Conversational Tidbits

Over the past few days, we have had several conversations with Austin, on different subjects.

Prehistoric ecosystems in modern-day Argentina: Today, I mentioned to Austin that my friend and her family will be travelling to Argentina. Austin said she was travelling to the home of some of the largest land creatures ever to live on the earth. I asked if he was referring to Argentinosaurus, and he clarified, also Giganotosaurus. He explained that it would be necessary to have a suitably large carnivore living amongst those large herbivores, or else life would not be sustainable. He really gets the concept of ecosystems.

How many minutes in a day?:

On the drive to Coquitlam yesterday, Austin and Aidan were discussing time, and wondering how many minutes there were in a day. Skye invited them to work out the answer. Since they know how many hours are in a day, and how many minutes in an hour, they can work out how many minutes are in a day. After about a minute of silence, Austin said, "1,440." Skye asked Austin how he had figured it out, and he explained that he worked out 60 times 20 = 1,200, then asked Aidan to remember the number 12. Then, Austin worked out 6 times 4 = 24 and multiplied that by 10 to equal 240, then he added the 240 to 1,200 to get 1,440. This is very close to the approach Carla used. Skye calculated 60 times 10 plus 60 times 2 to work out how many minutes are in half a day, then doubled it to get the same answer.

Many of the world's languages are disappearing:

This evening, on the drive to Austin's music lesson, we were listening to CBC radio, a discussion about the prediction that, over the next 100 years, 90% of the world's languages that exist today, will be extinct. We heard an introduction to the first of Wade Davis' Massey Lectures. Wade Davis has recently written the book, "The Wayfinders; Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World." I told Austin that, with his special skill with learning languages, he could help to preserve some of these threatened languages. I also told him that his Grandma teaches a language that is at risk of being lost - the Kaska language. I reminded Austin about his Kaska name, Quain (sp?), which means "Woodchuck." Austin suggested that he create a new language, rather than work to preserve a language that's going to die anyway. He explained that he creates faster than he destroys, so perhaps this would be a way to preserve the idea of multiple world languages - giving birth to new ones. The interviewee (Professor Arrister?) was explaining that it takes a linguist 4-5 years to collect and record everything he/she can from a dying language. It is Arrister's hope that, by preserving a language, they will succeed in preserving its culture, traditions and storytelling that have been passed down through the generations.