Going back to babyhood .....
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Stan
Between listening to Swiss German as a child to studying German in HS, I conclude it has really helped me with my other languages (some of which I literally learned in the bush).
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Beelzebubalicious
My son spoke and understood more Russian after 2 years in Ukraine than I did and he's 3
First, the best consise explanation I could find tonite; and then the explanation by CPT Luoma (his Nam rank), my doc and longer-term friend.
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A basic 3-page article (very quick read) that explains the language-learning process:
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A Model for Language Learning:
From a Brain-considerate Approach
Kenneth A. Wesson
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Around twenty-two months of age, the neural circuitry has often physically connected Broca's area (the posterior inferior portion of the third convolution in the frontal lobe) to Wernicke's area (located in the left temporal lobe, posterior to the primary auditory complex), the cortical region devoted to assisting with semantic analysis. Once these connections are established, a child will begin constructing his/her first short sentences predictably composed of a single verb and a single noun (“Tyler eat”).
http://www.sciencemaster.com/wesson/...R_language.pdf
1. Wernicke's area - understanding language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernicke's_area
2. Broca's area - producing speech
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broca%27s_area
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Here is my doc's take (as I remember the basics). His son-in-law was stationed on Okinawa, with little kids (pre-KG) who played with the native kids. The kids were soon "bi-lingual" - actually mono-lingual, but with two parallel and interlinked grammar and vocabulary tracks. In short, they knew when to use English and when to use Okinawan (whatever language is spoken there).
That interested him, so he started researching it. He got into the more technical stuff above; but the basic idea is that the kid's brain became adapted to taking in more than one word for a concept (a multi-language dictionary, Word A & Word B) and multi-language word strings (multi-grammar). To the kids, everything was one language - use of the right words and word strings depended on the context. Nothing was translated by them.
Doc went on that, in kids who developed that way when young, adding a third language or more was easy even when they were older (so, an added multi-language dictionary, Word A, Word B & Word C). And, without translation, even for the third language.
Now, for folks like me (without strong early childhood multi-language exposure), the process is translation. Even if I am using a foreign language regularly, I am still translating - which might be fairly fast in familiar areas, but still translation. So, no real feel for the language.
And, if you like me are tone deaf, the speaking and listening part is very deficient. As Kenneth A. Wesson points out, music and language abilities are closely related. My mom picked up on that when she realized I was quite hopeless in picking up a proper Swedish accent, even by listening to her's.
Sigh. Bad memories. Viet Namese is a tonal language.
I'm badly tone-deaf. Cao means 'tall,' it can also mean an ugly word. People would try to say the word in both tones and say "see the difference." My answer was always "no"...
You have my sympathy on the Swedish.