Two newspaper items struck my fancy this morning. The first in the Waco Trib described research into how small children so easily learn multiple languages. It has to do, apparently, with the fact that children are able to distinguish between all sounds in any language when born, but lose that ability as they learn their native language(s), keeping only those language sounds that are useful to them. The trick to learning a second language when an adult, it appears, is to practice hearing the new language - or social interaction in the new language--duh! I'm pretty sure we have already figured that out.
The second was an opinion piece by William McKenzie in the Dallas Morning News about Tom Watson who nearly won the British Open yesterday. What's so amazing about that? Tom Watson is 59 years old and hasn't won a major tournament in quite some time. Here are Watson's lessons, according to McKenzie. (1) Don't give up. Ever. (2) Life disappoints. Get used to it. and (3) Golf is about more than the ball and clubs. Again, this is pretty much common knowledge.
How does it all relate to college study skills and college in general? You tell me.
How Cell Phones are Changing the World
14 years ago
I speak three languages and I learned the second one when I was nine years old, english. I do agree that learning languages is much easier when growing up but if you are bilangual by a certain age, I would say 13-17. Picking up other languages becomes a much simpler task. I learned spanish in high school and was able to relate it to both english and french when growing up but it is by placing myself in an exclusive environment with only spanish speakers that I was able to become fluent.
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