Coca Cola Commercial

Mott the Hoople said:
Cause there are a lot of people who are scared to death by the unknown and since their education in foreign languages in this country is a national joke they get angry at those who do. Most of the world doesn't really consider a person educated unless they learn to speak at least one foreign language. My wife speaks 5. She's like "What is it with Americans and learning languages? It's not like it's rocket surgery. We teach them to 6 year olds."
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Eh this is where I disagree with your wife.

In neuroscience there is a concept called "language acquisition mechanism" in which small children are able to learn several languages thanks to the sponge like brain which is able to soak up tremendous amount of varying information. As you get older, the brains ability to learn and repeat information such as languages becomes more difficult. So although learning 5 languages is great, I would challenge here to learn 3 at her age now. I gurantee she may be able to pronounce words but wouldn't be fluent unless she had rigorous study, no job, no school, and a lot of time.
 
I didn't see the commercial but I read some of the responses in another online articleI read. The problem with bigots, racists, xenophobes, and the like is that they think America represents white, Christian and English only speaking. What's funny about bigots especially their views on immigration is many complain about foreigners not speaking english, yet they protest illegal immigration. Many want foreigners to acclimate to American culture, but have no problem eating tacos.

Similarly most bigots think America is composed of monolingual cultures and that every person in America has to speak english. From my understanding (which I could be wrong) they wont make America an officially english speaking country because (drum roll).....

The possible issue dealing with the constitutionality of making the United States and english-only speaking country. Hence the accomodation of people of various cultures and languages. The commercial merely represents the many diverse cultures of the United States and the various ways of praising America. But of course bigots don't understand this....
 
Sun Devil said:
Eh this is where I disagree with your wife.

In neuroscience there is a concept called "language acquisition mechanism" in which small children are able to learn several languages thanks to the sponge like brain which is able to soak up tremendous amount of varying information. As you get older, the brains ability to learn and repeat information such as languages becomes more difficult. So although learning 5 languages is great, I would challenge here to learn 3 at her age now. I gurantee she may be able to pronounce words but wouldn't be fluent unless she had rigorous study, no job, no school, and a lot of time.
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She learned Mandarin at 24. She learned Spanish at 32.

I didn't say It was easy. I said it wasn't rocket surgery. Science also shows that with effort and the proper immersion techniques most people can learn the basics of a foreign language in as little as six months.
 
Sun Devil said:
I didn't see the commercial but I read some of the responses in another online articleI read. The problem with bigots, racists, xenophobes, and the like is that they think America represents white, Christian and English only speaking. What's funny about bigots especially their views on immigration is many complain about foreigners not speaking english, yet they protest illegal immigration. Many want foreigners to acclimate to American culture, but have no problem eating tacos.

Similarly most bigots think America is composed of monolingual cultures and that every person in America has to speak english. From my understanding (which I could be wrong) they wont make America an officially english speaking country because (drum roll).....

The possible issue dealing with the constitutionality of making the United States and english-only speaking country. Hence the accomodation of people of various cultures and languages. The commercial merely represents the many diverse cultures of the United States and the various ways of praising America. But of course bigots don't understand this....
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Well that or they're just assholes. ;)
 
Mott the Hoople said:
She learned Mandarin at 24. She learned Spanish at 32.

I didn't say It was easy. I said it wasn't rocket surgery. Science also shows that with effort and the proper immersion techniques most people can learn the basics of a foreign language in as little as six months.
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Ok well, um in my book your wife is very, very, very, very intelligent. Mandarin is not an easy language especially the writing aspect. I do see your point in that it's not rocket science. I guess I was emphasizing how difficult it is to fluently speak another language as one gets older.
 
Sun Devil said:
Ok well, um in my book your wife is very, very, very, very intelligent. Mandarin is not an easy language especially the writing aspect. I do see your point in that it's not rocket science. I guess I was emphasizing how difficult it is to fluently speak another language as one gets older.
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Yes, it does get harder but it is doable and probably a lot easier than learning calculus at any age. Oh and yes...my wife is very, very intelligent.
 
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