> From: Ken Koester [mailto:kkoester at email.ers.usda.gov] > Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2004 10:00 AM > To: dragaera at dragaera.info > Subject: Re: A Linguistic Note > > 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". > > > > 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 (-; Tip: Arrange to have a bilingual parent (or two!) My sister-in-law married someone from Holland. Their little girl is getting English in one ear and Dutch in the other. I wish I had been so lucky as a child.