Arpan Sharma is a great example of this example. As a ten-year-old, he has learned as many languages as he is old. Many of them were self taught (with the help of language DVDs) and Hindu, the native language of his parents, was taught to him at home.
It's not just that he has a few key phrases memorized, "He speaks French with flair, rattles off German with ease and can hold a lengthy conversation in Swahili." He is reasonably fluent in five of the ten languages; however the speed in which he has picked up speaking the others is incredible. Perhaps it helps that he is also in the National Children's Orchestra? According to his teachers, they believe that that is the key to his unique ability to pick up languages so quickly.
In recent years, he has participated in the National Junior Language Challenge (see press release); last year he placed third and this year he has already reached the final round with 30 other competitors.
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3 comments:
That's really amazing. I can't imagine regular people - even 40 year olds - knowing that many different languages. I wonder how much of it can be attributed to his piano playing though, and how much is due to a previous disposition to language learning or the crossover between patterns inherent to multiple languages. Do you believe that music has a strong influence on learning languages, or that more than just auditory mimicry is necessary?
I know it was mentioned in class, but I'm still new to the correlation between proficiency in music and the ability to pick up new languages. How does proficiency in music? Could it just be that people who are gifted in music are also naturals at picking up new languages? Has conclusive research been done on this topic?
besides buying an island and some babies, how could we actually test whether music ability CAUSES improvements in language learning ability?
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