Your question is based on a false premise. There is no 'foreign language syndrome,' that's a myth based on the very real foreign accent syndrome which is where after a stroke or some other neurological issue, people start talking as if they're from a foreign land. When you learn to speak a language, you've trained your tongue muscles in a very specific way and it's hard to do, think of how long some foreign people you know have been living where you live, and they still don't have perfect English or whatever your 'native tongue' is.
this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2024
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Teen woke up from coma speaking different language
U.S. Man Wakes From Coma Speaking Swedish, Thinking He's Another Person
Aussie Wakes Up From Coma Speaking Mandarin
Not providing those links because I personally believe it is true.
Just providing the links to show to you that I did not confuse accent with language.
These accounts exist.
First video: He woke up speaking only Spanish, a language he'd never spoken fluently before. They didn't say he was speaking it fluently then either, only that he couldn't speak English when he first woke up.
Second: Guy woke up speaking Swedish thinking he was someone else. Was found unconscious with 4 forms of false identification on him, with a cell phone with several phone numbers, all of which were Chinese phone numbers. Lived in Sweden for some time, so he knew the language. Sounds like he may have been a spy who wanted out and faked it Walter White style.
Third: Kid spoke fluent Mandarin in High School, woke up speaking Mandarin after his accident.
So different from foreign accent syndrome, but not all that different. There's no good record of anyone ever waking up sensically speaking a language they never learned (by sensically, I mean being able to speak even a cohesive sentence).
Those are all sensationalist and misleading headlines. They all knew the language prior and were reported by people who did not speak the language as them suddenly being 'fluent'.
I did watch most of each video to confirm, but quoted some comments because they are spot on.
Comment from first one "a language never spoken FLUENTLY before" that means he spoke Spanish before, just not fluently. His brain just tapped into his short term memory and he remembered it well."
Guy in second link taught English in Asia and lived in Sweden for part of his life.
A comment from the 3rd link: "Title should read: Aussie wakes up from a coma with an improved ability to learn Mandarin." He had already taken 'basic Chinese' in school which would be a huge head start.
Pro-tip for life - Younger people believing everything they see on YouTube is the new "Old people believing everything they see on Facebook"
There have been cases where people who have learnt another language get head trauma and fall into a coma, only to wake up having forgotten their first language and only being able to speak their second. But you can’t magically learn a language in a coma
I believe that it would be impossible for someone's mind to invent a language without significant exposure.
My bet is they've been exposed to it while out. Such as the cleaning crew listening to a radio and talking to one another.
There are many accounts of immigrants learning English by watching English (subtitled) cartoons and films. That's still intentionally learning a language, just in a different way than many do. Second hand language exposure would at most lead to incoherent sentences or things that mean nothing. (How many fingers am I holding up? "The sunset is oblong").
This is just a modern myth. Although I'm sure there are less than modern accounts as long as multilingual speakers have been somewhat common.
A stroke can definitely affect your speech, so some people may not pronounce their words as they did before. In some cases it might sound to others as if they have a "foreign accent", especially if they can no longer pronounce some sounds like "th" or "r" well, which are also sounds that non-English speakers have trouble with.
As for suddenly being able to speak a language they never knew? No. I have heard of some people becoming more artistic or creative, but that could be from damage to other parts of the brain that previously inhibited that behavior.
There would be no way for them to gain that knowledge. I could believe that they potentially lost their primary language and spoke a mild amount of other languages that they had picked up by osmosis...
But I am doubtful that they would be able to have a full conversation with a native speaker.
There's no way the human brain could just conjure up a fully functioning secondary language that the person had no exposure to.
Fake. Explain how someone can suddenly do something they couldn’t do before. If it involves magic or aliens or psychic energies, then you know it isn’t real because imaginary things aren’t real.
I never belived that and i don't know why it's so widespread. I'm watching animes with subtitles for over 10 years, and i know like 3 words in japanese.
Hell, i can't even distinguish japanese from korean or chinese or mandarin ir whatever. Other than: this sounds kinda japanese.
If a knock on my head or a coma somehow unlocks all my Japanese knowledge, something is very wrong how we think our brain works.
I've heard of people waking up with accents but I'm not sure I've seen any cases where they speak an unfamiliar language fluently.
that sounds pretty fake bro