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> In my understanding (but I might be wrong) this has been disproved for natural languages, i.e., (most) children learning more natural languages do not perform
by retrac 5y ago
> In my understanding (but I might be wrong) this has been disproved for natural languages, i.e., (most) children learning more natural languages do not perform worse on their mother tongue except for a brief period were they tend to mix languages.
More than that, for each related language you learn, the nth additional is easier. After French, Italian and Spanish, you will be able to read Portuguese almost fluently, without any specific study. People like that who write/speak often do mix things up, admittedly. But it tends to go away with regular exposure. To carry forward the metaphor, I'd argue most if not all computer languages are closely related in the same way Spanish and French are.
- schwartzworld 5y agoI can't find it but I remember reading an interview with Phil proctor from the firesign theater. After firesign, he went on to do a lot of voiceover work and specialized in languages and accents. He said that for him once he had a few languages under his belt, the other ones all came very easily, even the ones with really distinct lineages, not just the romance languages. I kept this in mind as I've continued my education in computer programming, and it's true. Once you get familiar with three or four different languages, even the weird ones come a lot easier.