Monday, June 14, 2004

If two are good, are four better???

What is the Great El-ahrairah talking about? Well, being from Utah, you may think I'm talking about polygamy (four wives are better than two) or children (four children are better than two), but you would be wrong. I'm talking about the ability to speak multiple languages. Canadian researchers have found that bi-lingualism from birth is good for keeping your brain "young". There is no data on people who learn languages later in life, but they suspect that there would be some type of improvement over people who speka only one language. The Great El-ahrairah can testify that speaking more than one language is a very good way to keep your brain from getting lazy since you have to remember that translating English words and phrases into other languages doesn't always have the same meaning. As examples, ordering a "peperoni" pizza at an Italian restaurant brings you a pizza with hot, spicy, red peppers (peperoni) and not one with pepperoni sausage like in America. In English, saying that a dog is vicious means that he is a dangerous dog, but in France, saying that he is vicious (vicieux) means that he is full of vice. In English, you can say that you are "hot" when the temperature climbs to 100 F., but in French and Italian, saying that you are "hot" (chaud/caldo) means that you are ready for sex. In English, both humans and animals "eat", however, in German, it is important to remember that humans eat, they "essen", but when animals eat, they "fressen". Using "fressen" to describe a human eating is considered insulting, unless he is wolfing down his food or eating without any table manners. Come to think of it, that kind of describes by brother's eating habits, ne c'est pas Cap'n?

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