We have all heard those jokes about Chinese people mixing up L and R sounds while speaking English. What causes this? Is it related to the vocals of Chinese language and the way they speak their own language?
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This is untrue. *Japanese* speakers have difficulty differentiating between L and R, not *Chinese* speakers. Japanese and Chinese are completely different languages without any clear relationship. Chinese is a tonal language and Japanese is not. Japanese has a sound in it that is sort of like an L, sort of like an R, and sort of like a D (as seen from the perspective of an English speaker and these sounds in English).
In the brain, there is a process called neural pruning. There are an enormous number of neurons with an enormous amount of potential in the human brain, when you are born. As you age, the neurons you use less atrophy and go away, and the neurons you use more are strengthened and built connections throughout the brain. This includes the detection and comprehension of sounds. Because in Japanese it’s not important to distinguish the particular sounds of R and L since they just have a sound that is a combination of both sounds, that ability is lost, so even in Japanese people who speak English really really well, they still have trouble distinguishing the two sounds–it’s not a case of not having studied enough to have the skills, it just that they can’t hear it. This neural pruning takes place throughout your life but especially in the early years of your life, which is why a kid can learn a new language with no accent before age 12 or so, but after that age, there’s just too much neural pruning that has taken place and it’s extremely difficult to lose the accent unless the languages have similar sounds.
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