On Thu, 2006-01-12 at 13:37 -0700, Josh Coates wrote: > > For example, replacing a "b" with a "p" in the middle of a > > word, or spelling "cat" as "cet". > > in a similar vein, i've found that learning a 3rd foreign language does > strange things to your brain. > > for example, if know spanish, and you are learning cambodian, and you try to > recall the word for food then your brain says "um, well it's not FOOD > because that's english...lemme see, what's the foreign way to say food? > COMIDA, that's right." > > when you are really trying to find the word MAHOPE. > > i think our brains have these gross categories of things and sometimes it's > like a first-fit algorithm or something..
One nice side effect of that behavior is that a good way to refresh an underutilized second language is to try to learn a third. The more I learn Spanish, the better I remember my Japanese. Not very useful to my kids, who get very confused, though. Corey
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