Alcohol helps your language skills

[Tom]

No wonder my conversational German got better, the longer I hung out at the Hofbrau Haus.

http://www.geniuskitchen.com/article/alcohol-aids-foreign-language-fluidity-433?nl=GKW_102717_sub4cta&bid=11060297&c32=765a2d21c55fa0c3781a43ca3b7cddfc5ece3b0d&ssid=2016_HGTV_Dream_Home_2016_Wildfire&sni_by=1951&sni_gn=Male

[Zoom Zoom]

That is an interesting read.

I like this part:
"It is important to point out that participants in this study consumed a low dose of alcohol,” said Dr. Fritz Renner, one of the researchers conducting the study. “Higher levels of alcohol consumption might not have beneficial effects on the pronunciation of a foreign language."

Of course it is well known that higher doses of alcohol diminishes your ability to carry on a conversation in your native language.

John Henry

[Vince in Milwaukee]

I was stationed in mainland Japan for two years back in the 80s.  While there, I took two semesters of basic Japanese at the college on base.  My language skills improved dramatically after a beer or two.  You're just not all hung up on getting things perfect.  My Japanese hosts appreciated the effort, even when I didn't always get things quite right.  Good times! 

[Arizona Wayne]

I was stationed in mainland Japan for two years back in the 80s.  While there, I took two semesters of basic Japanese at the college on base.  My language skills improved dramatically after a beer or two.  You're just not all hung up on getting things perfect.  My Japanese hosts appreciated the effort, even when I didn't always get things quite right.  Good times!

That makes sense.    I can extrapolate/visualize more when drinking. 

[ITSec]

Maybe this explains why so many Europeans are multi-lingual!

Of course, a lot of my friends say when I've had enough to drink I start speaking some unintelligible foreign language... 

[Tom]

I think the term "babble" comes to mind. 

[Testarossa]

Anything that lowers inhibitions improves fluency in speaking a new language. I learned this via a motorcycle accident in rural Quebec. I had high school French -- far from fluent. I walked into a tiny clinic rather shaken up, and announced "J'ai brise mon clavicle," and they took me for a local. Put me in a plaster tee-shirt to immobilize the collabone and sent me on my way. The whole transaction done in Quebecois. Never could have done that with my head on straight.

Tested this out in a number of skiing trips to the French alps and everything always went better if I had a glass of wine or a panache before getting down to business.

[Sasquatch Jim]

 When I lived in Germany for 2 1/2 years in the early sixties, I found that the more I drank the better I spoke German.
 I attribute this to the fact that germans drink heavily and their pronounciation is affected by this.
Hence when I drank, I was putting myself in the same condition that the Germans were in when they invented their own language.

[Curtis Harper]

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[Chuck in Indiana]

Drinking and flying is verboten, of course, but there was a study at one time to prove why. Pilots were given one beer and told to fly a complicated instrument approach to landing in a simulator.
Much to the surprise of the examiners, the pilots with one beer in them did a better job than when sober. (!)
It was attributed to relaxation and lessening of stress. Things *did* start to go downhill with 2 beers, and by the third, nobody cared any more. 

[Arizona Wayne]

Drinking and flying is verboten, of course, but there was a study at one time to prove why. Pilots were given one beer and told to fly a complicated instrument approach to landing in a simulator.
Much to the surprise of the examiners, the pilots with one beer in them did a better job than when sober. (!)
It was attributed to relaxation and lessening of stress. Things *did* start to go downhill with 2 beers, and by the third, nobody cared any more. 

Decades ago in Jr. College I took a Geometry test after drinking a couple beers and wizzed right thru it and got a good grade.    But back then I had a beer before running my Volvo P1800 in an Autocross(slalom) and it messed my  timing all up in the curves.    So I think some times it depends what you are doing next too.

[Tom]

Drinking and flying is verboten, of course, but there was a study at one time to prove why. Pilots were given one beer and told to fly a complicated instrument approach to landing in a simulator.
Much to the surprise of the examiners, the pilots with one beer in them did a better job than when sober. (!)
It was attributed to relaxation and lessening of stress. Things *did* start to go downhill with 2 beers, and by the third, nobody cared any more. 

IIRC some state police agency did the same with test drivers.  Same type of results. 

[Waltr]

  It was reported to me during my professional drinking career that I pulled up to a light and never made an attempt to put me feet down.  Of course I way too much to drink to remember this reported event.