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I have a friend who seems to pick up languages by osmosis. We went for a meal and were served by someone from Croatia. My friend started chatting to him (in E

I have a friend who seems to pick up languages by osmosis. We went for a meal and were served by someone from Croatia. My friend started chatting to him (in English) and asked him for a few words in Croatian (no more than about a dozen) then was able to start speaking to him in Croatian. Afterwards he explained the few words let him know some basic structure he could relate to other languages he knew and he could extrapolate from them and the new words enough to be able to have a conversation. It was both spooky and amazing at the same time. He has a library in dozens of languages and gets books 'just to see what the language is like' - it's like some sort of super-power.

scotch_drinker 11y ago
In The Four Hour Chef, Tim Ferriss explains how he picks up languages and it's a very similar method. The structure of many languages are the same and so once you know the basic structure and a few helpful words, you can start to communicate. Fluency is a whole other thing but it changed how I view learning a language.
outworlder 11y ago
So, basically, he's an organic version of Star Trek's universal translator? More interestingly, if your friend can do that, perhaps the universal translator is not such a magical concept after all. For terrestrial languages, at least.
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