The Language Challenge

How much of our communication is actually our language skill? Can we correctly communicate our feelings and thoughts with just words? As neuroscientists have learned in recent years from studying brain scans, language processing seems to be a complex process that involves multiple pieces of our brain machinery, most of which are exclusively devoted to that task. Just because of being unfamiliar with the language, does not make us completely paralyzed in communicating or understanding emotions and thoughts. All the same, just because we are fluent in the language does not automatically make us good communicators. When we converse with a person, different parts of our brain is working harmoniously to understand and interpret meanings observing and listening as we communicate. Amazing things are happening in our brain, which is equipped with a special speech detecting and decoding mechanism so finely sensitive that it’s able to separate words from other sorts of sounds, at the same time other parts of our brain also has the ability to utilize visual information and body language to decipher spoken communication—or even to use it as a substitute.

Take the Language Challenge from Brain Games, a popular National Geographic channel show, dissecting all things language and communication from our brain's viewpoint.