Don: It's time to go again to the A Moment of Science mailbag... Ya?l: A listener writes: Dear AMOS, Why can some people learn a new language easily but others struggle? D: Good question! How many languages do you speak, Yael? Y: Four. D: Really?! Y: Yep--English, Canadian, British, and Australian. D: Ha ha. Very funny. Y: Sorry. But really, I'm terrible at languages. But I have a friend who speaks like five. She'll travel some place and within a few weeks, it seems, she's asking for directions and having conversations in a completely new language. D: That could be because she has a large Heschl's Gyrus. Y: What? D: Heschl's Gyrus--it's a brain structure about the size of a finger--one in the brain's left side, one in the right. And scientists think that the bigger your left Heschl's Gyrus, the greater your chances of being good at learning languages. Y: Huh--is that because the Heschl's Gyrus plays an important role in how the brain processes language or something? D: Actually, no. Heschl's Gyrus is usually associated with the basics of sound processing, like pitch and volume. But it's not directly connected to speech. Y: But wait--are you saying that if I happen to have a small left Heschl's Gyrus I can't learn a new language? D: Not at all. It might just mean that you learn languages differently. And, sure, it could mean that you don't learn new languages as easily as someone with a larger Heschl's Gyrus. But you can still learn.