(no subject)

[randomness]

I've often heard it said that people speak Russian better after they've drunk vodka. Does that mean that people speak Mandarin better after they've drunk báijiǔ (白酒)?

Comments

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Awesome! :)

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

The flavor is really that "distinctive".

Is it open? You could take a whiff of it and see if it's something you'd drink.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Maybe I need to find someplace that serves it and order a swig.

I think that's wise.

[rfrancis]

I just had the really goofy moment where I thought "Hey, once I get far enough in Japanese to read Kanji, maybe I can read some of the things Ness writes!"

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

*laugh*

Seriously, though...I found that being able to read the small number of Chinese characters that I can was actually helpful in Japan. A lot of the place names made sense, for example, and basic stuff like exit signs were immediately useful.

[dianec42.livejournal.com]

Ah, but does one really speak it better, or does one just THINK so because one is drunk?

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

This is actually true of most things that are done better once one can automate them, like playing an instrument, or to some extent types of sports, but as you point out it's generally a U shaped function.

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

I refuse point-blank to believe that any skillset would be improved by maotai. *shudder*

(missionista, who lived in China and worked in a position that required both exercising her then-scant Mandarin and occasionally drinking báijiǔ, is equally dubious.)

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I refuse point-blank to believe that any skillset would be improved by maotai. *shudder*

Many people appear to believe that karaoke is one of them. *shudder*

[jab2.livejournal.com]

imho, people speak foreign languages better while tipsy, in general....

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

It's not just your opinion! Someone published!

Guiora, A., B. Beit-Hallahmi, R. Brannon, C. Dull, and T. Scovel. 1972. The effects of experimentally induced changes in ego states on pronunciation ability in a second language: An exploratory study.' Comprehensive Psychiatry 13:421-7.

"The results of this study are interpreted as confirming the hypothesis that the ingestion of small amounts of alcohol, under certain circumstances, does lead to increased ability to authentically pronounce a second language."

(full article available at http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/34041)

bloodstones observes this was probably a very popular study with the participants.

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

This is an empirical question that can only be answered by rigorous scientific study. I'm in.
Since I can't speak either russian or mandarin I will obviously have to serve as some sort of control. I can also recruit subjects and find undergrads to code the data for us. Maybe *this* is what I'll win and IgNobel for!

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Awesome!

I have been considering starting a collection of the cheap domestic liquor. Of course, I'd have to determine which stuff was the cheapest firewater in each country.

Perhaps we could combine research projects.

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

Yes! We should totally collaborate. Are there more countries we should include?

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I'm posting now. :)

[a-dodecahedron.livejournal.com]

It worked for me. On báijiǔ, I got a lot more speaking practice in per hour. (That's one way of putting it, yeah.)

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

*facepalm* Oh shit, that was pretty much what r_ness was hypothesizing. I'm doomed.