KISSing in English – Part Two – The Amygdala

I am frequently amused when a parent of a child I am working with will pull me aside and make the following comment:  I am having trouble learning this new language.  It used to be easier when I was younger.  What’s wrong with me?  Do you have any suggestions?

I never had a good answer for this question until a friend of ours moved to Germany.  She started studying  German and made the comment that she wished she was younger.  Our friend added, “I wish I wasn’t married either.  This [studying the language] would be easier if I had a boyfriend who was a native speaker.”  Her German classes were filled with adults of all ages and the younger ones were hooking up with nationals and suddenly their language skills would soar…like on the wings of love!

As it turns out, there may be something rather significant in learning to kiss in a foreign language!  While love is folly filled, there is something to the hard science behind this: your amygdala.  The amygdalae, in case you don’t know, are tiny nodes near the center of your brain (close to the hypothalamus and the corpus colosum) that are crucial components in your limbic system (a system believed to be related to the processing of emotions and memory).

Why do you need to know that?  Honestly speaking,  you don’t.  Here is what you might want to know:   the amygdala helps you store emotional memories.  Research (man I love the stuff researchers come up with!) has shown that when a person learns language,  the amygdala is frequently activated.  Furthermore, when words are learned with the amygdala activated, there is  greater recall of that information.  OK, you are still asking what does that mean?  Its all about LOVE!  What is more emotional that falling in love?  My friend figured it out, without the benefit of research,  if she were passionately in love, it would be easier to learn this new language.   I am not recommending having an affair will help you learn a foreign language.  I am not saying an inability to learn a foreign language should be blamed on your spouse.  I am saying that if you move beyond the boring necessities and instead focus on learning about things that you are passionate about or have a deep motivating connection to, it is more likely that your amygdalae will be activated.  With your amygdalae activated there is a greater chance you are going to be able to recall the information you were studying.

Let’s be honest with each other for a moment.  As mature responsible adults we have probably learned by now that kissing is an excellent way to royally complicate things.  So stick with the simple stuff.  What inspires you?  What are you passionate about?  I had an adult student years ago who was a professional artist.  He was immersed in a world of colors and textures and mediums.  He wanted to be able to describe  and talk about art.  He developed the most amazingly vivid and descriptive vocabulary over the course of a year.  As a result, each sentence he spoke, like his paintings, was a work of art.

So sprinkle your langauge learning with items and topics that you are passionate about and kiss those language learning blues away.