Hey all! I’m a bit of a language geek so I had to pop into this discussion! Not long ago I did a linguistic anthropology course that spoke about how humans gained language(s) as we evolved and it’s absolutely fascinating stuff. I particularly love etymology and how languages have influenced each other and grown into new languages. My latest favourite is how the Greek suffix -logy (psychology, anthropology) is often translated as ‘the study of’ but can also be translated as ‘the story of’ which I think is beautiful, and maybe relevant to this community.
I’m a native English/French Canadian speaker, but have picked up some Spanish along the way. I’m about to spend seven months in China so I’ll need to pick up some Mandarin too methinks. Any advice where to start with that one @Tinker?
@Matty — I can’t say I’ve heard of this specifically but I love it! The closest I do know of is that I’ve run into several people who seem to be more fluent in French after a couple drinks than when they’ve got their whole wits about them. Perhaps some subconscious part of your brains is more attuned to certain languages and maybe it comes out more when you’re not paying full conscious attention to them? That’s a kneejerk theory, anyway… 