Howard Brazee wrote: > On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 08:25:36 -0500, Ken Koester > <kkoester at email.ers.usda.gov> wrote: > >> Made even worse by the fact that most people lose the ability to >> hear differences between vowel tones they are accustomed to & >> foreign ones by the time they are 12. That's why few adults learn >> to speak another language with the correct accent or at least, >> accent-free, and why it is much much easier to learn languages when >> you are a young kid. > > > I read of a study made. They took 6 month old Americans and > Japanese and made noises ra-ra-ra-ra-la-ra. When the "la" happened > they did something interesting. The babies learned to look up when > they heard "la". > Right, it's a difference & babies pick up on those. that's how the psych boys figure they're learning about their environments. > They did the same thing for year-old children and the Japanese babies > did not look up when the word changed to "la". They had already > learned that "ra" and "la" were the same and couldn't hear the > difference between them. > > This study fascinates me. How much of the world have I learned to > ignore? > Scary, isn't it? Actually, I was being conservative. The study I read indicated that much of the loss occurs earlier & by age 12, is almost concluded. If you wanna really become bilingual & sound like a native, better do it before you are 6 or better pick better genes (-; Snarkhunter