Speaking a foreign language: Is it a gift?

False. It is not necessary to have special powers to speak another language properly. Whining about not having the “gift” is a bad excuse to not get started. At the beginning of the last century, some linguists have tried to develop aptitude tests to verify the existence of a gift. But since the 70s, the vast majority of them admit that no evidence points in this direction. Neither tied to a particular talent nor correlated to our level of intelligence, our ability to access another language depends only on us. And our cultural origin, of course (for example, it is easier to find an interest in Hindi when our parents, themselves, listened to Hindi songs or watched Bollywood movies). Our curiosity and concern for others and the world also plays a part.

But something else also plays a part…our ears. It is, in any case, this is what has been demonstrated by Alfred Tomatis, physician specialising in the ear, nose and throat, and inventor of a method of learning (tomatisparis.com) often popular amongst actors and singers. His premise: “the voice reproduces only what the ear hears”, meaning that if one speaks against a foreign language badly, it is because they do not listen properly.” According to him, each language uses, in fact, a sound spectrum consists of waves and specific frequencies. But while there are some languages ​​with “curves” and “bandwidths” that have affinity to that of others, there are still speakers of other languages which are less fortunate structurally, and they therefore have a lower listening capacity. This is the case of the language of Molière, in particular, which does not share that little “frequency territory” of Shakespeare, for example. Hence our difficulty accessing the language, while a Russian, thanks to “openness to diaphragmatic hearing” is able to learn French in a few weeks…

“Thanks to the gymnastics of the auditory muscles achieved through an “electronic ear” that reproduces the parameters of the target language, the Tomatis® Method allows the ear to truly adapt to own rhythms and sounds of the other language. This consists in freeing yourself from the rhythm and sound patterns of your own language in order to learn more,” says certified practitioner Charles Menneron. As a result, eight European universities have confirmed that rehabilitating the ear, that is to say, allowing the ear to literally get on the same wavelength as the target language, reduces the learning time by half.

Read the rest of  our report:

Learning foreign languages: Is it harder after 40?
What is the best method to learn a foreign language?
Should we spend time learning a foreign language?
Learning foreign languages: Your stories

 

Stephanie Torre