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Too Old To Learn a New Language? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| pohaku Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5651 days ago 192 posts - 367 votes  Speaks: English*, Persian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 25 of 38 21 April 2010 at 9:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm almost 60 and my experience is like Fasulye's. I feel like my intellect is the same as it was when I was 18, but my study habits are far better, as they have improved since I've been intensively studying languages. However, the language study only started about five years ago. I did almost none of it for 30 years (though I was always learning other things, such as music and botanical taxonomy), and I was never very good at languages in the first place, and I've never had what I think of as a good memory. I don't try hard to remember as I study; I simply try to expand my experience and let my brain simply absorb the nourishment--new words, new tricks of syntax, new characters in different writing systems, etc. So far, the brain seems to keep on soaking up the material. Actually, learning to study without a feeling of frustration or futility has been extremely liberating and probably contributes to better learning. After my experiences of the last five years, I know it will take a long time to gain facility in a language, yet I know that I have succeeded with Persian and I'm getting better in Arabic, and I now have the Bengali writing system pretty well under control and...so it goes. Relax and enjoy!
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| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5334 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 26 of 38 21 April 2010 at 9:30pm | IP Logged | ||
I can't really say that I feel that I belong to that category. I am in a full time job where I have to learn new things every day, and where I use foreign languages every day. I have also attended some kind of language course every year in my life, and read books in foreign languages at all times. I have also taken up a hobby of gardening where I have gone from having no clue, to the point where I am traveling around the country giving conferences about roses and tulips, identifying several hundred roses by name and class. I am in a continous learning process, but yet I am unable to learn languages as effortlessly as I used to when I was young. But as it was mentioned earlier, we can't use all the methods we used when we were younger, I can't go out and play with any Russian neighbours, and although I have a very tolerant husband, I think he would have quite strong views about me getting a Russian boyfriend. Juggling work, with a lot of traveling, husband, driving the kids to all their activities, doing voluntary work, writing articles and holding conferences on gardening and tending to a sick mother also tends to draw some of your focus away. Life tends to be a bit fuller at 48 than at 15. :-) Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 21 April 2010 at 11:35pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 27 of 38 21 April 2010 at 10:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have studied languages intensively in two periods: in the seventies and in the 'zeros'. The first period followed seemlessly in the footsteps of my school years, where I had ordinary class teaching in English, German and later French and Latin. The university was freer, and I could benefit from some excellent libraries. Now in my second learning period, which followed a 25 year long linguistic drought, I just feel I have taken up where I left my studies in 1982. I haven't got as much time, less access to the university/national libraries and no teacher, but instead I have got better economy, more dictionaries and grammars at home, access to a bewildering array of resources on the internet and improved study methods. And I really don't think I learn less these days than in my prime, especially when you take in consideration that I have a fulltime job now.
'Easy' preys like Esperanto, Scots and Dutch take a few months before I can write in them (though speaking is quite another matter), and I couldn't have done it faster in the 70s. However new language families as represented by Greek, Russian and (now) Irish seemingly take forever, - almost three years before I actually tried to speak Greek (apart from isolated 'tourist' phrases) or read magazines without a dictionary. But unlike Solfrid I don't take this as determined by my age, but rather by my study methods which rely heavily on the use of linguistic relationships, and by having less time to invest in my latest acquisitions. I don't remember my first meeting with the Romance languages as particularly difficult, but I started a bit too late, being around 12-13 old when I became interested in Italian (because of the Italian words in my musical scores), and it took several years to get to just basic fluency - both in Italian and Spanish, which I learnt by self study and in French, which I learnt in school. Could I have done that faster? Probably - if I had had suitable audio sources and known about three column wordlists. I actually do think I was brighter back then, but also less knowledgeable. It is hard to compare learning speed under so different circumstances. Edited by Iversen on 21 April 2010 at 10:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5556 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 28 of 38 21 April 2010 at 11:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've had people tell me "you can't do so and so" or "you've got to be more realistic here and accept your limitations" throughout my whole life so far. And trust me, or talk to my friends and family, I've managed to overcome some incredible obstacles and achieve the "impossible" many times over. All the very best experiences and achievements in life came to me via my refusal to accept what others seemed to be so confident in.
When I end up hitting 60 or 70 (God willing), will I just give in to the status quo and hang up my spurs quietly. No way! People are absolutely inspiring, and their potential is overwhelming. My stubborn but ingenious grandfather constructed a hydro-electric water wheel out of old junk to power his farmhouse in his 80s, and my great-grandmother with her little eccentric library of books at home was as sharp as a needle in her late 90s (and a great fan of toffees too ;) ). The main thing I notice is that people just fall out of touch with learning. Sure, you may have an active career right up until retirement age and even beyond, but is this quite the same as studying 10-20 different subjects intensively at the same time, 5 days a week + homework on weekends and holidays, with exams and peer pressure to encourage you along? Is your brain really having to adapt quickly to new concepts and knowledge every day? If I were a rippling six-pack body-builder in my 20s (sadly I wasn't), and then didn't train properly and progressively for the next 40 years, perhaps even on a poor fatty diet too, I would end up very out of shape indeed. Putting this all into perspective, what I can see is that there are plenty of people who are able to learn languages or new subjects very well at ages well beyond 60. The main difference with older achievers is that they get themselves back into that neurological gym, and patiently start pushing mental iron again. They achieve what modern society often considers "impossible" or unlikely because they are open to positive change and their own real potential, aren't afraid of committing to self-discipline and work, and are still willing to learn new tricks and play and have fun with new ideas. Just look at what many of our wonderful older members here have achieved later in life, and take away some confidence and positive hope in this. As a little note on the side, Russian and Polish can be really tough for learners of any age. I've been flirting with Russian for a good while myself and am still only elementary level. So don't be demotivated by any difficulties in learning such languages, the main thing here is the commitment to keep on pushing on and reach that goal! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5334 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 29 of 38 22 April 2010 at 9:43am | IP Logged | ||
You just saved my day. I'll assume that I am not getting old and useless. I have just chosen a difficult language. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5693 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 30 of 38 22 April 2010 at 7:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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I just want to repeat what a few posters have already said, which is this: the process of learning (or even just
attempting to learn) a new language is particularly GOOD for your brain at your age. Well, it's good at any age, but it doesn't stop being useful as you get older! It does indeed stave off the onset of Alzheimer's, and I would recommend it strongly to anyone, at any age, as a form of "mental exercise." After all, everybody is aware that it's important to eat healthy and keep your body active all through your life... so why not keep your brain exercised, too? 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| NativeLanguage Octoglot Groupie United States nativlang.com Joined 5338 days ago 52 posts - 110 votes Speaks: French, Spanish, English*, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek, Portuguese, Catalan Studies: Japanese, Mayan languages, Irish | Message 31 of 38 22 April 2010 at 10:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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In my experience, adults (of any age) have two disadvantages when trying to learn a new language (or anything else, for that matter):
1) Your parents cannot force you to study. If a child finds their lesson boring that day, their parents can tell them to do it anyway. As an adult, it is your choice. Obviously you can try to find ways of learning that will be more interesting to you, but, there may still be days when it's not new and exciting any more and you just need to get through it. This is where many adults quit their studies and declare, "I'm just not able to learn X!". 2) You will want to communicate adult level ideas but, in the beginning, you will only have a child's vocabulary & grammar. It's often very hard for adults to be o.k. with not being perfect at communicating in a foreign language - especially if they have higher level skills in their native language. Children are much less self-conscious (in general) and do not worry about 'sounding funny' or 'saying the wrong word' or whatever excuses adults use so that they don't have to take a risk and practice their new language. As you can see, both of those disadvantages are psychological and have nothing to do with a person's actual ability to learn. At 60 (or 70 or 80 even) you are definitely not too old to learn a new language. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5430 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 32 of 38 23 April 2010 at 2:05am | IP Logged | ||
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Learning a language is like anything else. Of course it's never too late. Nothing new there. Eat well, exercise, avoid stress, get lots of sleep. Keep active mentally. Those are all the basic ingredients for being able to learn at later ages. Nothing new there either.
What we do know however is that there exists an aging process that takes a physiological and cognitive toll. Certainly, one can feel mentally and physically as fit at age 60 as at 40. But the truth of the matter is that cognitive ability and other things decline noticeably once we hit 50. Sure, there are all kinds of exceptions, but it's pretty obvious that learning certain things becomes harder with age. Learning to speak a language and to play a musical instruments are two things that come to mind. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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