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Learning Language at 14 vs 20 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5382 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes  Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 10 of 55 23 March 2011 at 4:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If both are actually studying the language outside of a context of immersion, and the 20 year-old isn't burdened by responsibility the way a 14 year-old rarely is, then I'd bet on the 20 year-old because his study habit, motivation and understanding of language is likely much better than that of a teenager.
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| jazzboy.bebop Senior Member Norway norwegianthroughnove Joined 5419 days ago 439 posts - 800 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Norwegian | Message 12 of 55 23 March 2011 at 5:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
One thing to consider though is that when you are very young, the level of language you need to achieve to be considered fluent for your age is very low, but the older one becomes the higher the expectations of ability become appropriate for your age. As we grow up we are constantly learning our own language to higher and higher levels. An 8 year old would be considered fluent if they had roughly the same language ability in a foreign language as another 8 year old who natively speaks that language. If an 18 year old could only speak with the level of an 8 year old in another foreign language then they would not be considered fluent. Essentially, adults have so much more they are expected to know to be regarded fluent, so of course it takes a lot more work. One benefit though of being an adult is you can actually learn faster. As far as I can recall, various studies have shown that adults can assimilate higher quantities of information than children can in less time and this applies to language learning, so in a sense, adults are actually better at learning languages than children. It is just that the levels expected of them are far far higher than that expected of a child. Though it is possible that children might be better at pulling off accents. Edited by jazzboy.bebop on 23 March 2011 at 5:07pm 11 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Darklight1216 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5101 days ago 411 posts - 639 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German | Message 13 of 55 23 March 2011 at 5:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I guess I'll just re-iterate what everyone else has said: younger is better, but plenty of people have learned foreign languages at or after age 20,
However, the method is probably more important than the age, in my opinion. At about age 14 I had to study Spanish in school with a terrible curriculum. After five years of that I couldn't take part in even a basic conversation (not that I wanted to). Studying French independently in adulthood has been far better even though I've only been doing it for a few months. Now if you're going to move to a country of your target language then the child will mostly likely have to advantage because they don't have as much of their time consumed by non-language study as adults do. Edited by Darklight1216 on 23 March 2011 at 5:13pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| snipes Newbie Jamaica Joined 4997 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 14 of 55 23 March 2011 at 7:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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at 14, i believe learning any other language is very much sort of a piece of cake
considering that children are more susceptible to the language influence around them whilst adults will do every thing possible in most instances to filter the information and the circumstance. Children just take it all and fast. yes, you are over 20 but so very gifted with the accents and language learning thing which probably is just a small percentage of people in a given country i believe you are invincible learning any language like a native even more than a little kid when you travel to that country and just totally immerse yourself. P.S i'm teaching myself Spanish from compact disc since 2006 off and on really but real seriously since December 2010, im Jamaican and all English as you know but virtually every time when i bump into a couple of Spaniards out here i unleash my Spanish gauntlet which knocks 'em dead. they can't tell the difference really with accents. Mistaken for a native a few times. imagine what will happen when i leave Jamaica to fulfill my language desires very soon. 23years and unstoppable. horray!! cheers to you all. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5382 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 15 of 55 23 March 2011 at 7:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
14 year-old kids taking language classes in high school almost never become fluent. It's not really a piece of cake for anyone, unless you are in an immersion environment. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| snipes Newbie Jamaica Joined 4997 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 16 of 55 23 March 2011 at 8:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
1 person has voted this message useful |
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