Study Finds Drunk People Are Better At Speaking Foreign Languages

PortlandPledgeHazers8 years ago

Give an average man a few shots and he’ll start slurring his words, lose motor function, and slowly but surely make less sense. A new study shows, however, that this may only be the case for those speaking their native tongue rather than a foreign language.

From Town & Country:

The study, which was recently published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, involved 50 native German speakers who had recently learned Dutch. Every participant said they drank alcohol sometimes, and all had recently passed a Dutch language proficiency exam, Time reports. Half of the individuals in the study were randomly given a low dose of alcohol, while the other half received a non-alcoholic beverage. The amount of alcohol given to each subject was determined by their body type: for example, a 150-pound man was given just under a pint of beer, the Huffington Post reveals. The participants were then asked to have a two minute conversation with an interviewer in Dutch, which was recorded and rated both by two native Dutch speakers and by the participants themselves.

The researchers found that the native Dutch speakers rated participants who drank alcohol as being more fluent compared to those who didn’t drink. Specifically, the two Dutch raters said those who consumed alcohol had better pronunciation than the non-drinkers.

I can’t help but feel that the participants simply caught a wave of drunken confidence and started rambling with no actual knowledge that they were uttering a foreign language. If only I had this kind of luck when I drink… Instead, I find myself shooting my shot while holding onto a wall for stability and calling girls by their friends’ names.

For all you undergrads who plan to take a semester abroad, take note of this revolutionary finding. This study has finally given American students overseas justification to get absolutely gassed every night for a full semester — they just want to fully immerse themselves in the culture and get a firmer grasp on a new language.

After hearing this news, I formally switched my major to Russian. Now, back to chugging Stoli — I’ve got to study for this midterm..

[via Town & Country ]

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