Alcohol isn’t exactly known for making your brain work better. In fact, it is usually quite the opposite. Unless it comes to speaking a foreign language.
Now, full disclosure: you actually have to be able to SPEAK the language first. You aren’t just going to wake up and suddenly drip French off your tongue.
However, a university in the Netherlands did an experiment with bilingual students. The control group had no alcohol. The other group had a moderate amount of booze, that brought their BAC up to about 0.04. Each gave an argument in a foreign language for two minutes. And two impartial — and non inebriated — judges gave everyone marks on their ability to speak.
The people who boozed it up WON. That seems counter-intuitive, but the scientists figured it had to do with the one thing alcohol does right: it gave the speakers confidence and wiped away any nerves that non-native speakers usually feel speaking a different language.
Alcohol: the world’s greatest confidence booster. It’s science. — [eric]
