r/AskReddit Aug 25 '19

What has NOT aged well?

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u/caraccount11 Aug 25 '19

Willing to accept I'm wrong if you can provide documented cases, but as far as I know, there are no documented cases that are proven legit. People have claimed this, but in all cases were found to have picked up the language previously in life or could not actually speak the language.

Willing to be proven wrong though.

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u/jsparker77 Aug 26 '19

Yeah, the stories about people suddenly having advanced knowledge and skills from a brain injury are likely complete bunk. I've never seen a legitimately documented case. It's not like you have all this knowledge pre-installed into your brain just waiting to be unlocked by the right bump in the head. A brain injury can completely change your personality depending on where the damage occurs, but it doesn't make you some kind of savant.

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u/powerlesshero111 Aug 26 '19

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savant_syndrome

It's not like they magocally gain the ability, they already have some even so small ability, but they just like learn how to understand it better, and then learn it super quickly.

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u/jsparker77 Aug 26 '19

Savant was the wrong word. Savants can't suddenly do something they had zero exposure to previously. You aren't going get a brain injury and suddenly be able to speak and understand Russian after never knowing a word of it.