Nature slow please
I hate it when this happens. I have every intention of learning this person's name, and my brain is simply not cooperating. I can't seem to hear what he's saying, I can't pronounce it correctly, and there's no way I'm going to remember it for more than five seconds. Thankfully, these Seung-heon experiences do not occur frequently; in most parts of the English-speaking world, we encounter far more Johns, Susans and Franks than Seung-heons. Generally, we can go about our usual social interactions without much trouble.
When we decide to do something rash like learn a foreign language, however, we run into difficulties. Nearly every new word is another Seung-heon. Our brain struggles to categorize the new sounds in each word—was it Seung, Seong or Sung? —and without the ability to do so accurately, the words do not stick in memory. That aural roadblock is one of the reasons that learning a language as an adult can be so challenging. Fortunately, researchers are starting to find ways to overcome this hurdle. If we train our ears for a few hours before diving into vocabulary and phrases, learning a language can become easier than we ever imagined.
