Language Cheat Reincarnation – Young Girl VTuber Saves the World-Chapter 335: [Does Speed Learning Really Work?]

Well, I was thinking it’s about time to wrap up this stream.

Just as I had that thought, something happened.

?All languages are special, huh? (Ukrainian)

?I get it now. And yeah, learning a foreign language is really tough. (Ukrainian)

?Foreign languages have a lot of features that our own language doesn’t. (Ukrainian)

?On the other hand, Ilesha mastering it is amazing. (Ukrainian)

?We need to work hard to catch up too. (Ukrainian)

?But… didn’t Ilesha learn it because she was still a "child"? (Ukrainian)

That last comment caught my eye.

Apparently, Illyena noticed it too. She tilted her head as she read it aloud.

<I learned it because I was a child…?>

?What do they mean??? (Ukrainian)

?Like, Ilesha said she evacuated to Japan with her mom, right? So how does that compare? (Ukrainian)

?Between you and your mom, who speaks Japanese better? (Ukrainian)

<I speak it better.>

?But that’s just because you studied a lot, right? (Ukrainian)

?You worked hard to get close to Iroha-sama! (Ukrainian)

?Plus, with school, it’s only natural Ilesha would learn faster, right? (Ukrainian)

<I believe so.>

<…Hmm, I see.>

<Iroha-sama, do you understand what that comment meant now?>

<Well, vaguely. I think the person was talking about the "Critical Period.">

<Critical period?>

<Yeah. Like, have you ever heard that children absorb things faster than adults? That it better to start learning something early?>

<I have.>

Of course, starting early means you can spend more time practicing, but that’s not all…

<There's a hypothesis that each of our abilities has a "deadline" for growth.>

<I see. That’s the critical period.>

For example, there was a case where someone thought to be intellectually disabled turned out to have a hearing impairment. The woman was over 30 years old at the time, but she couldn’t learn language after that.

Meanwhile, there’s a child who was raised in isolation until the age of six without knowing any language. After just two years of learning, they could speak normally.

Honestly, the situations are too different, and we still lack enough scientific data for this theory. So, it’s just a hypothesis. But I think it matches our intuition that "kids learn faster."

<And the critical period for learning foreign languages is said to be from birth to around 12 or 13 years old… so, around 6th grade or the first year of middle school.>

?When did Ilesha come to Japan again?

?It was when she was in 6th grade, right? (Ukrainian)

?So, that would be within the critical period, huh? (Ukrainian)

Wait? Now that I think about it, wasn’t it around that time I started remembering my past life?

And also when my physical growth started to stagnate.

Could it be that I’ve been in my critical period this whole time…?

Yeah, right! No way!

?But that means we should start teaching kids English as early as possible, huh?

?I thought it was too early to teach English from elementary school, but from a critical period perspective, it makes sense.

?Maybe I should start playing "Speed Learning" CDs at home for my baby too.

<Ah~ I wouldn’t really recommend that. It’s not completely ineffective, but… it’s super inefficient. If you combine it with some other study methods, it might be different though.>

<Really? It sounds pretty good though.>

<CDs don’t offer "feedback," you know?>

<That’s true. With a CD, you can’t have conversations or ask questions when you don’t understand something.>

<Exactly. Plus, facial expressions. Reactions are super important for learning a language.>

<Facial expressions, huh? When I first started learning Japanese, I think I relied on those reactions to figure out whether I was saying things correctly or not.>

<There’s actually research showing that babies can learn language when people talk to them, but they don’t learn from CDs.>

?If even the language prodigy Akasama can’t do it, no one can! (Ukrainian)

?I thought it’d be great if you could learn English just by listening! But of course, there’s no easy way.

?In the end, practical use is the best way to learn a foreign language. (Ukrainian)

<Exactly. In modern linguistics, the consensus is that it’s almost "impossible" to learn a foreign language without practice.>

<Huh?>

?Whaaat? Impossible??? (Ukrainian)

?Wait a second, but didn’t Iroha-chan…? (Ukrainian)

?Hold on, isn’t there already a living counterexample?! (Ukrainian)

<W-Well, I’m an exception…>

<Iroha-sama!?>

<No, no! I’m basically the same! It’s still hard to learn without practice, I swear!>

?Hard (but not impossible)

?Almost (but not for Iroha-chan) impossible

?Stooop! You’re breaking modern linguistics!!