From nobody@digitalkingdom.org Wed Sep 16 09:45:26 2009 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-list); Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:45:26 -0700 (PDT) Received: from nobody by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1MnxdE-0001pK-VQ for lojban-list-real@lojban.org; Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:45:26 -0700 Received: from qmta02.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net ([76.96.62.24]) by chain.digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Mnxd9-0001nR-2B for lojban-list@lojban.org; Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:45:24 -0700 Received: from OMTA19.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net ([76.96.62.98]) by QMTA02.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net with comcast id hPjt1c00227AodY52UlCuv; Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:45:12 +0000 Received: from [10.0.1.35] ([68.84.144.39]) by OMTA19.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net with comcast id hUq21c0020rD0cL3fUq2E2; Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:50:02 +0000 Message-ID: <4AB11623.7050201@comcast.net> Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:45:23 -0600 From: Jesse Johnson User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.22 (X11/20090719) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: lojban-list@lojban.org Subject: [lojban] Re: Fwd: lojban and raising a child bi-lingual References: <71550650909160548v59f5a03bje8d06fefd058c81a@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <71550650909160548v59f5a03bje8d06fefd058c81a@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-archive-position: 16205 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org Errors-to: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: garand555@comcast.net Precedence: bulk Reply-to: lojban-list@lojban.org X-list: lojban-list Hi, My first post on the list. I decided to learn a little Lojban about 2 weeks ago. The idea of a language with grammar based on predicate logic intrigues me. To address what you are talking about, one of my coworkers in the past moved to the US from Italy when he was 8 or 9 years old. He did not speak one word of English when he arrived. He has no accent so most native speakers do not realize that English is not his native tongue. What gets him are some of the idioms. There were a few times when I used some slang or some idiom and I'd get a blank stare, then a question about what it meant. Those were the only times that his command of the English language would indicate that he wasn't born here. His grammar is better than mine. Jesse Johnson Yoav Nir wrote: > I may be wrongly picking up on your name, and maybe it's just a > handle, but it sounds decidedly non-English speaking. > > So at what age did you start learning English? I did after age 8, and > yet both you and I are fluent enough. At least in this and other > messages to the list, you show evidence of both a rich vocabulary and > good command of the complex English tense system. I believe that my > English is similarly up to the standards of a native English speaker, > though maybe with a somewhat poorer vocabulary than that of an > educated English speaker. > > Talking face to face, it takes Americans some time to recognize a > foreign accent, but I can attribute that to the variety of accents you > can find within the US itself. > > With people who learn a foreign language by immersion later in life, > I've seen them get to a very good command of the new language in a > short time, reaching the level of a 6-year-old kid within 1 year. > Russians, for example, can learn to use articles if they want to. > > With all that, I don't see how you could say that the brain can't > learn new patterns. To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to lojban-list-request@lojban.org with the subject unsubscribe, or go to http://www.lojban.org/lsg2/, or if you're really stuck, send mail to secretary@lojban.org for help.