This article points out that a child’s brain is wired to mimic what they hear, hence their ability to pick up a second languages pronunciation very easily. At the age of ten, our brain rewires itself to focus more on learning other skills that become more important in life.
So, is there a way to unlock [...]
Posts from ‘February, 2007’
Can we learn to mimic like children?
The language police
The Estonian Government is coming under fire due to their Language Inspectorate and some recent changes in the law. The Language Inspectorate’s job is to make sure everyone working in Estonia can speak a good level of Estonian. The new powers granted to the division mean that they can recommend the dismissal of an employee for [...]
And the winner is…
Not Babel. So, I haven’t actually seen it yet, but the general feeling seems to be it was robbed on the weekend. Other feelings seem to involve the Oscar nod going to Scorsese because they’d skipped him five times in the past. Pan’s Labyrinth walked away with some good wins which was nice and the [...]
Oscar, Oscar…who will win?
Well tonight’s the night, or day, depending on your time zone. With a host of foreign nominations, these awards are a celebration of the global filmmaking community. Let’s hope I’m still able to say that tomorrow when the awards have been handed out.
Of course, having seen very few of the nominated films so far, my [...]
It’s just good business
Want to obtain and keep precious export contracts? Taking the time to learn your customer’s language and customs may just help you do that. A report for the European Commission found that:
Just over 10 percent of 2,000 small and medium sized firms in 29 European countries sampled in the study have lost export contracts because [...]
12 languages, jealous anyone?
Feel like you can never learn that language? Well, this bright young man has just put us all to shame with his command of 12 languages from self-study.
At the age of 17, Ha Duy Loc, now speaks English, French, Chinese and Russian proficiently and can also communicate fluently in Arabic, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, [...]
Another benefit of languages – Thwarting hostage situations
Going travelling? You might even have a chance to put your new language to use before you get off the plane. A clever pilot, with the help of his passengers, managed to thwart a hijacking attempt. He realised when talking to the hijacker that he didn’t speak French, despite trying to force the plane to [...]
Playing with languages
Bilingual toys are becoming more popular with parents wanting to expose their children to other languages. Remember all those toys you had that taught you to count and read? How about getting them in another language as well? The benefits of learning a second, third, fourth language are more and more apparent in our multicultural [...]
Spread the love
Back in 1967, Barnett Helzberg Jr., came with a novel little idea. Put “I am loved®” you on a pin and start giving them away. This became very popular and you can now pick them up in 11 different languages, with a new one about to be selected.
This just feeds my interest of how to [...]
The world in your pocket
Tired of learning all those new languages while travelling? Well, of course you’re not. You’re here because you love learning languages and can’t get enough of them. However, there are some people who just want a nice easy solution. And sometimes you may even want to understand the answer to the question you just asked.
Well [...]