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Thursday, August 16, 2018

Bow Can Talk


Bow prefers carbs

I haven't been blogging as much lately. Sometimes it seems as if everything that could possibly be said has already been said. I don't want to repeat myself. But then something happens that opens up a whole new reserve of the as-yet-unsaid. This morning I got a comment on one of my videos that did just that. "If only Bow could talk, I wonder what he would say." It was an innocent comment made on one of my more popular grooming videos. Ten thousand three hundred and twenty-four views. But none of them know Bow can talk. 

I wanted to shout out the truth. But instead I had to be polite. So I answered: "Bow does talk. He spells out words. You should definitely check out the information about this in the Project Bow DVD playlist. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvKl93VPL_oNJtFvdQcpSC3WEy4bDCCpZ
You might also want to subscribe to my blog. http://notesfromthepens.blogspot.com/."



Project Bow was an ape language research project that I began in 2002. In 2007, when Bow was five years old, we had our big breakthrough. Bow began to spell out words to express what he wanted and what he was thinking. The Project Bow DVD playlist chronicles all of that. It takes about two hours to sit through it, but if you want to know about Bow's history and his language ability, then it is well worth your while.  Although those of us working directly with Bow knew that he was spelling and expressing himself -- in both Hebrew and English -- we could not prove it to the satisfaction of the scientific community. If you would like to understand why, here is an article you can read.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267568830_Standards_of_Proof_in_Ape_Language_Studies_The_Case_of_Bow_and_Literacy

As my funding was cut, I remained with Bow twelve hours a day, but I could not afford interns and caretakers. In some ways, the past ten years have been very difficult. It's not because of Bow. Bow is a sweetheart. But just not having the help I needed meant that I often had to miss some of my daughter's functions at school and reduce my social interactions with other people. Bow and I became increasingly isolated.

I did have a chimp sitter named Lawrence for most of those years. Bow spelled in English to tell Lawrence what he wanted. He spelled in Hebrew to communicate with me. During those first years, Bow would tell me a lot of things. He gossiped about the neighbors. He made up tall tales. But then gradually, as he went through puberty, he became less talkative. He was more silent and subdued. He still told me what he wanted to eat and when he wanted his blanket and made an occasional sardonic comment about the mutability of things ("everyone dies"), but mostly he kept his thoughts to himself.

Part of it was just our extreme isolation. Nothing new ever seemed to happen, and with nothing to talk about, there was a lot more silence. Then one day, about a year ago, Lawrence had to move. His wife had died, and he was starting a new family, and he let me know he could no longer sit with Bow. So that made things even harder. For a whole year, I went without a sitter, only going out at night when Bow was asleep. I missed my daughter's move-in day to college, and recently I missed one of her choir concerts, because it was held during the day. Thankfully for technology, Bow and I were able to attend the concert via a livestream on my iPhone.

And then this summer my mother, who lives in a different state, said she was feeling weak and asked me to come visit her. At first I did not know what to do. In this current age of Animal Rights activists, and with Jane Goodall getting US Fish &Wildlife to declare domesticated chimpanzees an endangered species,  thereby activating the Endangered Species Act to allow strangers to bring lawsuits against chimp owners,  I knew I could not just advertise for a chimp sitter and take a complete stranger into my home. A friend of mine who had had a stranger volunteer to help her has gotten into all sorts of trouble with PETA, because the volunteer was a mole. I would rather stay put than risk putting myself and Bow in that position.

And so I spoke on the phone several times about taking a risk on a new caretaker, and I guess that Bow must have overheard me, and he must have been concerned about that risk.

Finally, I dared to ask a friend of Bow's who has been visiting with him once a week through the grid if she would be willing to train to sit for Bow. Bow liked her, and she liked Bow, and she does not believe in Animal Rights, only Animal Welfare, so she was a very good fit. Still, it was a risk I was taking. I must have reiterated that on the phone talking to my friends in English. Bow overheard.

The thing about Bow is he files everything away in his mind, and he never forgets. He may not say much, but he knows what he hears.

The new chimp sitter is named Jessica. Bow loves her. I trained her for a week. At first she went in for only an hour. Then two hours. Then three. Until we worked up to a whole day. Bow was well behaved with her, but at first he was reluctant to speak to her. She had to coax him to spell to her. But eventually, he told her what he wanted to eat, and when he wanted to go outside, and other very mundane things. And also, he spelled "she".  "What do you mean Bow?" Jessica asked him. Bow did not answer. But later when I asked him what he had meant by repeatedly spelling "she", he answered in Hebrew that he had meant אמא -- "Mommy."

So the day came when I had to leave for my mother's house. Bow knew I'd be gone for a week, and he seemed okay with it. Jessica kept in text and telephone contact with me, and Bow and I Facetimed a couple of times during the visit. Bow was doing well. He was asking for what he wanted. But every once in a while, for no particular reason, he spelled "risk." "What do you mean by risk, Bow?" Jessica would ask. But Bow never explained. He would just go back to his usual routine, only to spell "risk" again the next day.

A text exchange between me and Jessica

Bow liked Jessica a lot. He wanted to be on good terms with her. He used the potty regularly. and he even took the trouble to inform her when he had peed when she was out of the room. (He never bothers to tell me!) But he was also concerned about "risk". He understood that he and I were taking a risk by trusting Jessica. But he did not really know how to explain it to her.  So he just kept spelling risk.

And that problem he had spelling "peed" correctly? That's a perfectly normal language phenomenon for someone who is bilingual. When he refers to that in Hebrew, he says פיפי. In English, that would transliterate to /pipi/.  So naturally, he thought "I pid" would be a good way to spell "I peed." This is not proof that Bow can't spell, so much as that he has language, and he uses it dynamically.

If Bow could talk, what would he say? Well, he would talk about "risk" and "peeing". Like anyone, Bow has a wide range of things to talk about. Some subjects are mundane and others are very abstract.

Bow and Jessica

My mother turned out to be fine, and we had a nice visit. And now that I am back, Bow is a little more talkative. It helps to mix things up sometimes. You don't want to get stuck in a rut!

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9 comments:

  1. I'm glad your mother is ok. I enjoyed seeing the pictures from your visit with her. I'm also glad the new sitter is working out, and that Bow is taking well to her. Other than that, this blog post about language is really fascinating. I love that Bow spelled "Peed" as "Pid". It reminds me of how my daughter spells words that she's just trying to sound out.

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    1. Thanks, Kelly. Bow is usually a pretty good speller, but I think that his errors actually speak to his understanding of the phonemic principle, because they show he has not simply memorized how to spell words.

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  2. I am glad to hear your mother is ok too, Aya. That must have created a lot of stress for you. And really glad to hear that Bow has a new friend and you have a new sitter that you can trust. I had no idea that people were sending out "moles" to spy on people who kept chimpanzees. That seems very underhanded.
    I also find it fascinating that not only does Bow have language, he has 2 languages in which he can 'talk'. I have never tried to learn it, but Hebrew looks like a very difficult language to learn. I'm sure if I were a child trying to learn it, I'd have a different perspective on that though. Very impressive that Bow knows it! Would you ever try to teach him another language, such as Spanish?
    Regardless, I'm glad you're not completely isolated anymore, especially with our writer's club getting ready to start up again.

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    1. Thanks, Kathy. It was a big relief to me to find that my mother was doing well.
      The problem with the moles working for PETA is actually created by government legislation and interference. Once chimpanzees are listed as endangered in the United States -- as if they ever were wild here -- then anyone can complain about a "take", as if we took them from the wild. It is the law and the agency called US Fish & Wildlife that enable the brazen behavior of PETA.

      At one point, I was planning to raise Bow trilingual, with Chinese the third language. But we lost the Chinese speaking volunteers who would have made that possible.

      I have no intention of trying to teach Bow a language out of context, with "la plume de ma tante" kind of contrived phrases for the purpose of instruction. Bow only wants to use language to communicate. It is because of this that testing him "objectively" to the satisfaction of the scientific community is next to impossible.

      Every language is easy when we learn them as a baby or toddler or very small child. Every language is nearly impossible to learn to native speaker standards once we are an adult. My children's book Ping & the Snirkelly People details how language is learned and what bilinguals may know that monolinguals don't.

      Looking forward to seeing you and everyone else at the next Creative Writers' Meeting!

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  3. I know you want to get back to the academic world, but sometimes I feel like the life you have with Bow is better than what is on the outside. I suppose in the academic world things are not always tense and more logical, but if I had the money and means to keep more to myself I probably would. I enjoy intereacting with the world, but there is just something very hard edged about California life. My friend and I were talking about this. She has had bad experiences over the last few years hiring people to do things like cleaning her house, or repairing things. People seem more interested in just making a few bucks than having a good relationships with someone paying them. I do not know if maybe it is something about the California fast paced lifestyle, but common courtesy just feels to be lacking here. It is something I feel a lot. People are generally polite, but I feel there is a lot of only caring about yourself, while pretending to be part of a great social movement that cares about others. As for PETA, a lot of vegans do not like them. Unnatural vegan just did a video about how ridicolous PETA is. They would not promote the impossible burger because this company had to test an ingredient on rats, but it was something the FDA requires for a certain safety clearance so they can sell their products. This is why I like to eat vegan, but do not really identify with any of the animal rights groups. I honestly do not really have a problem with people eating meat either, I just do not want to eat it myself. But the PETA people and the hardcore animal rights groups think everyone will be kinder and better when they are militant about everything. I do not think this makes people kinder and better, it is kind of the opposite actually. It goes back to how today everyone pretends to be empathetic and kind, but in reality, some of these people only care about themselves.

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    1. Thanks, Julia. I do sometimes wonder how badly frustrated I would be if I did have one of those academic positions that I long for. I am grateful for the life I have. There is a lot of peace and calm and quiet, there is Bow, and there is my writing and my art and my books. I am lucky to have a grown daughter in college still so close to home and in constant communication. In one sense, I have everything I have ever wanted to have. But being human, I still long for more! I wish I had linguists to share ideas with, and students to teach, and an academic context for both my scientific research and my literary contributions. But I have not forgotten that I have so much to be grateful for!

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  4. I loved reading this. I am glad your mother is doing okay. And trust me...the world isn't the best place right now, and as your friend stated above; a lot of people are only concerned about what they can get from others, and only care about themselves. I think with all of the technologoly now a days, good authentic relationships are hard to come by in any form. I have become a bit of a hermit myself...but I also have become kind of afraid of people. I wish I knew you better, so I could come visit you and Bow sometime. You seem like a very good person. And I would love to learn many of the things you know. I hope you all have a wonderful day. I'll read some of your other entries, and look forward to future ones as well.

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    1. Thanks, Amy Lynn. It is encouraging to have back and forth conversations online with someone who feels free to say what she thinks, but who is also open minded enough to reevaluate based on more evidence.

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