How many words do normal people say? How many interactions, how many conversations, how many exchanges of pleasantries constitute normal socialization? One of the threads that resonates most with me as I sift through students' daily speaking journals from Cairo is how hard it is not to be able to drop off the grid when things become too much, how when two hours of conversation is required every day it's impossible to give yourself time without words. Two hours of conversation, every single day--I'm sure I don't come close to that in English. So how can a person who says as little as I do learn to speak another language? And how deluded would that person have to be to abandon a guaranteed medical career to decide language is the path for her?
Table 1, Science 6 July 2007: vol. 317 (5384)
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