Herbert Terrance's Use Of Sign Language In Project Nim

"It was frightening, intimidating, and I knew Dr. Lemmon and his wife were watching me to see what kind of a mother would I be. Carolyn, Nim's mother, was sitting right there holding Nim, and she knew what was going to happen better than I did." In the movie Project Nim, a baby chimpanzee named Nim was about to be torn from his mother's arms for the benefit of science. After the removal of Nim from his mother, Nim was then placed in a human home in and was to be taught sign language, this was conducted by Herbert Terrance. Herbert Terrance was a Colombia University professor performing research on Nature vs Nurture hypothesis. As the years progressed with Nim living in a human-based home while being taught sign language, Terrance had concluded that Nim had not truly learned sign language. Instead, Terrance thought that Nim was a "brilliant beggar", meaning that Nim learned full phrases of sign language and used them to his advantage. Toward the end of the movie had Nim indeed learned whole phrases and used them only to his benefit which makes him a "brilliant beggar." In the beginning of Project Nim, Nim had no idea that his …show more content…
According to Herbert Nim did not learn full phrases instead Nim only memorized the signs or pieces of them that benefited him. When it came to foods such as bananas, instead of signing the full phrase Nim would often sign ‘give me banana'. "He learned how to beg and he could work his teachers and always get what he wanted by moving his hands in different ways. And most of the time he moved his hands in the ways that the teachers suggested". During certain sign language sessions at the University, Nim would also trick his trainers into getting out of learning signs. One time, in particular, Nim signed to use the bathroom only because he knew that it would initially get him out of the room with the