BBC Learnings · Section 2

People who can taste words

Many people have favourites – a favourite colour, a favourite flavour, a favourite word.

Level: B2 · 88 sentences

Transcript

  1. Many people have favourites – a favourite colour,
  2. a favourite flavour, a favourite word.
  3. What's yours, Neil?
  4. My favourite colour is green, my favourite flavour is sweet and sour and, well,
  5. I don't know if it's my favourite,
  6. but there is a word I really like saying out loud.
  7. nincompoop. It means a silly person.
  8. For me, it's the taste of coffee and the smell of lavender or freshly baked bread.
  9. Our favourite tastes, smells and colours are controlled by our five senses – sight,
  10. sound, smell, taste and touch.
  11. For most of us, they don't mix.
  12. We see colours and taste flavours, but we can't taste sounds.
  13. But that's not how everyone's brain works.
  14. Imagine being able to taste every word that you hear.
  15. In this programme, we'll meet two sisters from Glasgow,
  16. in Scotland, who can do just that.
  17. And as usual, we'll learn some new vocabulary as well.
  18. Julie McDowell and her younger sister, Jen McCready, have synesthesia,
  19. a neurological condition where two or more senses mix together.
  20. When synesthetes, as they are called, hear a word,
  21. their sense of taste also becomes activated.
  22. Words produce specific tastes on their tongues.
  23. For example, when Jen hears the name of her daughter Sophia,
  24. she tastes pink marshmallows.
  25. And the name Leo tastes like noodles!
  26. We'll hear more from the unusual sisters later,
  27. but first I have a question for you, Neil.
  28. We've just heard what happens when Jen McCready hears the names Sophia and Leo.
  29. but what does she taste when she hears the name Neil?
  30. Is it A, eggs and bacon, B, spaghetti hoops, or C, a jam sandwich?
  31. Well, I don't know what this says about me, Sam,
  32. but I'm going to guess that it's C, a jam sandwich.
  33. OK, don't worry Neil, I'll reveal the answer later in the programme.
  34. Synesthesia isn't only about people like Julie and Jen who taste words.
  35. It can be a mixing of any of our senses.
  36. A synesthete may hear colours or see sounds.
  37. In fact, there could be as many as 150 different types of synesthesia.
  38. For the Scottish Sisters, having synesthesia is a gift,
  39. something Jen explained when she talked with BBC World Service programme The Food Chain.
  40. It's enjoyable. It's never anything that causes...
  41. The only thing I always say is it's quite hard
  42. if you're trying to eat healthily
  43. because if you hear a word that maybe tastes like tuna,
  44. I'll be like, oh, I need to get a tuna baguette now.
  45. You know, it's almost like being pregnant and having a craving.
  46. Words can be so vivid that you just, you want to eat that.
  47. That's the only negative I would say about it.
  48. For Jen, the only drawback to synesthesia is that it can be hard to eat healthily
  49. because hearing certain words produces a craving
  50. a strong feeling of wanting a particular food.
  51. That could be because, for Jen, the sound of the word is so vivid – clear,
  52. detailed and powerful in her mind.
  53. There's still much doctors don't know about why some people experience sense mixing,
  54. while most of us experience each sense in isolation.
  55. But it's clear that for Julie and Jen,
  56. synesthesia makes the world a more interesting, colourful place.
  57. Someone who can explain why so little is known about synesthesia is Guy Lechziner,
  58. consultant neurologist at King's College London and author of the book The Man Who Tasted Words.
  59. Here he is speaking to BBC World Service's The Food Chain.
  60. One of the problems with synesthesia is for many years it's been dismissed
  61. and it's been viewed as people with an overactive imagination,
  62. something not real.
  63. But actually what research in recent years has taught us
  64. is that actually it does have an underlying neurological and genetic basis.
  65. Guy says that in the past, synesthesia was often dismissed.
  66. considered unimportant or uninteresting.
  67. Synesthetes were labelled people with overactive imaginations – a tendency to imagine things that are not true.
  68. But research is showing that the cause of synesthesia could run in the family.
  69. Julie and Jen's brothers don't have synesthesia, but Jen's daughter does.
  70. And with an estimated 4% of the world population having some form of sense mixing,
  71. a world of new and exciting possibilities is opening up to millions.
  72. Exciting possibilities like tasting someone's name.
  73. Remember in my question I asked what synesthete Jen McCready tastes when she hears the name Neil?
  74. OK. Well, I guessed that Neil tastes like a jam sandwich.
  75. Was I right?
  76. Well, Neil, no.
  77. You don't taste like a jam sandwich.
  78. In fact, when Jen hears the name Neil, she tastes spaghetti hoops.
  79. Oh well, it could be worse.
  80. The name Robert makes Jen taste rotten eggs.
  81. Sorry to any Roberts listening.
  82. OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned in this programme about synesthesia,
  83. a neurological condition where two or more senses mix together.
  84. A nincompoop is an informal way of saying a silly person.
  85. A craving for something is the strong desire to have it.
  86. A vivid sensation is clear, strong and detailed in your mind.
  87. When something is dismissed, it's considered unimportant or uninteresting.
  88. And finally, an overactive imagination is the tendency to imagine things that are not true.