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00:00:06:28 Welcome back to HoTTT TopiXXX.
00:00:10:00 I am Jim Dupree and our second topic today, languages.
00:00:14:13 There sure are a lot of them.
00:00:15:23 English, French, German, Latin, Pig Latin, Pig,
00:00:21:05 but aren't there too many languages?
00:00:23:06 Should we get rid of some?
00:00:25:04 Wouldn't it be easier if we just had one common language
00:00:29:29 for the entire planet? That's our question.
00:00:33:12 I want to start with you Rob, I know you are a South African.
00:00:36:06 South African.
00:00:37:11 So you have got an interesting perspective on this.
00:00:38:26 Was it hard for you to learn English
00:00:42:22 coming from South Africa?
00:00:43:28 It was difficult.
00:00:45:08 I mean South Africa we had 11 official languages
00:00:47:02 and English is any of them.
00:00:49:01 So it was hard.
00:00:50:22 Now you have got a lot of sort of vestiges
00:00:52:15 I think from your original mother tongue.
00:00:54:27 You say diddly this and you say shaiza a lot.
00:00:59:04 So do you still have some of those things left over?
00:01:03:16 Sure, every now and then when I drink a little too much,
00:01:06:01 I will just break out into South African
00:01:07:19 and everyone will be what the germs
00:01:09:11 is this guy talking about?
00:01:11:10 Acos, I know in addition to working in the
00:01:13:28 quality control industry
00:01:15:19 you have had a fairly successful career as a hip-hop artist
00:01:19:14 but in Farsi in your mother tongue,
00:01:22:14 do you find that some of the rhymes
00:01:25:15 that you spit in Farsi
00:01:28:09 just don't translate?
00:01:30:06 Is there a bit of a barrier there?
00:01:32:23 Oh definitely.
00:01:34:08 There are just some things that you wouldn't...
00:01:39:00 they just don't translate right.
00:01:41:13 Like for example.
00:01:42:17 Well, okay so we have a word that is for Jello,
00:01:47:25 right.
00:01:48:28 I mean it's Gelatin really
00:01:50:29 and to translate it
00:01:54:00 if I wanted to translate it in English,
00:01:56:03 it would just come out really funny.
00:01:58:20 I can't... like I am too embarrassed to say it.
00:02:00:08 -But it's -Oh come on, please do.
00:02:02:23 -It's -Is it rude?
00:02:06:08 -Yeah it's kind of -Please do say it.
00:02:07:17 Well it's... do we really have to like
00:02:10:24 -Yeah, yeah. -Okay, okay.
00:02:15:08 It's difficult.
00:02:17:26 -Say that once again. -Difficult.
00:02:21:18 And that's Jello.
00:02:22:29 And you do a lot of hip-hop music about Jello.
00:02:25:22 No, no, no, I was just like... there was this one rhyme
00:02:27:22 where I am just kind of talking about
00:02:29:10 how soft this other dude is.
00:02:31:12 So you know what I a mean
00:02:33:13 Oh, soft like Jello.
00:02:34:29 It sounds like you are saying it's difficult.
00:02:37:00 Is that because it's hard to make Jello.
00:02:38:26 We don't make Jello. It's actually very easy to make Jello.
00:02:41:02 I have made Jello once or twice.
00:02:42:24 -But not from scratch. -Well they call it Jello...
00:02:44:21 Then you have to grind up the bones of the animals,
00:02:47:08 if you have got to make the Jello.
00:02:48:20 Jesper do you think you could pick one language
00:02:51:15 and just stick with it for the rest of the your life?
00:02:54:20 Yes.
00:02:56:08 I think I could.
00:02:57:12 I think I would pick binary.
00:03:01:05 Oh really.
00:03:02:18 Do a little of that for me.
00:03:04:07 Oh, certainly.
00:03:06:14 101001100.
00:03:09:28 That sounds hype.
00:03:11:05 That was hello, how are you?
00:03:13:25 I like that, do that again.
00:03:15:07 1010010.
00:03:17:08 1010100, that's nice.
00:03:18:18 That's a variation, that's for hi, that's a colloquial
00:03:22:14 way of... couple of less zeros and more slang.
00:03:26:03 Can you write that down for me later?
00:03:28:03 For sure.
00:03:29:09 So do you think that that is a language,
00:03:32:14 Binary that everyone should be able to speak
00:03:36:14 and then we could just completely get rid of
00:03:37:13 all the other languages,
00:03:38:13 get rid of all these terrible things like,
00:03:40:24 you grab the milk carton and half of it's in Spanish
00:03:44:09 and half of it's in English and you spend all your time.
00:03:47:26 Isn't that infuriating? It is infuriating and when you think about all the time that
00:03:50:12 that takes, it's that movement to flip the milk carton over to
00:03:55:18 see how much nutrition you are getting but you add that up over
00:03:58:12 a lifetime I have probably lost two maybe three years to
00:04:02:00 flipping packaging over.
00:04:03:05 You drink a lot of milk eh.
00:04:04:19 I drink a fair amount of milk.
00:04:05:29 You are forgetting about the forearm benefits
00:04:07:11 of that flip though.
00:04:08:09 I mean that probably extends your life
00:04:09:14 by six to eight months.
00:04:10:23 So you are saying that it's fine
00:04:12:03 that we have got all these languages.
00:04:13:10 You don't find that confusing.
00:04:14:13 Well I mean... I am sure there are other defects
00:04:15:28 but I think a little flipping of milk carton
00:04:17:17 is a very good exercise.
00:04:18:25 But are you advocating the continued existence
00:04:23:02 of upwards of 12 languages on the planet.
00:04:26:00 No I would definitely unify for one language.
00:04:29:01 Okay so... and what do you think that language should be?
00:04:31:13 Well I think the language should be like,
00:04:32:19 it should be culturally inclusive,
00:04:36:03 so it actually shouldn't favor any culture.
00:04:37:24 So I was originally going to say Morse code,
00:04:39:08 but favors the Hispanics too much.
00:04:41:05 So I think we should do the language of Pictionary.
00:04:45:02 I mean, it's interesting, how would that work?
00:04:46:27 Well we would all have pads and pens.
00:04:49:13 Right.
00:04:50:23 So like if I wanted to say I was happy I would draw a circle,
00:04:53:18 a half circle smiling.
00:04:56:11 Sort of a picto-graphic kind of language.
00:04:59:11 Picto-graphic yes like the Egyptians.
00:05:00:18 So maybe in order to go forward we need to go back.
00:05:03:28 From a historical perspective
00:05:05:07 Jesper is there a precedent for this kind of thing?
00:05:09:02 Certainly there is precedent.
00:05:10:23 I know that the Sumerians used cuneiform often
00:05:15:01 and would bring some papyrus around with them
00:05:18:11 and write things on.
00:05:20:04 The problem is once you get into a situation where it's rainy
00:05:24:22 or in the bedroom,
00:05:28:16 I mean you would have to like have a flashlight
00:05:31:23 or anything like that if you were interested,
00:05:34:03 the Cleveland Steamer for example,
00:05:35:18 that would be...
00:05:37:01 you would have to draw the picture
00:05:38:25 and you would have to be able to illuminate it somehow
00:05:41:00 unless you always have sex with the lights on.
00:05:42:27 I disagree. No one gets a Cleveland Steamer in the dark.
00:05:45:29 I mean that's just wasting your money.
00:05:47:22 Really.
00:05:50:13 I guess twitchy zone .
00:05:51:23 How do you think we would decide as a planet
00:05:55:00 on what language we should... should we put it to our folks?
00:05:58:13 Well you haven't asked me what I would do?
00:05:59:22 Please go ahead.
00:06:01:07 So I think that it's kind of
00:06:03:13 close what you were talking about
00:06:05:01 a bit pictionariash but a little bit more modern.
00:06:07:12 I think if we reduced everything to
00:06:09:04 English cell phone texting language,
00:06:11:09 I think and we are kind of going that way, right.
00:06:14:26 We are already kind of going that way.
00:06:16:11 A lot of people understand it.
00:06:17:27 L-O-L. Yeah, you have got that.
00:06:19:08 O-M-F-G.
00:06:20:02 Yes, right.
00:06:21:14 R-O-F-L. U2B.
00:06:24:07 Right, B-R-B, or yeah B2B, what's B2B.
00:06:27:00 C-U-L-8-R, because we have got to go to break.
00:06:29:10 Okay. Alright.
00:06:30:11 But coming up we are talking about driving,
00:06:32:26 so stick around.
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