Back in France!

Big news. I've moved back to France and oh my gosh what a big job that was. After getting my visa (which thankfully only took a week) I basically only had about 10 days to pack up my stuff and move to a new country and start my new life. Sure, I just moved over the border but I had noone to help me and so many things to do and (re) set up. I'm slowly getting there and only just remembering the bureaucratic nightmares :( and it's even worse than the first time because last time (back in 2010) the school I worked at handled a lot of things for me (ie giving me cheap, furnished accommodation at the school) whereas this time I had to look for my own accommodation.

I have sooooo many posts but I have to figure out a way to make them useful for you, my readers, instead of just compiling a big long list of complaints because this country that I love so much also frustrates me so much!!

How babies learn languages: TED talk

Just came across this fascinating video. I like the last point where she mentions that human interaction is the most important thing for babies to learn a new language and to learn to speak, and tv is pointless. I don't watch tv and really believe that instead of stimulating the brain it numbs it, that's why people fall asleep in front of it, and not in front of a computer/internet.

Whilst the video is really interesting I disagree with anyone who says that 1) babies/kids learn languages faster, or that 2) you can't learn a foreign language after age 7 or age 15 ?!!

and why does the graph drop off at age 39? Are they saying that aged 40 and over it's impossible to learn a foreign language? What a load of crap.  Sure your accent may be crappy but I think something is only impossible if you believe it's impossible and likewise if you believe it's possible, it will be possible.


Watch the video here:

Patricia Kuhl: The linguistic genius of babies (TED talk)

 http://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_kuhl_the_linguistic_genius_of_babies?language=en#t-79604