Re:Some People's Brains Are Wired for Languages
by coreyp_1 on Wednesday December 28, 2016 @01:18PM
(#13272389)
Your anecdote suggest confirmation bias, because the opposite is equally possible. How do I know? Because I am the counterexample.
Nobody in my family speaks anything but English. I am from a small town. I have never had a conversation from anyone from my hometown in anything but English. We grew up in a very conservative church, in a very conservative part of the country. While I was never taught that "questioning" was wrong, it was never an active part of the teaching, either; just indoctrination. No early exposure to STEM. Really, church activities (and the band in school) were my life.
At 16, I began teaching myself how to play the piano and to study languages (when the Internet made access to other languages possible). I also taught myself programming, because it was interesting (Pascal, then Assembly, then PHP... I know, it's weird). I had no direction from family (my dad was a butcher (later a salesman), my mom was a nurse) because they didn't know anything about any of it. I just did whatever I thought was interesting on my own.
What is the result? My first degree was from a seminary, where I earned a bachelor's in Biblical Studies. I then went to a state university, and earned a BMus in Piano Performance. I then earned a MSci in CS. I'm 3.5 years into my CS PhD program.
As for language, I'm comfortable in Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. I have also studied French, Italian, German, and Russian. This was all done in my late teenage and adult years (again, due to Internet availability).
Nobody in my family speaks anything but English. I am from a small town. I have never had a conversation from anyone from my hometown in anything but English. We grew up in a very conservative church, in a very conservative part of the country. While I was never taught that "questioning" was wrong, it was never an active part of the teaching, either; just indoctrination. No early exposure to STEM. Really, church activities (and the band in school) were my life.
At 16, I began teaching myself how to play the piano and to study languages (when the Internet made access to other languages possible). I also taught myself programming, because it was interesting (Pascal, then Assembly, then PHP... I know, it's weird). I had no direction from family (my dad was a butcher (later a salesman), my mom was a nurse) because they didn't know anything about any of it. I just did whatever I thought was interesting on my own.
What is the result? My first degree was from a seminary, where I earned a bachelor's in Biblical Studies. I then went to a state university, and earned a BMus in Piano Performance. I then earned a MSci in CS. I'm 3.5 years into my CS PhD program.
As for language, I'm comfortable in Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. I have also studied French, Italian, German, and Russian. This was all done in my late teenage and adult years (again, due to Internet availability).