Started too late? (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

Started too late?
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Language Learning Forum : General discussion

65 messages over 9 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 3 ... 8 9 Next >>

Akao
aka FailArtist
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5129 days ago
315 posts - 347 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona

Message 17 of 65

01 May 2010 at 10:25am | IP Logged

Splog wrote:

Oh - to be 13 again! Imagine if I had started learning languages
seriously back then. That is a whopping 32 years ago for me.

If you can devote 2 hours a day for those 32 years to language study, by the time you
have reached my ripe old age of 45 you will have put in more than 23,000 hours of
study.

23,000 hours is plenty of time to reach a high standard in lots of languages, and by
then you will "only" be 45. There will still (hopefully) be decades ahead of you for
more improvement.

I am jealous of your youth :-)

Actually, I just did the math, if I utilize three hours a day for hardcore studies, I
will have accumulated 35,040 hours of intensive study by the age of 45.

That being said, if I were to live as a language monk and get 15 hours of study a day
in, that would be 175,200 hours by the age of 45! Think of the possibilites!

Of course, I am not considering a monks lifestyle, but three hours a day is definitely
do-able.

If only I got multiple input, even multilingual advancement, as a baby/toddler.

Edited by Akao on 01 May 2010 at 10:28am
1 person has voted this message useful

markchapman
Diglot
Groupie
Taiwan
tesolzone.com/
Joined 5265 days ago
44 posts - 55 votes

Speaks: English*, Mandarin
Studies: Portuguese

Message 18 of 65

01 May 2010 at 10:34am | IP Logged

Akao wrote:

@mark

Admittedly, it might be out of my competitive nature, but that is not to say that I have
no love for languages or to want to speak them all.

If I am able to beat Mezzofanti, however, I will probably die content.

A competitive nature is good. I hope you have good fun learning them. Personally, I'll be happy if I can speak 3
languages by the time I'm 50; and perhaps a couple more after that.
2 persons have voted this message useful

Akao
aka FailArtist
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5129 days ago
315 posts - 347 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona

Message 19 of 65

01 May 2010 at 10:41am | IP Logged

Hmm, whilst I was typing "Admittedly" I forgot to accept who I am and thus was denying
myself... ah well. I have realized my mistake.

@mark

What three languages? Just curious.
1 person has voted this message useful

markchapman
Diglot
Groupie
Taiwan
tesolzone.com/
Joined 5265 days ago
44 posts - 55 votes

Speaks: English*, Mandarin
Studies: Portuguese

Message 20 of 65

01 May 2010 at 11:06am | IP Logged

I was including the languages I already speak: English & Chinese, as well as Portuguese which I'm learning now.
After that I'm still interested in learning French, Persian and relearning Spanish.
1 person has voted this message useful

Akao
aka FailArtist
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5129 days ago
315 posts - 347 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona

Message 21 of 65

01 May 2010 at 11:07am | IP Logged

What happened to your Spanish?
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markchapman
Diglot
Groupie
Taiwan
tesolzone.com/
Joined 5265 days ago
44 posts - 55 votes

Speaks: English*, Mandarin
Studies: Portuguese

Message 22 of 65

01 May 2010 at 11:19am | IP Logged

I didn't use it for about 10 years when I lived in East Asia. A bad mistake, as I forgot so much. I still have quite a
good vocabulary, and can read it quite well, but I find speaking very hard now.
1 person has voted this message useful

Emerald
Triglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
languagedabbler.blog
Joined 6038 days ago
316 posts - 340 votes

Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English
Studies: Spanish

Message 23 of 65

01 May 2010 at 11:39am | IP Logged

Wow, when I saw the title of this post, I thought you were going to be in your middle-
age. Thirteen!! I wish I had thought learning a lot when I was thirteen.

I believe you can do it. You seem to have the will, and if you are willing to work hard,
definitely doable.

I will be happy with 10, I think. Already know 3, so 7 more would be nice. Or may be 8
more because 11 sounds like a nicer number. But I also have other priorities, so can't be
a language monk.
2 persons have voted this message useful

Akao
aka FailArtist
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5129 days ago
315 posts - 347 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona

Message 24 of 65

01 May 2010 at 12:02pm | IP Logged

Emerald wrote:

Wow, when I saw the title of this post, I thought you were going to be
in your middle-
age. Thirteen!! I wish I had thought learning a lot when I was thirteen.

I believe you can do it. You seem to have the will, and if you are willing to work
hard,
definitely doable.

I will be happy with 10, I think. Already know 3, so 7 more would be nice. Or may be 8
more because 11 sounds like a nicer number. But I also have other priorities, so can't
be
a language monk.

Lol.

I had hoped to have started younger though, if I started around 8 or 9 I'd be
proficient in at least one language already, that would be such a head start...

Anyway, this brings up another problem. Do you think my guitar will interfere with my
language learning?

1 person has voted this message useful

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