Accents, Dialects and Stereotypes with Stu Jay Raj [S5.E28]

Greg interviews returning guest Stu Jay Raj - polyglot,
expert language teacher and man about town. Greg begins by asking
Stu about his recent series of videos analyzing the second
language capabilities of various celebrities, including Jon Cena
and Robert DeNiro. Stu responds by explaining his MindKraft
program, which is kind of a general learning system that can be
applied to languages of all types, from linguistics to music to
computer coding. Stu expounds his belief that the human brain is
naturally hardwired for language of all kinds, and as long as you
have the right attitude and approach, you can learn practically
any language at any age.


Stu then introduced the concept of 'neu,' which roughly
translates as an accent that is slightly 'off' or as Stu puts it,
'smells' bad. He then discusses all the variations of 'off'
accents, from Thais who live outside of Bangkok, to those who
grew up overseas. What follows is a fascinating discussion of how
Thais process accents and the difference between native English
speakers (who are used to hearing accented English) and native
Thai speakers (who generally are not).


Dig in for some super cool linguistic gems (that is if you
can get over your jealousy of Stu's knowledge and skills, which
ain't easy). :)


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