"How can I turn off my PFC?" Note that this prescription is only for languages. "For example, listening to music decreases PFC activity and has been shown to benefit language learning. Alcohol consumption is another way to reduce your cognitive resources. This might be reason to join a language class that meets over happy hour drinks ... Another promising possibility is walking."
Perhaps I should be suspicious of a report that flatters me and seems to suggest that the best way to learn is to walk to the bar to study.
3 comments:
Isolation into the language that you are learning and away from the language that you know is powerful. Children are unable to affect their environment to get to people who speak their language. they are stuck. Adults have more ability to choose where they work, worship, live, and socialise, so there is less pressure to adapt or die.
One missionary took his family to a town in the hinterlands so he could do immersion study of the local language--which isn't of the IndoEuropean tree. He learned, but struggled, while his 4-year-old son not only learned the local language, but the local creole and got better at English simultaneously--and easily switched context between them all. The boy had the option of staying with groups that spoke something he was familiar with, so I assume there was less pressure--I don't know if pressure is even the right word here.
Yes, I think there is still an advantage for the young. I didn't mean to suggest - and my comment clearly does - that necessity is the only factor.
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