Your Brain is Bigger Than You "THINK"

Just a little humor to keep us going here at the language training program we are at for the next week and a half.  Today we worked on twisting our tongues to form 'nasals'.  If your thinking M's & N's you're right, but that's only the half of it!  The English language uses only 44 sounds of the 107 letters, 52 diacratics and 4 prosidic marks of the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet).  If that all sounds greek to you, then you're on the right track...in fact most of the symbols are from greek alphabet.  Most of us have been taught that babies can make any sound of any language, and when their language begins to form, their brains forget how to make all those other sounds.  So, what does this mean for us this week?  We're reverting back to baby talk!  And that's what it sounds like when we are in drill sessions.  Making repetitive sounds like "baba", only this time, say it without letting your lips touch.  If you can successfully do this, then you just might be making the "barred b" sound.

Ok, enough mumbo-jumbo, the reality is, we are learning that our brains, (when engaged) have a great capacity for learning new languages.  And, after this week, I am thankful that French will be our first language.  It seems like one of the easier ones to learn.