Autisic Savant learns a language in a week

Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Amy Kroin- Daniel Tammet is a man of many talents. He can learn foreign languages — even notoriously tricky ones like Icelandic — in a week. He can solve intricate mathematical equations in less time than it takes a prep chef to crack an egg. He can commit vast amounts of data to memory — as he did in 2004, when he memorized the first 22,514 digits of pi and recited them in record time before a rapt crowd. Oh, and he’s even in the process of fashioning a new language, Mänti , which has “a developed grammar and a vocabulary of more than a thousand words.”

There are number cases of polyglots, some with amazing talent like Daniel Tammet (he changed his surname to an Estonian word), who is autistic, but most are normal people who just love languages. For example, Cardinal Mezzofanti who spoke 38 languages fluently just by studying morning and night. He was not necessarily unusually talented in languages. If you learned your first language you have the ability to learn many more. It is not like rocket science, languages are something which the brain is built to learn, and I have met people from all education levels and intelligence that are multi lingual. I knew a man who got an 89 on his IQ test but spoke 5 languages fluently. So do not get involved in inner dialogues about I do not have a gift to learn languages. If you are patient and study what you like you will learn a language.

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