So in a follow-up study of [FOREIGN] tested these subjects and asked, what
would happen if we played a sound from Korean that doesn't exist within French
and ask them to listen to this sound, to see if they have better recognition?
And in fact they did find some very subtle abilities in these
Korean adoptees to recognize sounds that exist within Korean that
French speakers don't hear any more because they're not exposed to them.
So there does seem to be a residual ability to hear and
listen to sounds from their native language, that don't exist in French,
and we've seen that before in other studies.
But the interesting aspect of this study is that for the most part,
there was almost no, trace of the native language,
even in the person who had acquired French at eight basically the second language
had overwritten the first language, and to me this is one of the most profoundly
interesting and kind of nerve racking findings, right?
That some child who's eight years old, could move to another country,
be immersed completely in that other language, and
essentially lose their native language, right?
Something they had 'til they were age eight.