magic79
Enlightened
I have always been fascinated with the operation of the human brain. It's sort of like "the final frontier", as we know so little about it's operation despite the fact we all have one!
I'm married to a Vietnamese woman. She speaks English very well (she's been here 16 years). I find Vietnamese the most difficult language I have ever tried to learn even a bit of.
One year ago last March, her brother and family emigrated (LEGALLY!!!!).
They have two children: a 7 year old boy and a 15 year old daughter. After one year, the daughter (straight A student) has pretty good English skills, but a strong accent. The son, however, has very good English skills...and the point of this post... NO accent. It's especially apparent in pronunciation of my name ('Mark'). I can even detect American dialects by the pronunciation of my name. (New England 'Mock'; Chicago 'Merk'; Southern 'Maaauuurrkk", etc)
So...it seems that a 7 year old can assimilate a language WITHOUT ACCENT, but a 15 year old cannot! I am intrigued that something in the human brain must change between 7 and 15 that makes it impossible to learn a language without accent. Even the best 'adult learners' have some accent (with very, very rare exceptions).
Have any others seen this amazing manifestation?
I'm married to a Vietnamese woman. She speaks English very well (she's been here 16 years). I find Vietnamese the most difficult language I have ever tried to learn even a bit of.
One year ago last March, her brother and family emigrated (LEGALLY!!!!).
They have two children: a 7 year old boy and a 15 year old daughter. After one year, the daughter (straight A student) has pretty good English skills, but a strong accent. The son, however, has very good English skills...and the point of this post... NO accent. It's especially apparent in pronunciation of my name ('Mark'). I can even detect American dialects by the pronunciation of my name. (New England 'Mock'; Chicago 'Merk'; Southern 'Maaauuurrkk", etc)
So...it seems that a 7 year old can assimilate a language WITHOUT ACCENT, but a 15 year old cannot! I am intrigued that something in the human brain must change between 7 and 15 that makes it impossible to learn a language without accent. Even the best 'adult learners' have some accent (with very, very rare exceptions).
Have any others seen this amazing manifestation?