Undeniable Fact: Tower of babble

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Due to the physical limitations of the human brain, it is only possible to speak three different languages. Any language learned beyond the third will necessarily detract from proficiency in the others. In fact, there is a point - seven languages, on average - at which the mind's capacity for language is stretched to the breaking point. Those foolhardy enough to attempt to push this limit are often rendered incoherent in every language.

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5 Comments:

Blogger Edward Hansen said...

Not true, I am fluent in 7 different languages: Russian, Danish, Norwegian, German, Spansih, English, French. As you can see I can comune without troubleeeeee... Duuuuhhhh

9:25 AM  
Blogger Alex Cull said...

This is absolutely true. I learned French & German at school, then learned some Japanese. Years ago I had a telephone interview in French, at which I failed miserably. I was uttering French words but using Japanese sentence structure! The sectors on my neural hard disk drive, so to speak, had been completely overwritten. The result - gibberish!

5:18 PM  
Blogger thomas said...

Oh yeah? Say something in each of those languages, edward!

1:48 PM  
Blogger Fuck Off said...

Is there a single undeniable fact that is an actual fact? Everything here is obvious bs.

1:11 PM  
Blogger duffytoler said...

Naf, (can I call you that?) a lot of undeniable facts about linguistics, science and the humand mind look like "obvious bs" until you study some more, read up a little on the subject, and eventually get it.

7:06 PM  

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