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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?

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

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@1416445

Yeah that would be another element that would make it more interesting.

Meandmycats avatar Meandmycat Yeah You Are +2Reply

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 :/

accio_sabrinas avatar accio_sabrina Yeah You Are +9Reply

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.

@Deathelf I grew up with 2 languages. At one stage the child speaks it slightly mixed, but they will be fluent in both. I...

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

Dwights avatar Dwight Yeah You Are +8Reply
@Dwight Nah I feel like the child would just be confused... Still cool to see what happens though.

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

Axolotls avatar Axolotl Yeah You Are +11Reply

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

Boufakas avatar Boufaka Yeah You Are +6Reply
@Boufaka It would have to grow up around absolutely no other people besides the "moms".

I don't get why that's voted down so bad, it's true, it's like how you can't get experiments in labs contaminated, you can't let the kid be more exposed to one language than the other!

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@1417746

Tjen you would have to compare more than one person per language (ppl) vs just one ppl.

@1417746

Well yeah. How did you visualize the scenario here? I just thought of a baby in a lab. Did you think of a baby in a home with a bunch of moms?

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@1418032

That's what I was thinking too, like five different homes is a good idea. But it would be kind of cool for the kid too. He/She would be famous and 5lingual, they would have 5 different families. But I guess none of the families would truly love him. I can't decide, but it WOULD be interesting.

Meandmycats avatar Meandmycat Yeah You Are 0Reply
@Meandmycat That's what I was thinking too, like five different homes is a good idea. But it would be kind of cool for the kid...

Adopted kid? and all five families want him/her?
or would that be inhumane because we're using a poor, defenseless orphan?

@mchalla3 Adopted kid? and all five families want him/her? or would that be inhumane because we're using a poor, defenseless...

that's actually a nice idea. You could use 5 orphans. And rotate them through the families. It would create more accurate results, too.

Meandmycats avatar Meandmycat Yeah You Are 0Reply
@Meandmycat that's actually a nice idea. You could use 5 orphans. And rotate them through the families. It would create more...

Eh, but something tells me that something about this just won't be right. Will the orphans be able to be in contact with each other? To stimulate other kids, just so that they wouldn't go insane over time.

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@1418413

I love that movie!

Meandmycats avatar Meandmycat Yeah You Are 0Reply
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@1418469

Lucky! In what grade/subject was this? I can't help wondering under what
circumstances the movie is educational...

Meandmycats avatar Meandmycat Yeah You Are 0Reply

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

xolilasianxos avatar xolilasianxo Yeah You Are +4Reply
@mchalla3 Read pinksponge's comment.

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

xolilasianxos avatar xolilasianxo Yeah You Are +1Reply
@xolilasianxo That's just one risk of a really interesting experiment, and I'd be willing to take it for the sake of being a...

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.

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.

PinkSponges avatar PinkSponge Yeah You Are +2Reply

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

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.

courtbees avatar courtbee Yeah You Are +1Reply

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Anonymous 0Reply

No true American is actually bilingual.

Saudi80s avatar Saudi80 No Way -25Reply
@Saudi80 No true American is actually bilingual.

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

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