which people in the world pick up languages quicker than others ?

Question

Once an English girl said something to me about that !
I will say it later .

Sara , What about Greeks & Italians ; most of them don't speak second language .

Answer 1

Africans, many Africans, who most people would consider uneducated and primitive speak 3 or 4 languages if not more. Also, often the languages they speak will be of different categories. Bantu, Arabic and Romance for instance

Answer 2

Generally, when your own language is only spoken in your own country, you are more likely to pick up foreign languages - not necessarily more easily, but it is far more necessary.

For example, the Dutch language is not widely spoken and to enable them to do business or travel with/to other countries, they all seem to learn other languages. Native English speakers on the other hand, are more likely to be lazy about learning another language as there is not so much need.

Where I live, there are many English speakers who have never bothered to learn the local language simply because the people here (at least the majority) all speak English as a second language.

So, to answer your question - people whose mother-tongue is not widely spoken are more likely to learn foreign languages quicker than others out of necessity.

Answer 3

In the Amazons there are areas where each village has it's own language and the members of the villages are not allowed to marry someone that lives in the same village. The result is that most people speak several languages because they are related to so many persons from other villages. And of course they need to pick up the languages quickly to be able to speak to each other.

People in small countries (with their own language) is more likely to pick up other languages. I don't know if they are quick doing it though.

Answer 4

There are people who are born with the gift of languages and they will learn as many languages as they wish. Other people, even after years of studying a language, will not learn it. They just don't have that part of the brain sufficiently developed.

I believe it also has something to do with a specially sensitive hearing. They can pick up the smallest nuances.

Answer 5

Languages can be grouped into clusters, such as the Romance languages, Asian languages and so on. According to a US defense study (a paper resaerching study times for their special ops and diplomats), native English speakers learn related languages such as Italian, French and Spanish about 3 times faster than the unrelated languages such as Arabic, Chinese and Japanese.

As a former China based student of Mandarin Chinese, I have personal experience with observing Koreans and Japanese learning Chinese much faster (probably 2x) than English language speakers, as they have a far easier time with the Chinese characters (Hanzi). Their ability to pick up English (trilingual is pretty common with youunder Koreans) was not particlarly fast though.

Answer 6

children.here in israel we have people from all over the world ,living in this tiny land.and the children pick it up so fast ,its a great way for further studies in all the different languages

Answer 7

I believe the Dutch are the best.

Every Dutch person I know speaks 3 or more.

Answer 8

It would be bias to name a specific group of people, unless you're expecting me to say "geniuses".

Those who are keen and sincere would most often pick it up faster than those who're say, forced into picking up a new language.

It really depends.

Answer 9

children under theage of 8.

Answer 10

Children. They're sponges.

Musicians. They can see/hear patterns.