1 rabbit saw 9 elephants while going to the river. Every elephant saw 3 monkeys going to the river. Each monkey had 1 tortoise in each hand. How many animals are going to the river?

I’m curious if anyone has any opinions on the subject. I’m not asking about the value of an individual learning different languages (of course) but a more theoretical question about linguistic diversity.

I don’t have a strong viewpoint myself. If we look at something like computer languages, diversity has allowed evolution and improvement over time, but I’m not sure the principles apply to general languages. Higher level math is pretty universal, and it has evolved, for example.

Thoughts?

I was wandering through TED talk world and came across a talk entitled “How to Talk Like a Native Speaker”. The speaker argues that speaking a foreign language like a native is a worthwhile and achievable goal.

In particular (at 10:30) he gives advice for learning to speak with a native accent by using what he calls “the perfect sentence method”. In short, the learner sits with a native speaker, picks a sentence at random from a book, and then reads the sentence to the native speaker who then grades his accent. Then the native speaker reads the sentence and the learner attempts to copy him, and the native speaker again grades the learner’s speech. This is repeated indefinitely, with the suggestion that the learner will eventually sound native.

I’m curious if any of the language teachers and learners here have any experience with or comments on this or similar methods. Does it work? Is it efficient?