Understanding and familiarity

Learning science and technology is largely about understanding new concepts and ideas. The emphasis is not on retaining information, but on organizing it. But some concepts are really hard to understand, or maybe they are hard to explain and few people have ever had it explained to them. Over time, we grow familiar with these concepts and we start believing that we understand them. Then we start conveying our familiarity to others, sometimes to show off, and sometimes to avoid looking foolish. I feel that this is a tendency that we should all be aware of, and guard against. I causes so much misery, especially to children and students.

I once read in a children's book that a ventriloquist is someone who can throw his voice. Of course it made no sense to me. I looked it up in some kind of dictionary and coincidentally found the same definition. Who knows, maybe the author of my book had consulted the same source to find out what a ventriloquist does before he went about telling others about it. Later, I figured that a ventriloquist is someone who can change the sound of his voice and speak almost without moving his lips. It gives the impression that someone or something else is speaking, especially if you have a dummy in your hand, and move its lips. I also realized that sounds like m, p, and b need the lips to be closed. Interesting stuff it was back then, and I tried a bit of it myself. But I still don't think throwing your voice describes it very well.