Re: [Harp-L] music and perception

["Dave Murray" <dmurray777@xxxxxxx>]

My wife is a native Thai speaker. She has lived in America longer than she 
lived in Thailand, but she didn't learn English until she was an adult. She 
still has an accent. I started trying to learn Thai as an adult, could even 
read it a bit. It is a tonal language. I can not distinguish some of it's 
subtleties. I'll screw up a tone for a word, perhaps changing the meaning 
from "Dang, come here" to Dang, you're a dog". A Thai speaker will correct 
my pronunciation and I'll say, "That's what I said." It's not, I just can't 
hear the distinction.

My youngest daughter started to learn English at the age of 10. Now at the 
age of 16 she speaks both English and Thai without an accent. The 
difference, she learned both languages when she was young enough to hear the 
different sounds that exist in one language but are nonexistent in the 
other.

I don't know if anyone read the link that I posted on this thread about 
studies of babies and adults listening to rhythms, but it concluded that 
after a certain age, if you haven't learned to hear complex rhythms, as an 
adult you won't hear them.

I hate the word "can't" as much as anyone, but there may just be something 
to the idea that the aging process biases your ability to hear things.

Peace and music,
Dave