Oh, flattered here buddy!

    Sorry guys for forgetting to say that you can see the transcription of the lecture/class by clicking over the red ''cc", then you might choose "ok".  

    Fox, somehow the topic and Fatima posting reminded me of Onge, Sentinelese and others tribes that lived at Sentinel, Andaman and Nicobar Islands at the time of the Tsunami.

    She noticed what others did not, because she has a knowledge, intuition and was more observant than those that were only watching the movie...

     Similarly, those tribes had a knowledge based in oral lore passed on by their ancestors 60,000 years ago, they say.

      So, my point is, it is not about a language itself but the power of pass knowledge along.    And knowledge that can even save your life, let´s recall that the Tsunami death tooll ammounted to 55,000 or so.    Then, it´s noticeable that those tribes very small in numbers would be spared.

      Plus, many tribesmen had never seen a Tsunami like that, but they had heard of one in many years, maybe centuries ago...many died of natural deaths in that given period but they never got tired of passing the story along.   Never considered it useless or without practical use, or too old story!

     It´s like the guy that refuse to swim because he won´t ever get near a river, I have seen cases in wich a guy had a plane or car accident and ended up in a river, so it made quite a difference.  It´s an extreme example, stretching a bit, but language may or may not help someday.  One never knows!

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 http://www.valt.helsinki.fi/blogs/kv1/post4.htm

         Most of the Onge, who live in two government-built settlements, fled to high ground as the sea level fell, and so survived. They are currently being supported by a neighbouring community in a school house. Their awareness of the ocean and its movements has been accumulated over 60,000 years of inhabiting the islands.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/dec/31/india.tsunami2004?INTCMP=SRCH
      Yesterday Vice Commodore Arun Singh said the tribe appeared to have survived. He said an Indian naval helicopter had spotted them sitting on the beach of North Sentinel Island.
       The helicopter had not landed, he added. "You can't approach Sentinel Island. I tried it in 1978. They fired arrows at me," he said.
       The other tribes including the Onges, Great Andamanese, Jarwas and Shompens were all still there, he said.

      How did the indigenous islanders fare in the tsunami? What have you been able to tell so far?
       Due to its remoteness, it took several days before reports came out about the dead and missing in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
       The first reliable reports on the fate of the Andamanese tribes indicate that most have survived.
       Their awareness of the ocean, earth, and the movement of animals has been accumulated over 60,000 years of inhabiting the islands. Oral history teachings and their hunter-gatherer lifestyle might have prepared them to move deeper into the forests after they felt the first trembles of the earthquake.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/0125_050125_tsunami_island_2.html
      One result has been the loss of a valuable indigenous plant, a cure for high fever. The oldest man told me that now tribal members need to walk a full day to buy Western medicine.     Ironically, the Onge tribe has a cure for the deadliest form of malaria, black-water malaria. Western pharmaceutical companies can't wait to get access to this plant.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4181855.stm
     "There's clear evidence that the aboriginals know about tsunamis and they know how to deal with them," he said.

      Samir Acharya, convenor of the Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology (Sane), said the aboriginals have a collective memory of earthquakes and tsunamis so they knew to move to higher ground.