully at English and Japanese languages, and I chose names for the thirteen colors which I wanted to know IF Fig could actually utter. She is still struggling with saying some of them, so I did not do a great job. For now though, I am plugging ahead with the original color name list, in hopes that Fig will do better, while simultaneously mining vowel pairs for new phonic sounds she takes to naturally. I anticipated that Fig might never speak a word, then I anticipated that Fig might have trouble with uttering some sounds, so it is a process of discovery. What are her capabilities?

To date, Fig can say most of the colors, and she knows/understands all of them. How do I know this? I give her a selection of colors, anywhere from 2-13, and she picks out the correct color when asked to do so. Her accuracy, and or enthusiasm goes way down as the number of colors goes up, but she is only one, and she is improving daily. We don't get much practice time, but we do some study together each day at least 5-10 minutes.

So, Fig can learn abstract names for colors. Yes. But, it was only recently that I had an amazing break through with her. I started coloring opaque yogurt cups in the 13 colors. Sort of a larger version of the smaller games we were already playing. Then I put a few of them on a tray, or around her space. A snack was under one of the cups. I picked Fig up, and told her one of the colors. She went to the tray or around her space and proceeded to peck the cups randomly. At my urging she kept trying, and turned the cups over one by one, eventually discovering the snack. It took her a while to figure out that sometimes the snack was under the cup, and sometimes it was stuck up in the cup. I did both these things to help her learn to really look and examine the cup carefully. But what was this random searching she was doing?

The problem was, she was not listening to me. Unlike in the color selection game where the selection was right in front of her, this cup game was somehow different. Perhaps the fact that the cups were away from me, and her, at some distance, around her space made them detached from the conversation we were having. So communication totally broke down. I would say, Yellow, and she would go ravage the cups randomly. I simply could not understand why. What was the disconnect? What was going on? One minute it seemed as though Fig and I were really communicating; she was gently, civily choosing from a selection, then suddenly the magic was gone, and she is randomly ravaging through colored cups, totally ignoring what I have trained her to understand, and carefully informed her about before letting her make a choice.

So, next, I tried a bit of a mean trick. I put snacks under all of the cups, but only one contained a real snack. I wrapped all of the "snacks" rather thoroughly in tough papertowel. Now, Fig had to go to some trouble to unwrap the snacks. She spent several long minutes tearing through paper only to get a bit of an unappetizing popsicle stick. She looked at me like, What's going on here? Why are you doing this to me? Eventually, she'd get her snack, but only after a lot of wasted effort. I kept telling her the right cup, but for some stubborn reason, she still was not getting it. Fig I would say, this is just like the smaller game. Listen to me! But I could not connect. Communication had broken down, and was failing for some reason. Over here, I tell her, red. Then over there, it's like the conversation never happened.

Finally, I decided to show her some color cups. As usual, we reviewed the color names. Then, I did something differently. I took away the cups, and in their place I put identical, plain packages wrapped in paper towel, but only one contained a snack, just as before. As usual, I picked Fig up, and I told her the answer to where the snack was, red, or purple, or whatever. For some reason, I could see, it was like a light went on in her eyes, it was that Ah ha! moment when she suddenly understood that I was giving her information. She went right for the correct package every time! For some reason, giving her information that was there previously was the logical bridge across the straights of confusion. I was no longer speaking about the present, obviously, because there were no color cups, I was speaking about something both of us remembered in the past, so she was no longer able to dismiss my chatter as merely chatter, and she realized that I was giving her important information about the present. She clearly understood that I must be referring to what was there a minute ago, because right now, the thing I heard him refer to isn't even there!

Doing this experiment caused some switch to flip in Fig's mind. When she looks at me now, I see she is hanging on my every word. Her expression is, What is he going to say next? It's an amazing connection to make, and I do believe it is one way to demonstrate that one has successfully communicated.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But what about the 13 odd words I am teaching her. I simply had no way to know if Fig would ever speak when I started, but I had an indication that Fig could learn abstract language, and associate it with real life objects. So, I chose words that would be easy for her to say, and hear/distinquish from a distance. Remember that I was hoping that she could go out on her own. If she never learned to speak, I could still hope to communicate with her by voice, and perhaps a reading system.

You'll notice that none of the words contains uu, as in Oooh lala, or eh as in Elephant. Have you ever heard a Crow say those sounds? Me neither. So I left them out. It turns out that three sounds on my original list are sounds Fig can't say, or won't say, yet. Can you guess what they are? It will probably surprise you to learn that Ka, Ki, and Aka are the most difficult for her to say. Crows may caw, but they do not in fact say "ka". Crows say "aw". Fig is trying hard to get me to change aka to awa, which is a color she really likes, but so far she has not suggested anything for Ka, pink, or Ki, yellow. What to do?

I thought the phonic sounds I chose would be easy for Fig to say. Turns out some are not. The search for easy words phonic sounds goes on.  I am mining for new phonics she likes. I may have to change her color alphabet in the future if I discover simpler phonics.

I still have no idea how much, or how well Fig will do with speech in her life time. So, my idea was to teach her 13 phonic sounds, which happen to represent colors. If Fig did not learn speech well, those colors could later to be used to communicate via "writing and reading". The thirteen basic phonics function secondarily as an alphabet, and the colors ARE the letters. So, if I show Fig two yellow cards, that makes the word KiKi. This word currently has no meaning, but in the future, it may. By combining phonics, and colors into an alphabet I am able to skip a step in the path towards communicating with Fig. I have no idea if this has ever been done before, I have read about studies where animals use symbols and signs, I am not sure if this is a different idea or not, but this is why Fig is NOT learning English. If I teach her English, she will need to learn all the words, then the grammar, then the writing and reading. Do you think that is possible? No? Nor do I.

Hopefully one day, Fig will be able to take color cards and arrange them into words. Or maybe I will show her a color card arrangement that means chicken and fish, and she can choose what's for dinner. Whatever the outcome, it is a lot of fun trying to talk to the animals.