Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreamline  |
Interesting how the language in and of itself makes math easier. It also seems to greatly aid perfect pitch:
Tonal languages are the key to perfect pitch - life - 06 April 2009 - New Scientist
"It turned out that the Asian students scored no better than white students if they weren't fluent in their parents' language (Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol 125, p 2398). But very fluent students scored highly, getting about 90 per cent of the notes correct on average (see diagram). "They did incredibly well. It was overwhelming," says Deutsch.
"This suggests that learning a tonal language plays a far greater role in perfect pitch than genes. "It really looks as though infants should acquire perfect pitch if they are given the opportunity to attach verbal labels to musical notes at the age when they learn speech," concludes Deutsch."
Mandarin has been one of my favorite languages to study thus far, and this sort of thing gives me that much more reason to make sure any kids I have (if any) get exposed to it early on.