A miss in guidance

It's always interesting to hear what people say about the languages of the Earth.  Having a cozy conversation with language teachers the other day proved to be enlightening. The conversation began by three teachers talking about how some people were able to learn several languages while others sputter to master their native tongue. Finally, one said that languages have the same patterns, so finding the universal pattern used in languages enables them to quickly learn many.

Wel-l-l-l, not exactly. I let it go at the time it was said because the two other teachers agreed with the notion. A little reading about that subject would have helped them have a more fine-tuned view of the subject, but they had not read, nor did they plan to read more, so this was not the time or place to comment on what was common knowledge for those aware of the field's literature. Right, universal grammar is the holy grail of linguistics, but to date, the grail has been illusive. Maybe a philosophical comment will be appropriate someday, just not this day.

But therein lies a point. A person only learns (or in this case, dispels a common notion) when the context for learning has produced a desire or need. Those contexts are not continuous nor related to routines. But these 3 teachers were products of the system that touted continuous learning, continuous improvement, and repetition. I'll check their students for fluency in about a month, but I already know what I will find because the system they think gives progress, has a long track record of failure to achieve its goals.
What a different story for their students if they would read about the brain's workings and the purposes for needing and developing systems for communication.