| ??? 02/10/07 21:16 Read: times |
#132480 - common knowledge Responding to: ???'s previous message |
Craig Steiner said:
As I've said, it's common knowledge that languages are picked up far easier when one is young and the mind is frustratingly stubborn when it comes to learning languages later in life. *Sigh* It was once common knowledge that the Earth was flat and the Sun orbited the Earth. I speak from experience as having immersed myself in Mexico for 10 years and my wife (Mexican) has now been immersed in the U.S. for nearly a year. Yes, you can communicate after a year, but it's a very rare case that one is "fairly fluent" in a year (though that will depend on your definition of "fairly fluent"). YMMV. By "immerse" I mean precisely that. No speaking your native language at all. Either communicate in the language you're trying to learn, or use gestures and body language. Sink or swim. I'll take a wild guess that you still spoke quite a bit of English after you moved to Mexico. My working definition of "fairly fluent" is that you can communicate well enough to make yourself easily understood and that you easily understand others. Doesn't mean you sound like any other person in particular. A good old boy from the South and a New Englander can understand each other, but they'll still think the other "sounds funny". And the difference between my Spanish after 10 years in Mexico and a 10-year old Mexican's Spanish... Of course it'll be different. Your English and mine are different. ...is that the 10-year old Mexican is going to have the correct pronunciation and isn't going to make the little grammar mistakes Ten-year olds make grammar mistakes in any language. For that matter some adults who have spoken a language all their lives still don't do it well. Some people talk good, others speak well ;-) FWIW, Mexicans don't speak Spanish anymore than you and I speak English. I've been to Spain, the sound is completely different. You and I don't sound like Englishmen, at least I don't. But getting back on track, the disagreement was as to whether or not our mental acuity degrades with age. Rob claimed that it was a "scientific fact" that it does. Neither of you has provided scientific evidence to back up that claim (NB: I haven't yet finished looking at all the links Rob provided). My own experience and readings indicate that it just ain't so. Certainly it's true for many people, but it manifestly is not for many others. Mental deterioration is caused by many things, but age alone is not one of them. Case in point: George Burns. I'm sure you can think of others. Now to make my own point: Idiots use the myth of feeble-minded older folk to justify all kinds of despicable discrimination. I view that as being no different than race or gender discrimination. And it is equally unjustified. Before you put yourself in that camp, remember that you'll one day be faced with it, if you aren't already. Oh, BTW, Linux has been ready for the desktop for many years. It's the only thing I've used on my machines for at least six years now. |
