Language learning - - Amnon, and everyone else….

Amnon’s language skills have always been phenomenal. He speaks native Hebrew and Arabic, native-like English (he can challenge any of us in Scrabble, Boggle, crossword puzzles). He is competent in French, and can also get by in Spanish and Italian. He picks languages up like contact paper. Spanish was picked up through communication with construction laborers in the US. Amnon’s grandfather was said to be multilingual in 7 languages, so maybe there is some inherited trait? Another gift that might facilitate language learning is how easily Amnon adopts to the culture, the mannerisms, the nuances, the idioms. I remember once upon a time studying that foreign accent adoption requires some “attitudinal permeability” - -  a willingness to relinquish the self that so strongly identifies with how we sound when we speak. Amnon has always been unselfconscious (about this or anything else!) and so probably approaches new languages with the right attitude.

In Hindi, he has learned a lot of the functional language that he needs to negotiate markets, including the rather complex number system. More notably, he has adopted mannerisms (like head tilting) that are uniquely Indian, along with standard filler and response phrases (accha, achha). When he says just a handful of words, with the appropriate associated Indian gestures, people are certain that he has a deeper well of Hindi than he currently has. And he will, soon.