How drinking (a little) alcohol boosts your ability to speak a foreign language

""drunken Germans usually pronounce Dutch better than sober Germans," they said in a statement read at the ceremony."

""The results suggest that modest alcohol consumption may reduce language anxiety, leading to improved fluency in a second language," said the report on the University's website."

""Given that executive functions are important when speaking a second (non-native) language, one might expect that alcohol would impair the ability to speak a second language," said the researchers."

A Dutch-German-UK research team tested 50 native German speakers who had recently learned Dutch by recording short standardized Dutch conversations after either a low alcohol dose or a non-alcoholic beverage. Native Dutch listeners rated the recorded conversations for pronunciation. Participants who consumed a small amount of alcohol were rated as having better Dutch pronunciation. Modest alcohol consumption appeared to reduce language anxiety and boost self-confidence, which may improve fluency despite the general expectation that alcohol impairs executive functions. The researchers cautioned that alcohol should not be recommended as a formal language-learning tool.

Read at The Local Germany