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Too Old To Learn a New Language? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| indiana83 Groupie United States ipracticecanto.wordp Joined 5494 days ago 92 posts - 121 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Cantonese, Italian | Message 9 of 38 27 February 2010 at 12:36am | IP Logged | |||||
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This is interesting to me. My father-in-law is 61 and was forced into early retirement when his employer relocated recently. He tried at first to find work, but he doesn't speak English.
So he has decided to learn English. He just started his first ESL classes last month. On the weekends I visit him and try to help a little bit. I notice he ends up asking the same questions over and over each week. I think the hardest part is probably that - coming from a Chinese background - he doesn't have any previous experience with a phonetic alphabet. He says that he is not doing very well on the quizzes in class, especially since they are written instead of oral. But I think there is just a lag effect going on, since he definitely has made a lot of progress on the words that were introduced in the earlier lessons. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5928 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 10 of 38 27 February 2010 at 1:19am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm about half your age, but I think that the claim that anyone over the age of 12 cannot really learn a language is complete nonsense. One advantage to even being over 30 years old is that I know better how to study more effectively and also how not to study. Remember getting older just means that you have more experience in learning various things, now apply it to languages.
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| Muz9 Diglot Groupie Netherlands Joined 5528 days ago 84 posts - 112 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Somali | Message 11 of 38 27 February 2010 at 2:02am | IP Logged | |||||
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Children don’t learn languages that much faster than adults, it is all an illusion. Just look at native 10 year old children, they had nearly a ‘decade’ to learn their native language but still have fairly limited vocabularies and sometimes even poor grammar.
An adult even well over their 60s could learn a language at the same level as a native 10 year old in less than 1 or perhaps 2 years. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5560 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 12 of 38 27 February 2010 at 5:38am | IP Logged | |||||
My mum did something uncannily similar to Sprachprofi's mother in her fifties, the main difference being that her studies and work experience were in the area of Care. It was a lot of hard work to be sure, but after a couple of years she passed it all with flying colours and top of her class. I was very proud of her bravery and inspiring get-up-and-go (she even appeared in a local paper receiving an award), and I definitely noticed an increase in her overall motivation and mental acuity afterwards too. She became as sharp as a needle, you could say! I guess it's so very true what other members are saying here, it seems the more you use or "train your brain", the easier and more effective future learning becomes...if you don't use it, you don't lose it, you simply just store it away in the attic for a while and need to find and dust off the right suitcase first. As a side note, I remember she particularly delighted in riding to college with all the other young students and proudly flashing her own student photocard to the driver, saying with a twinkle in her eye, "one student, please" (just imagine the bus scene from Educating Rita if you've ever watched the film) - this image still makes me smile after all these years :) I think it's commendable that you wish to take up the gauntlet to learn to speak another language fluently. And yes, I'm sure you're more than certainly up to the challenge. Your deeper and broader wealth of experience can only be a bonus here. May I ask though, do you intend to pursue these studies in Russian? If so, I also commend you on your excellent choice - this is a really beautiful language to learn, with a dazzling treasure trove of literature and culture along the way. Edited by Teango on 27 February 2010 at 6:31am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Paskwc Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5681 days ago 450 posts - 624 votes Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English Studies: Persian, Spanish | Message 13 of 38 27 February 2010 at 6:44am | IP Logged | |||||
I've noticed this too. The majority of adult learners I know are people who thoroughly enjoy learning as opposed to other people who are expected to keep themselves busy. Edited by Paskwc on 27 February 2010 at 8:34am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5426 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 14 of 38 27 February 2010 at 7:37am | IP Logged | |||||
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Paskwc Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5681 days ago 450 posts - 624 votes Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English Studies: Persian, Spanish | Message 15 of 38 27 February 2010 at 7:43am | IP Logged | |||||
Later. Link Edited by Paskwc on 27 February 2010 at 7:47am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tsneds Newbie Cyprus Joined 6957 days ago 23 posts - 26 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Japanese | Message 16 of 38 27 February 2010 at 1:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
It all depends on your attitude and drive,my Mother started Russian at 65. Her sister thought it was a waste of time,after she found out,see my Mom keeps things like that a secret so as not to be subjected to the doubts and negativity until she has achieved a certain level of proficiency. She surrounds herself with Russians that are of the same faith (Jehovah's witnesses) which means they ride around trying to convert other Russian speakers. She has gotten to the point where she can give a speech in Russian,she gave a 5 minute talk in Russian at a Russian church a couple years back,she is now 72. There is research surfacing on the Neuroplasticity of the brain,which is nothing less than the ability of the brain to grow new neurons and rewire itself which will hopefully help dismantle the outdated dogma of "I'm too old to learn xyz" Excerpt: http://neuron.typepad.com/neuron/2007/07/brain-plasticit.htm l "Brain structure is also malleable, recording the footprints of our lives and thoughts. The amount of neural real estate devoted to a task, such as playing the violin, expands with use." There is a narrative in a book called Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain by Sharon Begley where pioneers of the field of neuroplasticity found indications that the brain rewires itself, the establishment rejected the ideas by refusing to publish the findings in prestigious journals and rejecting funding requests. The investigators kept going and chipped away at the status quo, adding up studies of animals and people, discovering such things as why the blind have more acute hearing and amputees still feel their missing limbs. One-by-one, the tenets of the unchanging brain were felled, until it became official: even adults can achieve physical changes in their brains. Edited by tsneds on 27 February 2010 at 1:36pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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