I don’t know where it comes from, but many people seem to believe that the ability to speak any particular language is somehow linked to genetics.It seems to be quite a pervasive way of thinking.

You can imagine that there is a little voice in people’s heads that says:’This cannot be possible, because those people don’t have the nervous system for our language.’It almost gets to a point where the culture as a whole believes that individuals coming from another culture cannot possibly learn their language.

When I was through the government exam to go to work as a civil servant in Xigatse of Tibet in 2010.I was very keen to speak with local people and tried to learn the language from my local colleagues.I soon had cold water poured over that ambition.Every time I opened my mouth the non-verbal attitude from them communicated something a bit like:’How dare you try to speak this language, worm, it is impossible for you.’And then they seemed to wait for some mistakes that I must would make.

True,Han Chinese people who speak truly fluent Tibetan are a rarity.And it is difficult to find Tibetans who speak truly perfectly, accentless Chinese.
But is it that people from one culture cannot learn the language of another to a level of totally fluency?Or does the myth itself creates its own outcome?

I never subscribed to the belief that genetics,race or cultural background make it easier for one person to speak any particular language better than any other.I have seen more and more foreigners can speak fluent Chinese on TV,and I also know some Chinese people who can speak fluent Tibetan,including my two elder sisters and some of my colleagues.My second sister was very Tibetan in features.Tibetans cannot recognize that she actually is Han Chinese,especially when she opened her mouth.

There are many more examples.All these can prove to us that there is no much link between genes and language.This is just a ‘cultural mythology mistake’ that will prevent success.