Language skills no piece of cake

What annoyed me the most about Avatar - apart from its lame attempt to go 3-D - was hearing Sam Worthington's character describe learning the language of the Na'vi as something easy and routine. It's just about memorizing words, he says, whereas most adults his age would argue that getting bilingual this late in the day sounds more like the precious mineral they are trying to rid the planet Pandora of: unobtainium.

Granted, there are people, like former marine Jake Scully, who's not exactly what you call an ordinary learner. The guy can ride phoenix-like aliens on his first attempt. It took me longer to figure out how to turn on my washing machine.

But for the vast majority of us, it will never be as easy to process vast landscapes of new information post-puberty as it was before we had hair sprouting in the most bewildering of places.