News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Reversing Mental Age with Psychedelics. Parent comment

Re:Reversing Mental Age with Psychedelics by triceratops on Monday August 17, 2020 @03:51AM (#24185002)
As an adult who speaks 3 languages, I don't think that premise is misguided. All the languages I'm fluent in today, I was already fluent in by the time I was 8. Learning a 4th language in my teens (compulsory in high school) was way harder - I can barely read that one and can't write, speak, or listen in it. Even now I grind through Duolingo lessons in that language and barely retain anything.

I assume that most bi-lingual or multi-lingual adults today picked up the fundamentals of all those languages as children. They didn't learn them after growing up.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Reversing Mental Age with Psychedelics by pashamur on Monday August 17, 2020 @12:28PM (#24188756)
Look at Steve Kaufmann as a counterexample - he's learned most of his languages after 40 (he was multilingual from a young age, but there is certainly a process that lets even older adults pick up languages quite straightforwardly)
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Reversing Mental Age with Psychedelics by gre on Monday August 17, 2020 @07:56AM (#24186354)
American high school language programs are really bad. The teachers speak English mostly and there's no real incentive or reason to learn in or out of class because there's nobody you need to communicate with.
[ Parent | on HN ]