That is the only phrase I remember from 9th grade Spanish class. I have no "ear" for foreign languages, so I studied two "dead" languages in college - Koine Greek and ancient Hebrew. Why? You only have to read them, not speak or hear them.
As my excuse, I use humans' "sensitive period" for learning language that closes at puberty. That means learning language is easier for children than adults. Between 18 months and 6 years, children learn an average of 11 new words a day. Could you easily learn 11 new words by tomorrow? Shake your head "no."
What about hyperpolyglots? (That's an English word that comes from the Greek. Hyper = above; poly = many; glot = tongue/language. Wow! Studying Greek DID help me in real life.)
Hyperpolyglots are those people who know more than one glot, more than a few glots. They know many, many glots.
For example, the Brazilian linguist, Carlos Do Amaral Freire, knows 60 languages. Emil Krebs understood 100 languages and learned Armenian in nine weeks.
What's with these people? Are they geniuses? No. Average IQ. Are they Savants? No. Savants have unlearned abilities. Polyglots learn languages through hard work.
Are their brains different? Hmmm. Now that's an interesting question. According to a Psychology Today article by William Adams, German neuroscientists examined the brain of Emil Krebs after his death and "found that the area of Kreb's brain that governed speech did not have the same asymmetry as most monoligual speakers. Skilled musicians have also been known to have unusual brain wiring in auditory areas."
But hold on there, partner. Don't jump to the conclusion that the brain differences caused the polyglotism. The polyglotism may have caused the brain differences.
According to the article, "What neuroscientists don't know is whether language-learning changes the brain - which studies show is likely -- or whether some people are born with this quality."
Determining cause and effect is difficult. Brain wiring causes behaviors, but behaviors also change brain wiring.
I am recommending to my granddaughter that she study Spanish in college instead of Greek. Why? 1,000,000,000 people in the world today speak Spanish. She may run into some of them and need to communicate. 0 speak ancient Greek. So the only time she may ever use it is if she becomes a Blogger and wants to use a Greek word to impress her readers.
CHALLENGE: Be the first to leave a comment on this post, translating its title, and win an intrinsic prize.
March 7, 2010
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9 comments:
it says passes me the bread and butter please. translation: please pass the bread and butter.
good one.
This is Debbi Marsey. I have u for social psychology first hour. My married name is Lawson.
I think that the second language should be offered at a lower grade in schol for the fact of the younger the easier it is to learn and should be required to take it every year untill graduation. But that is just my thoughts.
100 languages!!!! Wow wouldn't that be cool? I love language and everything about it. (not poetry why i am no longer an english major) I don't know if I can learn one at my age but I need it a NSU. I am thinking about Rosetta Stone. Have any ideas on if the program actually works? I want to learn Spanish, Italian, French and Irish Gaelic. Course not at the same time. spanish is fine becasue I may actually use it sometime but I can't roll my r s. hmmmmm that may prove a problem. Maybe I should move to Ireland!!!!
Learning language is very difficult when you are older. Being of mixed race...Hispanic and Caucasian! My grandmother was always adamant when I was younger that I didn't learn Spanish because, it would get me know where in the world (ha) fooled her. Now it is one of the most commonly used foreign languages in the United States. Now my grandmother tries to talk to me in Spanish and I have no idea what she is trying to tell me and I try and try to learn but, like you say in your article it takes a lot of practice.
My former high school offered Cherokee and Spanish. Though, I found Cherokee interesting b/c I am of Native American descent. I chose to take Spanish instead. I am way far from being fluent, but what little I've learned has helped. I worked at a gas station and many Hispanics have came in speaking no English. Most of the time..I'm able to figure out what they need and know my numbers pretty well to tell them their total. Wished I was introduced to it when I was a kid. I'd probably would of been able to speak it and not just read or hear.
So does this make me a genius since i taught myself how to speak english. It took me 6 months to learn it by watching tv and movies with subtitles. Since i speak two languages it will help me get a good job.
Javier Olazagasti
General Psyc
I can speak english thats about it i have a feeling if i tried another it might not be a good idea I can't roll an 'r' for anything.
I wish so badly I could speak more than one language! but now that I am older I do think it will be tougher to learn it but not impossible! I think learning Spanish would be a great idea for most Americans now. I worked as a secretary for a construction company this summer and if I had known Spanish it would have helped out so much!
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