by Chris Lynd 林持一Imagine a world without smell: no scent from delicious food, a car’s leather seats, or your girlfriend’s shampoo. It would be a major loss to one’s material and spiritual life. Olfaction is not as dominant as vision when it comes to reception and analysis of information. But we cannot live without it.
Last year I met a bloke at a Concours d'Elegance in Surrey telling me that he bought a 1970’s British police car for £15,000 just for its smell. He had never considered smell an important part of life until the age of 35. From then on, he couldn’t live without the smell of his car collection. This might be a very special example, but it brings us to a question: Why are smells so important? Smells affect taste, for example. When kids are forced to eat some nasty food by their parents, they often hold or pinch their nose while eating. According to research, over half of what we experience as “taste” is actually smell. If we can’t smell, the sensation from the taste of food may be totally different or disappear altogether. Additionally, the olfactory receptors in our nasal cavity are linked to the nerves of our hippocampus. This explains why some familiar smells may remind us of some particular memories. Much like what other animals do with smells, we humans utilise smells as a tool to remember things and to express ourselves. The use of fragrance is the perfect example. Fragrance After doing a little research and some statistics, I found that about 60 per cent of my friends apply fragrances everyday. And most of my female friends start to wear perfumes at the age of 19. Some people apply fragrance to impress others, and some may wear them as accessories. But what they all have in common is that they want their scents to be noticed. Generally, people wear fragrances to show their taste, let others identify them, and, further, remember them. Smell is a factor which forms others’ impression of us, and first impression matters. Imagine you’re the interviewer of a job interview. Chances are that the interviewees will not say anything as they walk in. You see them, and at a certain distance you immediately sense the smell of them. Even if you don’t intend to smell them, you still have to breathe. That’s why elders always tell youngsters to pick the right fragrance (or not applying one at all) while attending a job interview. If the interviewer likes your taste, you might therefore get the job. What do smells mean to us? I firmly believe that at some point of our lives, smell may become rather crucial, if not an absolute necessity. Like the man who found himself obsessed with the smell of cars at the age of 35, people may suddenly fall in love with smells. Thanks to our clever brains, smells are not just simple signals, they bear meanings and carry messages. Once again, with fragrance as an example, scents with a strong note of musk have a sensual quality of male confidence; however, notes of oriental teas show mystery and gentleness. Human beings are not the only animals to utilise smells, but there is no other animal capable of processing smells, memories, and emotions like humans. We taste different smells everyday. Shouldn’t we enjoy it? Take the journey for the senses by enriching your life with scents and odours, you will find a world full of surprises. a
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Authors
The Taida Student Journal has been active since 1995 with an ever-changing roster of student journalists at NTU. Click the above link to read about the authors Archives
May 2024
|