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Discipline & age you started learning?

  Tags: Age | Motivation | Difficulty
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
19 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3  Next >>
wakefield10
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 5667 days ago

10 posts - 12 votes
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 1 of 19
28 November 2010 at 4:07am | IP Logged 
I am 22 and a native English speaker, I really want to learn french and Spanish. But have found it so far to be tough. Although I think that may be because I don't have the discipline for it.

Anyway I'm also interested in the age people start as I've seen some began learning languages quite young, would you say that this made it a lot easier?

how much time do you put into languages?
1 person has voted this message useful



Lucas
Pentaglot
Groupie
Switzerland
Joined 4927 days ago

85 posts - 130 votes 
Speaks: French*, English, German, Italian, Russian
Studies: Mandarin

 
 Message 2 of 19
28 November 2010 at 5:48am | IP Logged 
Age have nothing to do with language learning...exept if you're very old and you forget
everything of course!
:)
A lot of people believe that children learn languages easily but it's a myth. A lot of
children learn languages properly because they're going to school. That'y why their
parents (who are working) have ridiculous language competences in comparison.

If you can't learn french or Spanish it's because you don't need to learn french or
spanish. However, if you really think you need to learn french and Spanish, learn french
first (french spelling is tricky, so Spanish will be very easy after that).

PS: I think the best method is assimil.
2 persons have voted this message useful



Leurre
Bilingual Pentaglot
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5185 days ago

219 posts - 372 votes 
Speaks: French*, English*, Korean, Haitian Creole, SpanishC2
Studies: Japanese

 
 Message 3 of 19
28 November 2010 at 6:37am | IP Logged 
I'm sure there have been quite a few debates on learning as a child on this forum, so I
won't start another one up. I simply wished to say that I think it of course is easier
to learn a language as I child. Or rather that which you learn as a child comes to you
much more naturally. We do after all, learn not only object but concepts by attaching
them to certain words in certain languages, whereas when adults we try to adapt to a
new system. AS a child there is no pre-established system/language to adapt from, you
just take what's in front of you.

So I started learning Spanish for the first time when I was 7 I believe, and then after
about 5 years of not using it at all (so to the point where I had essentially lost it)
I started it up again in school. And I got it a lot faster than all my other friends.
Now this may also be the influence from french which gave me a leg up in grammar and
vocabulary, so take it as you will, but I always thought that it helped quite a bit
more to be exposed to/learn a language early on.

Which only means that for you, at 22 (same age yay!) more hard work, desire, disregard
for appearing foolish etc needs to be invested. It certainly doesn't mean that you
can't. discipline is sort of another problem, which plagues everyone I think
(especially me!)
1 person has voted this message useful



wakefield10
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 5667 days ago

10 posts - 12 votes
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 4 of 19
28 November 2010 at 6:52am | IP Logged 
thanks for your replies. Ah, Lucas I've already ordered Assimil Spanish! so I think I'll be learning Spanish first as I want to backpack around south america after I graduate anyway.

Discipline is definitely something I'm not good at either, in fact I think I have been reading on this forum a lot today because I am avoiding doing my dissertation!
2 persons have voted this message useful



Lucas
Pentaglot
Groupie
Switzerland
Joined 4927 days ago

85 posts - 130 votes 
Speaks: French*, English, German, Italian, Russian
Studies: Mandarin

 
 Message 5 of 19
28 November 2010 at 9:15am | IP Logged 
If you haven't received your assimil, it's normal you're not motivated yet.
If you're going to backpack in South America you've got a reason to learn
spanish...you'll learn it then!
:)

@leurre
What you're saying about children is part of the myth.

1 person has voted this message useful



arturs
Triglot
Senior Member
Latvia
Joined 5031 days ago

278 posts - 408 votes 
Speaks: Latvian*, Russian, English

 
 Message 6 of 19
28 November 2010 at 9:29am | IP Logged 
I started with French at age 14. I had this HUGE motivation to learn it - I just loved every minute of the process, every second, every new word I learn, every new phrase, I was very happy that I developed a very good pronunciation. I was just living the dream - that I'm finally learning French. And even now (6 years later), for example studying Arabic, I feel the same way - when I learn a new word, phrase, understand what is written in Arabic somewhere, I'm happy. And languages are only little part of my life - it's a hobby, because I'm not a linguist, but I enjoy every moment. I usually study languages 1,5-2 hours a day (this does not include listening to audio materials while I'm driving to or home from university) - and I enjoy this moment, time flies very fast and after 2 hours I look on the watch and go - OK another 30 minutes and then it's all (you know, learning to much in a row can be counterproductive).

Now ask yourself - do I enjoy every new word, every new phrase, every new grammatical construction that I learn, do I feel happy like a little kid when I understand what French/Spanish speakers say in the TV program or on the radio, do I live with the language by reading about the language, culture, people, traditions of country (countries) where this language is spoken, do I want to learn just 24 hours a day just because I'm so fascinated about the language I'm learning.

If you answered all these questions with YES - then it's impossible not to learn a language no matter how difficult or tough it is - when you really love the language and the process of learning it - YOU JUST CAN'T FAIL!!!

And yes - it takes a lot of commitment and discipline if you want to learn something - not just a language. I am lucky the I learned the importance of personal will and discipline in doing something, because now and even years ago I didn't have so much time for learning languages.
4 persons have voted this message useful



troglodyte
Diglot
Groupie
BrazilRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5040 days ago

53 posts - 69 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 7 of 19
28 November 2010 at 3:04pm | IP Logged 
The discipline part was a concern for me too. I solved it using the
http://dontbreakthechain.com/ website to help me forcing myself to study every day.

Now my co-workers and family compliment my discipline and claim they can't manage to do
the same, and I have to explain to them that I couldn't too, until I actually did
something about it.

I actually got so disciplined at one point that I almost burned out. Today I'm more
relaxed, and don't worry if I can't manage to study every single day.

So, check the website out, and see if it can help you too.
4 persons have voted this message useful



wakefield10
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 5667 days ago

10 posts - 12 votes
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 8 of 19
28 November 2010 at 8:50pm | IP Logged 
hey thanks troglodyte and arturs, I'll definitely have a go on it ive got 16,000 words to write for uni in less than 2 weeks so hopefully it'll help me with that.

Yeh lucas hopefully assimil will motivate me, its just ive had other language programs before and i've never been able to stick at it.


2 persons have voted this message useful



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