Language of sensation

Dear reader,

similarily to my entry on organ language, there isn't just one way of expression, when it comes to the organs and the body. People interested in Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) will also have noticed that we use expressions having to do with our senses. NLPers (people using and studying NLP) like to point out this fact that a person, who uses a lot of visual words or words about seeing, would be a “visual type”. You could then get a good connection and build trust to that person, by using similar expressions and wordings yourself.


I think that people shouldn't make that mistake and use only expressions and wordings of one sense though. It's certainly good knowing those expressions and being aware of them. I'm sure I can help in the beginning of a connection to a person to listen more carefully and noticing phrasings and pick up on them. I don't however believe in, for example, a purely “visual type” as such and I think it counterproductive to consciously only use visual phrasings based on that belief. Something like that can come across as stiff and manipulative, which in my opinion, it then is. That's certainly one of the accusations about NLP, that it's manipulative.


During my studies a teacher in the English course once handed us work sheets around the topic of learning. Of course it was about what “learning type” we would be. As we were working in pairs, discussing those papers and types, the teacher walked around and addressed me. I told her that I didn't learn best by repeatedly hearing in recordings or films, also not by repeatedly reading and/or writing the words or frequently saying them myself, but with a combination of all of these options. Yes, but when we found out what type we are and which of these methods make us learn best, we could use that advantage and learn more effectively.


Yes, probably there is a learning method for languages, which is more effective for each individual than other methods. I would really limit this to certain things which should be learned. Mathematics requires a different kind of thinking and probably also a different kind of learning. Still I don't believe in the learning type x. Much like a person can be a purely “visual type”. That's my opinion anyway.


Until next blog,
sarah