+387 It's amazing how you learn you mother language without even studying it. It'd be cool if we had a 'test baby' grow up with 5 different 'moms' each fluent in a different language. They would each spend the exact same amount of time with the child. By the time the kid's ten, it would be cool to see what languages or how much of the different languages the kid is fluent in, amirite?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

It would have to grow up around absolutely no other people besides the "moms".

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I grew up with 2 languages. At one stage the child speaks it slightly mixed, but they will be fluent in both. I always figured it would be the same if they were exposed to more.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Nah I feel like the child would just be confused... Still cool to see what happens though.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Yeah, who cares about the baby? This is for science! And curiosity!

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Yeah, having a "test baby" is always a good idea, and won't open any horrible doors.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

No true American is actually bilingual.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

It was ironic that when I thumbs-downed this comment, it said nada.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

It would be nice if there was a way to justify doing this to children just to see the outcome. I'd be interested to see how this plays out, but I wouldn't want a child forever messed up and unable to speak properly for the rest of his/her life.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

my aunt always switches between french, Spanish, and English with my three little cousins. She's been doing that since she first started teaching them to talk, and they can actually respond to questions in all three languages. I'm very jealous of them :/

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I want to try this but all in English, but all different accents to see what that would sound like

by Anonymous 13 years ago

it would probably work at least to a point. the only reason people are able to learn one language so well so easily is that they grow to only respond to the sounds that make up that language, and not to others. that's why europeans have trouble with asian languages and many asians cannot distinguish L and R, as they are not distinct sounds in those languages.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I grew up English and Welsh, I was just good at both from a young age.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Reading this made me want to go back in time and sign myself up for this thing D:

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Read pinksponge's comment.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

That's just one risk of a really interesting experiment, and I'd be willing to take it for the sake of being a multi-lingual BAMF :D

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Well yeah, i agree. The thing is, if people tried this, there would be all kinds of protests because the child would only be able to be exposed to the moms.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

There's not just one way to perform an experiment.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

If there wouldn't be so much protest and complaining from people, it would be neat to do it. See how the child turns out around the pre-teen stage. It would be 13 years of their life they had spent learning this different types of languages.. I'm guessing the child would turn out fine in all languages as long as it was taught from day one. Babies brains up until the age of 5 is when we absorb the most information.. And yada yada about more pshyc I could say but you get it lol.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Lots of people grow up bilingual. I know several people who have come from a non-English speaking country to NZ and now are fluent in both. I agree the experiment would be interesting, but rather unethical.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

yes but not 5lingual. I myself was 4lingual at 12.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The baby would have to be emotionally close to each of the moms though. They might tune out the mom who, say, treats them badly, for example.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

My dad is Arabic and my mom is Brazilian while I was born in the States and even though they both spoke their native tongue all the time, I grew up to only be fluent in English until about the 4th grade, but that's a different story.. But yeah the point is that I never learned the languages of my parents while I was learning how to talk.

by Anonymous 13 years ago