Is 19 too old? (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

Is 19 too old?
Tags: Age \| Learning Difficulty
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Language Learning Forum : General discussion

35 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 Next >>

zerothinking
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 6374 days ago
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Speaks: English*

Message 17 of 35

12 June 2009 at 4:50am | IP Logged

There is no such thing as too old. I don't know who gave you the impression there was.
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snovymgodom
Diglot
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United States
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Speaks: English*, Russian

Message 18 of 35

12 June 2009 at 5:38am | IP Logged

If you feel very strongly about learning Vietnamese and you personally like the language, the learning process will be much easier for you, regardless of your age. And 19 is a perfectly reasonable time to begin learning a language.
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GuardianJY
Groupie
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5687 days ago
74 posts - 72 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Italian, Swedish, French

Message 19 of 35

12 June 2009 at 6:02am | IP Logged

Recht wrote:

Jar-ptitsa wrote:

ok, I'm sorry. i didn't want to start a flame war, but I thought Humbert was nasty to
Wizzel, but I didn't know that he was be sarcastic.

I'll explain how the joke works, because these types of jokes occur very frequently in
colloquial English conversations, so it's useful to know!

Someone will ask a question, to which question the answer seems obvious. The obvious
answer would be "no, 19 is not to old." but instead the poster answered with the answer
that was clearly not true (no, give up now. too old, etc). In doing so he was
sarcastically insinuating that of COURSE 19 is not too old.

hope that helps

However, it is usually said vocally with a different intonation. Sarcasm over the internet is tenuous at best.
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lecorbeau
Diglot
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Croatia
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Studies: Serbo-Croatian, Turkish

Message 20 of 35

12 June 2009 at 7:17am | IP Logged

Are we really giving a class on sarcasm here? Haha...
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Tyr
Senior Member
Sweden
Joined 5784 days ago
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Studies: Swedish

Message 21 of 35

12 June 2009 at 10:28am | IP Logged

I'm not so sure that it is easier when young even.
I'm a lot better at studying and making myself learn these days than when I was a teenager
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Katie
Diglot
Senior Member
Australia
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Studies: French, German

Message 22 of 35

12 June 2009 at 12:32pm | IP Logged

I also think at an older age, you have made a conscious decision to learn a language - it's not just a necessity... surely that gives us something 'special' to work with!
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Tupiniquim
Senior Member
Brazil
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Message 23 of 35

12 June 2009 at 3:33pm | IP Logged

.

Edited by Tupiniquim on 31 July 2009 at 11:40pm
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Jar-ptitsa
Triglot
Senior Member
Belgium
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Speaks: French*, Dutch, German

Message 24 of 35

12 June 2009 at 6:20pm | IP Logged

Recht wrote:

Jar-ptitsa wrote:

ok, I'm sorry. i didn't want to start a flame war, but I thought Humbert was nasty to
Wizzel, but I didn't know that he was be sarcastic.

Thank you very much Recht and the others for the explanations about sarcasm. I know that sarcasm is when a person tell the other the opposite of what he/she thinks and that it's for make a joke. sometimes I can understand this and notice that it's the opposite but not always and I prefer the people don't be sarcastic. I like very much funny jokes but not sarcasm.

I thought that Humbert was nasty to Wizzel: he told him that he better give up because he can't learn. It's mean telling a person such a thing that he /she isn't capable therefore I wanted to say that he's absolutely wrong. Now I understand that it was sarcasm and Humbert meaned that wizzel can learn. Humbert, I'm sorry for misinterpret you.

About the age, people of all ages can learn languages, but with study, and the result will be not like the native speakers. the little children learn a language without study and will be native speakers: the feel of a native language is different as well, you haven't to think for construct the sentences or understand, and the pronunciation is natural. This ability is only during some years, until about 8 years I think. The result is always better of the languages which you learned when you are a little child, in my opinion. But, it's possible learn very well more languages when you're old but this will be NOT native. I don't say if this is important or not, it's personal and individual. It's for all people the same, this is good. & nbsp;

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