Stanford researchers have found that, contrary to previous studies, insulin levels and a specific genotype pattern don’t predict weight-loss success

Low-fat or low-carb? It’s a draw, study finds

Stanford researchers have found that, contrary to previous studies, insulin levels and a specific genotype pattern don’t predict weight-loss success.

(Original text can be found here)

New evidence from a study at the Stanford University School of Medicine might dismay those who have chosen sides in the low-fat versus low-carb diet debate.

Neither option is superior: Cutting either carbs or fats shaves off excess weight in about the same proportion, according to the study. What’s more, the study inquired whether insulin levels or a specific genotype pattern could predict an individual’s success on either diet. The answer, in both cases, was no.

“We’ve all heard stories of a friend who went on one diet — it worked great — and then another friend tried the same diet, and it didn’t work at all,” said Christopher Gardner, PhD, professor of medicine and the lead author of the study. “It’s because we’re all very different, and we’re just starting to understand the reasons for this diversity. Maybe we shouldn’t be asking what’s the best diet, but what’s the best diet for whom?”

Past research has shown that a range of factors, including genetics, insulin levels (which helps regulate glucose in the body) and the microbiome, might tip the scales when it comes to weight loss. The new study, published Feb. 20 in JAMA, homed in on genetics and insulin, seeking to discover if these nuances of biology would encourage an individual’s body to favor a low-carbohydrate diet or a low-fat diet. The senior authors of the study are Gardner; Abby King, PhD, professor of health research and policy and of medicine; Manisha Desai, PhD, professor of medicine and of biomedical data science; and John Ioannidis, MD, DSc, professor of medicine.

A TALE OF TWO DIETS

In his quest to find out if individual biological factors dictate weight loss, Gardner recruited 609 participants between the ages of 18 and 50. About half were men and half were women. All were randomized into one of two dietary groups: low-carbohydrate or low-fat. Each group was instructed to maintain their diet for one year. (By the end of that year, about 20 percent of participants had dropped out of the study, due to outside circumstances, Gardner noted.)

Individuals participated in two pre-study activities, the results of which were later tested as predictors of weight loss. Participants got part of their genome sequenced, allowing scientists to look for specific gene patterns associated with producing proteins that modify carbohydrate or fat metabolism. Then, participants took a baseline insulin test, in which they drank a shot of glucose (think corn syrup) on an empty stomach, and researchers measured their bodies’ insulin outputs.

In the initial eight weeks of the study, participants were told to limit their daily carbohydrate or fat intake to just 20 grams, which is about what can be found in a 1½ slices of whole wheat bread or in a generous handful of nuts, respectively. After the second month, Gardner’s team instructed the groups to make incremental small adjustments as needed, adding back 5-15 grams of fat or carbs gradually, aiming to reach a balance they believed they could maintain for the rest of their lives. At the end of the 12 months, those on a low-fat diet reported a daily average fat intake of 57 grams; those on low-carb ingested about 132 grams of carbohydrates per day. Those statistics pleased Gardner, given that average fat consumption for the participants before the study started was around 87 grams a day, and average carbohydrate intake was about 247 grams.

What’s key, Gardner said, was emphasizing that these were healthy low-fat and low-carb diets: A soda might be low-fat, but it’s certainly not healthy. Lard may be low-carb, but an avocado would be healthier. “We made sure to tell everybody, regardless of which diet they were on, to go to the farmer’s market, and don’t buy processed convenience food crap. Also, we advised them to diet in a way that didn’t make them feel hungry or deprived — otherwise it’s hard to maintain the diet in the long run,” said Gardner, who holds the Rehnborg Farquhar Professorship. “We wanted them to choose a low-fat or low-carb diet plan that they could potentially follow forever, rather than a diet that they’d drop when the study ended.”

CONTINUING TO MINE THE DATA

Over the 12-month period, researchers tracked the progress of participants, logging information about weight, body composition, baseline insulin levels and how many grams of fat or carbohydrate they consumed daily. By the end of the study, individuals in the two groups had lost, on average, 13 pounds. There was still, however, immense weight loss variability among them; some dropped upward of 60 pounds, while others gained close to 15 or 20. But, contrary to the study hypotheses, Gardner found no associations between the genotype pattern or baseline insulin levels and a propensity to succeed on either diet.

“This study closes the door on some questions — but it opens the door to others. We have gobs of data that we can use in secondary, exploratory studies,” he said. Gardner and his team are continuing to delve into their databanks, now asking if the microbiome, epigenetics or a different gene expression pattern can clue them in to why there’s such drastic variability between dieting individuals.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from this study, Gardner said, is that the fundamental strategy for losing weight with either a low-fat or a low-carb approach is similar. Eat less sugar, less refined flour and as many vegetables as possible. Go for whole foods, whether that is a wheatberry salad or grass-fed beef. “On both sides, we heard from people who had lost the most weight that we had helped them change their relationship to food, and that now they were more thoughtful about how they ate,” said Gardner.

Moving forward, he and his team will continue to analyze the reams of data collected during the yearlong study, and they hope to partner with scientists across Stanford to uncover keys to individual weight loss.

“I’m hoping that we can come up with signatures of sorts,” he said. “I feel like we owe it to Americans to be smarter than to just say ‘eat less.’ I still think there is an opportunity to discover some personalization to it — now we just need to work on tying the pieces together.”

The study’s other Stanford co-authors are postdoctoral scholars John Trepanowski, PhD, and Michelle Hauser MD; research fellow Liana Del Gobbo; and senior biostatistician, Joseph Rigdon, PhD.

Gardner, Desai and Ioannidis are members of the Stanford Cancer Institute. Gardner and Ioannidis are members of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. Gardner and Desai are members of the Stanford Child Health Research Institute. Gardner is a member of Stanford ChEM-H. Ioannidis is a member of Stanford Bio-X.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (grants 1R01DK091831, T32HL007034 and 1K12GM088033), the Nutrition Science Initiative and Stanford’s Clinical and Translational Science Award (grant UL1TR001085).

Stanford’s departments of Medicine and of Health Research and Policy also supported the work.

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Glasses wearers really are more intelligent - it's in the genes

As leis da União Europeia exigem que eu informe aos visitantes da UE sobre os cookies usados e os dados coletados no meu blog. em muitos casos, essas leis também exigem que eu tenha o consentimento deles. Aviso, então, que não coleto dados de ninguém e aproveito para dizer que não tenho o menor interesse na vida privada das pessoas que visitam este blog.

It may seem merely a cliche born of centuries of educated people straining their eyes in dimly-lit libraries, but new genetic research suggests those who wear glasses really are more intelligent.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh analysed the genetic data of more than 44,480 people.

They found that, overall, those who were more intelligent were nearly 30 per cent more likely to have genes indicating they require reading glasses than those who scored poorly.

Published in the journal Nature Communications, the research also linked higher cognitive ability to genes known to play a part in better cardiovascular health.

The results are based on the most thorough investigation of intelligence genes of its kind to date.

The research team examined 148 genomic regions related to better cognitive function, including 58 that have not previously been reported.

They said the results could help understanding of the declines in cognitive function that happen with illness and as people age.

Because of the study’s design it is not possible to say why there is a genetic correlation between intelligence, poor eyesight and cardiovascular health.

However, Dr Gail Davies, of University of Edinburgh's Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, who led the analysis, said:

"This study, the largest genetic study of cognitive function, has identified many genetic differences that contribute to the heritability of thinking skills.

"The discovery of shared genetic effects on health outcomes and brain structure provides a foundation for exploring the mechanisms by which these differences influence thinking skills throughout a lifetime."

Those who participated in the study had all taken a variety of thinking tests which were summarised as a general cognitive ability score.

All had genetic testing that examined their DNA and none of the people had dementia or a stroke.

From: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/05/29/glasses-wearers-really-intelligent-genes/

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The universe is a hologram: Stephen Hawking's final words?

“For a tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang, the universe expanded incredibly rapidly before settling into its present state.”

Do we live in a matrix? Well, to honest with you, I have absolutely no idea of how I could explain the reason why I’m asking you this crazy question. I don’t even know if there is anything that can be explained in this world. The only thing I know is that reading is one of the most important skills in any language – or at least I believe it is. Taking that into account, I just would like to share this article with you – it has been recently published and brings some food for thought, especially for those who love Stephen Hawking and Physics – so that you may improve your reading skills by reading it.

Stephen Hawking has revealed from beyond the grave his final scientific theory - that the universe is a hologram.

The cosmologist, who died on March 14, has challenged previous theories of cosmic "inflation" and the "multiverse" in a new paper published in the Journal Of High Energy Physics.

Scientists generally believe that for a tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang, the universe expanded incredibly rapidly before settling into its present state, filled with stars and galaxies - the inflation theory.

But some have proposed that, on a grander global scale, inflation goes on forever, giving rise to a "multiverse" - a number of different universes with their own laws of physics.

Prof Hawking was always troubled by this idea, which at a fundamental level cannot be reconciled with Einstein's theory of General Relativity. In an interview last year he said: "I have never been a fan of the multiverse."

Working with Belgian colleague Professor Thomas Hertog, Prof Hawking extended the weird notion of a holographic reality to explain how the universe came into being from the moment of the Big Bang.

The new theory embraces the strange concept that the universe is like a vast and complex hologram. In other words, 3D reality is an illusion, and that the  apparently "solid" world around us - and the dimension of time - is projected from information stored on a flat 2D surface.

Hawking and Hertog's variation of the holography theory overcomes the problem of combining eternal inflation with General Relativity.

Prof Hertog, from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KT Leuven),  said: "It's a very precise mathematical notion of holography that has come out of string theory in the last few years which is not fully understood but is mind-boggling and changes the scene completely."

Applied to inflation, the newly published theory suggests that time and "the beginning" of the universe arose holographically from an unknowable state outside the Big Bang.

Prof Hawking said before his death: "We are not down to a single, unique universe, but our findings imply a significant reduction of the multiverse, to a much smaller range of possible universes."

From:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/02/professor-stephen-hawkings-final-theory-universe-hologram/

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Bilingual Kids Do Not Get Confused Speaking Two Languages

Bilingual kids get confused learning two languages at once. It is impossible for children to learn a second language while trying to master their first.

There is also the possibility of a speech delay because of language confusion, and bilingual kids may not end up not talking at all.

Parents should speak one language to their child, and it should be the community language so that eventually when their kids go to school they won’t get confused.

Any of this sound familiar?

If you are raising a bilingual child, I am sure you have heard a few of these statements, either from friends, teachers, or even strangers. There is this huge misconception that bilingual kids get confused learning two languages at once. Many parents become scared off and some even consider dropping a language because of it.

Let’s get one thing straight though. While bilingual kids develop their language abilities differently, bilingualism does not cause confusion. Learning two or even three languages at once, does not cause confusion.

But my partner and I speak different languages with our kids, won’t there be some confusion?

If each parent speaks a different language to your child, it will not confuse them. The OPOL approach is very popular because children learn to differentiate between the two languages, and who they should speak them with very early on.

But we speak a third language between ourselves

Many multicultural families speak a third language. Perhaps you speak Italian to your child, your partner speaks French, however between you the language is English. This might seem like it could confuse your child, but it isn’t the case. Your child may not become fluent in all three, however at the least, they may develop a passive understand of English hearing it between you constantly.

But my child mixes languages, he must be confused

Mixing languages is common with bilingual kids. Children who are learning more than one language at once are taking in double the vocabulary. Sometimes if they don’t have what they need in one language, they compensate by using the other. In one way they are lucky. Monolingual children don’t have this advantage. If a monolingual child doesn’t know a word, they may not be able to express themselves at all.

But my child goes to nursery/school and the teacher says my child is confused

Many teachers in monolingual nurseries and schools are uneducated on bilingualism and may think your child is confused because of they are unable to communicate as well as the other students.

If your child is starting at a school where the language is different to the one you speak at home, there may be a period where your child may stop talking. But don’t mistake this for confusion. Language immersion is one of the easiest and quickest ways to learn a language. Children initially listen and take everything in. They will eventually start to speak, and will catch up quite quickly.

But my child has a speech delay, could this be due to language confusion?

Bilingualism does not cause a speech delay. If a child has a speech delay, it will usually occur in both languages. Language development is different in all children. Some bilingual children will start talking later than others, but this is also the case with some monolingual children. If your bilingual child has a speech delay it doesn’t mean they are confused. If you are worried, seek medical advice from a speech therapist who specializes in bilingualism.

But learning to read and write in two languages seems confusing

Just as children can learn to speak in two languages at once, they can also learn to read and write in two languages at once. While there may be different alphabets, or different sounds of some letters, children are able to distinguish between the languages quite quickly. Some language combinations may take longer than others, but most children are able to learn with no issues and become biliterate.

Bilingualism and language confusion

If you are raising a child in more than one language, you are likely to hear various myths and misconceptions about bilingualism. Make sure to do your own research, and don’t believe just anything you hear from others. Children have been raised to be bilingual and multilingual in many parts of the world for centuries. In fact more than half of the world’s population is bilingual. It can’t be that half of the world is confused.

From: https://bilingualkidspot.com/2017/05/10/bilingual-kids-language-confusion-myth/

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[READING] Exercise Can't Save Us: Our Sugar Intake Is The Real Culprit

Here’s an interesting one. Most people believe that exercise is the key to weight loss, but they might be apparently wrong about it, research suggests. I would like to share this article written by Alice G. Walton. I hope it can be of any hep for you folks! Enjoy it.

In a fascinating and scorching editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, three authors argue that the myth that exercise is the key to weight loss – and to health – is erroneous and pervasive, and that it must end. The evidence that diet matters more than exercise is now overwhelming, they write, and has got to be heeded: We can exercise to the moon and back but still be fat for all the sugar and carbs we consume. And perhaps even more jarring is that we can be a normal weight and exercise, and still be unhealthy if we’re eating poorly. So, they say, we need a basic reboot of our understanding of health, which has to involve the food industry’s powerful PR “machinery,” since that was part of the problem to begin with.

The major point the team makes – which they say the public doesn’t really understand – is that exercise in and of itself doesn’t really lead to weight loss. It may lead to a number of excellent health effects, but weight loss – if you’re not also restricting calories – isn’t one of them. “Regular physical activity reduces the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia and some cancers by at least 30%,” they write. “However, physical activity does not promote weight loss.”

Plus, in the last 30 years, exercise has stayed about the same, while overweight and obesity have skyrocketed. So something else must be at play – like the type of food we’re eating. That part has gotten steadily worse over the years, as highly-processed sugary foods and sodas have taken over as our go-to choices. “According to the Lancet global burden of disease reports,” they write, “poor diet now generates more disease than physical inactivity, alcohol and smoking combined.” This is a disturbing statistic. But it gets worse.

The related and larger issue is that even normal weight people who exercise will, if they eat poorly, have metabolic markers that put them at very high risk of chronic illness and early mortality. “Up to 40% of those with a normal body mass index will harbour metabolic abnormalities typically associated with obesity, which include hypertension, dyslipidaemia, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and cardiovascular disease.”

And the crux of the issue is this: We're continually "fed" the idea that all that's behind the rise in obesity is lack of exercise, or sedentariness. There have certainly been a lot of studies and popular articles suggesting that sitting is our downfall. Instead of effective messages about diet and health that science actually knows to be true, “members of the public are drowned by an unhelpful message about maintaining a ‘healthy weight’ through calorie counting,” the team writes, “and many still wrongly believe that obesity is entirely due to lack of exercise. This false perception is rooted in the Food Industry's Public Relations machinery, which uses tactics chillingly similar to those of big tobacco.”

What we know to be true is much simpler: "Sugar calories promote fat storage and hunger," the write. "Fat calories induce fullness or satiation." For every additional 150 calories in sugar (i.e., a can of soda) a person consumes per day, the risk for diabetes rises 11-fold, regardless of how much or little we exercise. The single most effective thing people can do for their weight, they write, is to restrict calories – and even more, restrict carbohydrates.

So if this is all true, and research seems to suggest it is, how will it change? It might take quite a lot of work to shift our psychology around food, especially since advertising is so saturated with the message that carbohydrates are good for us. The celebrity endorsements might need to be tweaked, the authors say, and certainly the way foods are advertised and, perhaps, created, need to be shifted. The public should be repeatedly hit with the message that whole, natural foods, where possible and affordable is the best way to go. If you're trying to lose weight, reduce your calories (especially sugars) – don't think exercise alone will cut it. And even if you're normal weight, you can't subside solely on junk and stay healthy.

The authors end with this powerful finale: “It is time to wind back the harms caused by the junk food industry's Public Relations machinery. Let us bust the myth of physical inactivity and obesity. You cannot outrun a bad diet.”

Read the original text (here) or the study “It is time to bust the myth of physical inactivity and obesity: you cannot outrun a bad diet” (here)

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12 Reasons Everyone Should Learn Another Language by BENNY LEWIS

“I’d love to speak another language, but…”

Over the years, I’ve heard more reasons not to learn a language than I ever would have imagined. I even used to make excuses for myself, before I learned my first new language, Spanish.

I’ve yet to hear (or come up with) a single good reason for not learning a language.

That’s right. Nada.

What about good reasons to start learning a new language? I know hundreds, and hear new ones every day! Every language learner I’ve met so far has their own personal reason for wanting to speak another language.

Why learn another language?

Here are a few of the best I’ve come across. Speaking a second language will…

1.    Open Up a World of Job Opportunities

Learning a second language opens up a ton of career opportunities. I’m not just talking about freelancing or working location-independently either, though these are excellent ideas which I’ve personally used. There are lots of other ways that speaking two or more languages can improve your employment prospects.

The world is changing fast. More companies than ever are doing business in several – often dozens of – countries around the world, but they can’t do it without hiring globally-minded people who can speak at least one foreign language. Ever wanted to be like those people you see in the airport travelling to foreign countries “on business” all the time? That can be you.

Even in small, local companies, chances are that the ability to speak a second language will set you apart from other applicants.

2. Give Your Brain a Boost

Speaking a second language each day really can keep the doctor away! Study after studyhas demonstrated the cognitive benefits of learning another language, no matter how old you are. Memory improvement, longer attention span, and a reduced risk of age-related cognitive decline, are just a few of the known positive effects of speaking two or more languages.

3. Establish Deep Connections and Cross-Cultural Friendships

I’d bet that at least once in your life, you’ve felt a pang of regret during an encounter with someone from a different culture, when you realised how the experience could be enriched by knowing that person’s language.

Has this ever happened to you? You visit a food stall at a local market while on holiday (or even in your own city), where the employees are chatting away together in their native language. You order something, in English, interrupting their fun conversation.

Another local comes by while you’re waiting, orders some food in the local language, and starts talking cheerfully with the cook about…something. A minute later, the cook stops talking and hands you your plate with a simple “Thank you, bye!”

You just missed out on an authentic cultural experience because you couldn’t join in.

Or what about this? You have a friend from another country who you enjoy hanging out with, but you only speak to each other in English. You feel a connection with that person, and think they’re a great friend. And then they mention one day about this other group of friends, who speak their native language, that they meet up with all the time. But you’ve never been invited, because you wouldn’t understand what anyone is saying.

Ok, so you can’t learn every language in the world and have an intimate knowledge of every single culture out there. But if there’s even one culture that you’d like to understand better, or even one person in your life you’d like to know better, then one of the best ways you can start is by learning to speak their language.

4. Get an Outsider’s Perspective about Your Own Culture

Trying to understand your own culture exclusively from within it is like trying to understand what a bus is like if you’ve only ever ridden inside it. You can’t see the bus’s wheels, the exterior colour, or the engine that drives it.

Want the bigger picture? You need to get off that bus and examine it from the outside.

I strongly believe that language and culture are intimately linked. Learn another language and you’ll have insight into another culture. You’ll get to “ride on a different bus” and not only see what it’s like inside and even get comfy in there, but get a clear view of your own for the first time.

Too many people go their entire lives never questioning the universal “truths” they take for granted in their own culture. But step outside this narrow scope, and it’s like stepping out of the Matrix; once your eyes are truly opened to that new perspective, you can never go back.

5. Become More Interesting and Meet More Interesting People

If your first language is English, the second most common language in the world, and yet you’ve made the effort to learn another language rather than expecting the world to accommodate your monolingualism, then you’re a rare breed indeed. This makes you interesting. People will approach you. They’ll want to talk to you. They’ll want to know what motivated you to “bother” learning another language.

Believe me, if you’re a native English speaker who speaks two or more languages, you’ll have many more lively, engaging conversations about a variety of topics than you ever would have had otherwise.

Sure, you could spend your life getting by in English everywhere you go, but that’s boring. Be fun! Be interesting! Be multilingual!

6. Stay Smart in Touristed Areas

There’s always a danger of obvious tourists being targets, or getting hassled by touts, which can ruin your experience of a place where people are actually warm and genuine. The “obvious tourist” tends to be whoever is speaking English, or some other distant tongue.

But everything changes when you use the local language.

I had heard countless stories of how a visit to the Pyramids of Giza is nothing but a frustrating chain of shooing away one tout after another, but by dressing/acting like a local and replying in (my albeit broken) Arabic the entire time, I actually didn’t feel hassled by a single person all the way there. It was actually an experience I’ll never forget!

In over a dozen years travelling the world, I’ve managed to stay sane and stay safe by attempting to blend in as best as I can, as well as responding confidently enough in the local language that potential scammers will believe you’ve been there a while, and they’ll think twice before trying to pull a fast one on you.

7. Become a Better Learner

Every time I learn a new language, I find it easier than the one before. The reasoning is simple: with every new language I study, I figure out ways to learn more efficiently. In other words, I develop language hacks.

Because of my extensive experience with this sort of trial and error, I’ve already identified many common hindrances that I can help you avoid right from the get-go, as well as language hacks that can help you learn faster.

As you spend time learning your first foreign language, you’ll identify your own inefficiencies and eliminate them. You’ll start gaining momentum in your chosen language and learn more and more quickly. Then you’ll be able to hit the ground running with the next language. You’ll be on your way to polyglotism before you know it.

8. Conquer Your Fear of “Looking Stupid”

If a foreigner walked up to you to ask for help with something like directions, and they struggled to find the right English words, and made many mistakes but were obviously trying hard, would you feel like laughing at their effort? I doubt it. You’d more likely be impressed with their courage to walk up to a stranger and speak a language imperfectly. That’s a person who has conquered their fear of making mistakes in front of others, and has managed to communicate with you and gotten help with what they need.

Can’t imagine having that sort of courage yourself? Well, if you decide to learn a language, and you start by speaking from day 1, then you’ll get over your fear very quickly. Not only will you be able to communicate effectively (note that I didn’t say “perfectly”) in a new language, but your confidence will get a huge boost, and you’ll never be held back from trying any new skill. Ever wanted to try dancing? Creative writing? Public speaking? How great would it be to shed your inhibitions and just go for it!

9. Bring Out Your Inner Mr Spock

This may sound surprising, but studies have shown that when you make a decision in your second language, you’re more likely to think logically and avoid basing your decision on emotion. In other words, you’ll become more like Star Trek’s Mr Spock.

There’s no way around it. Humans are emotional creatures. Everyone is guilty of making decisions too hastily and too emotionally. But if you learn to speak another language, you’ll learn to think in that language. And when you think about your decisions in a foreign language, that emotional bias tends to go away and you end up choosing the more logical outcome.

Live long, and prosper!

10. Enjoy Works of Art in their Original Language

Bollywood films, manga, telenovelas, Swah rap – the world is full of non-English works of creative art. Don’t you wish you could appreciate some of them in their original language rather than relying on badly-translated subtitles or English dubs, which lose much of the charm that made the original product popular to begin with?

You may find translations, but you'd be surprised what is lost in translation.

If you’re a fan of any type of foreign media – or you’d like to be, but aren’t interested in experiencing it in English because of all nuances lost in translation – then this is an excellent reason to start learning that new language. You’ll already have a very clear goal in mind, so you’ll know what type of vocabulary will be most useful to learn, and you can use those materials as a study aid as you progress in your new language.

11. No More Paying the Sticker Price

Tired of overpaying for gifts and souvenirs at markets when you go on holiday? It’s common knowledge that at many of these places, there are two prices: one for locals and one for tourists.

Even if you bring your best haggling game to the table, if you try to haggle exclusively in English instead of the local language, you might not get very close to that coveted “local price”. But if you make the effort to learn the local language, then you’ll start the game off with a better hand, and end up saving quite a bit more money than you would have otherwise. And the best part is that you’ll also be participating in an authentic cultural experience in the country you’re visiting.

12. Discover You Can Do It!

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve heard pretty much every excuse that people give for failing to learn a second language. Too old, not enough time, wrong genes. None of them hold water.

Whatever doubts you have, you really can learn another language. You could even hold your first conversation just seven days from now.

So What are You Waiting For?

Everyone has their own unique reasons for wanting to learn another language. But while the reasons may be different, they can all be put into action in the same way: by committing to stop making excuses, and to start speaking the language you’ve always wanted to learn.

Once you’ve held your very first conversation in a foreign language, trust me: you’ll never look back.

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