As already mentioned, Greybeard's favorite activity in his childhood was reading. The way he learned it was kind of unusual, here is how:
Learning to Read
I must have been 4 or five years old. On my way to kindergarden every morning I passed a store and a gas station, both had the names written big capital letters. The first one was "APOTHEKE" (German for pharmacy), the second was "A R A L" (a German fuel brand). At someday I recognized the similarity between the first letter of the pharmacy and the two "A" in the gas station name. Knowing how the names were pronounced I had found out the principle of written language: a letter represents a sound. From this insight it was only a small step for me to construct the whole word "Apotheke", maybe there was a little help given by my parents who sometimes accompanied me to kindergarten. I still remember I had difficulties to understand why there was an "H", though the whole word was spoken like "apoteke".Very soon after my first "discovery" of the written language I started to explore every printed text I could get in my hands, I started with texts in capital letters (like washing powder brands "OMO" and "PERSIL", later I discovered the small letters, too. I was happily joining a complete new cosmos. Though teaching the art of reading started only two years later when I joined primary school, I was able to read small books my parents bought me.
He remembers some stories about his reading skills, memories from his earliest youth. Though in retrospect they sound funny, at time of happening they were kind of disappointing for him
Made in W. Germany
One funny story: we had small plastic cowboys, and on the base of each there was something written: „Made in W. Germany“. It didn’t mean anything to me, as it was English, but I could read it (and I pronounced it as if it was a German sentence). One day some kids came to me, asking what was written on their figures, I read it to the first, then the next one asked me. And I read the same, and so on. After five times reading the „Made in W. Germany“ it became boring to the others, they did not believe me i was really reading, so they left me alone again. This was my first experience as a „idiot savant“.
This was Greybeard's first disappointing experience with lack of recognition of his exceptional skill. The second experience he had only a little later.
The Father’s Letter
The second one was a little later, I was still not in school and due to my asthma my parents had sent me to a kid‘s asthma clinic in Black Forest for 6 weeks, a long period for a small boy in the age of 5. My father used to send me letters and as he knew I could only read printed text he typed the letters with his typewriter. The first letter I received I was sonorous I immediately wanted to open and read, but the staff told me, in the afternoon a nurse would read it for me. I told them, I could read it, but they did not believe, as they knew I was not attending school, then. So, I needed to wait until afternoon, then the nurse took the letter and read it to me. I got very nervous, because I noticed it was written with typewriter, so I knew my father had done this for me to read. After the nurse had finished, I asked her, if I could read the letter for myself, finally. She smiled and handed it to me, obviously thinking I would start to fantasize about the content. Then I started reading it loud, slowly but correct. She was so astonished she couldn’t believe - in fact she thought I had memorized the content from the first time she had read it. And I insisted, I had already told her I could read, so why didn‘t she believe me....
This was the second disappointment Greybeard had with his gift of being able to read.
Frankfurt Book Fair with the Father
The last one was in the same age, still pre-school, when my father took me to Frankfurt Book Fair. There was a reading contest for kids, I was asked to read something from a kid’s book, what I did. It was not fluent, because I was nervous and I usually read silent, not loud. After I finished one guy asked me which standard I was and I told him „I’m still in Kindergarten“. He couldn‘t believe, but I insisted - and my father apparently felt so awkward, he immediately took me away from there. I couldn’t understand, but my learning was, not to talk about my skills and attainments too much.
Maybe these experiences are the reason why greybeard so far was very reluctant to share his thoughts with the public and keep everything hidden on his private server behind a firewall. So, this blog is a daring experiment for him, and he is very curious to receive feedback.
Comments
Post a Comment