Why it’s never too late to learn a language as an adult

University of Chicago ^ | 2024 | Tatyana Woodall, National Geographic

[CondoleezzaProtege]

The long-held idea that language learning is better before adulthood is up for debate...

Lourdes Ortega, a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University...says factors beyond age, like immersion, make a bigger difference in language learning success. “Without the opportunity to be exposed to the language, there's no learning that can happen, early or late..."

The FSI [Foreign Service Institute] says languages that native English speakers would find similar to their own, such as Spanish or French, can be taught relatively quickly in about 24-30 weeks. In contrast, languages that have significant cultural differences from English, like Greek or Russian, will take about 44 weeks. Learning time could double that for languages considered exceptionally hard, such as Arabic or Mandarin...

“There are all sorts of cognitive benefits of being bilingual,“ says Boaz Keysar, a professor of psychology at The University of Chicago... What’s more, many studies suggest learning another language as an adult could even help stave off dementia...

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TOPICS: Education; Hobbies
KEYWORDS: bilingual; language; linguistics; polyglot

[Brian Griffin]

“Been learning Polish.”

I took a look at Polish and decided that Russian would be easier (probably because I’ve been trying to learn Russian for a long time).

I still can’t read Russian in any useful way despite making major efforts.

[wjcsux]

Later

[stanne]

In Europe everyone speaks at least 2 languages

They learn as toddlers when people learn language

[Brian Griffin]

That Russian book is a very good book.

I can say the translation matches well, but my percentage of unassisted Russian word recognition is low.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

I'm looking for the book "How to Speak German like an Argentine".

[Brian Griffin]

I suspect Italian is the easiest foreign language to learn.

[Brian Griffin]

“Been learning Polish. A great way is listening to music.”

Carmen - French opera
Faust - French opera
Don Giovanni - Italian language opera
Le Nozze di Figaro - Italian language opera

Mozart’s operas tend to use basic Italian as they were for Austrians.

[Brian Griffin]

“A great way is listening to music.”

Foreigners often learn English via movies and popular music.

[T.B. Yoits]

...If you speak 1 language you’re American!

People mock Americans for speaking one language but avoid the truth that foreigners have the easy choice of learning American English as a second language. For most of the world, their first language is severely deficient and just adds English words where their language has none.

Adding American English is a plus. Their gain in learning American English is far, far greater than the gain of an American learning their language. They're stepping into a wider world if they learn American English. Learning their language is often stepping into a narrower world.

If you really want to see self-righteous hypocrisy, ask them if their children can speak to their grandparents in either American English or their native language - they overwhelmingly can't. So these same foreigners think Americans should learn a foreign language when they themselves won't ensure their own children do.

Cantonese speakers and Mandarin speakers often speak to each other in English. Canada copes with French and English.

For Americans, learning another language is like walking out of a building that everyone else is rushing into. Which language should I learn?

Arabic
Cantonese
French
German
Greek
Hausa
Hindi
Indonesian
Italian
Japanese
Javanese
Korean
Latin
Mandarian
Nigerian Pidgin
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Swahili
Tagalog
Tamil
Telugu
Thai
Turkish
Urdu
Vietnamese
Western Punjabi

[Brian Griffin]

“A French Village” has subtitles and rather easy to understand French.

[T.B. Yoits]

Spoken French (by someone who is fluent) has a beautiful sound to it.

French is long overdue to have a Daniel Webster rewrite French to make the letters match the pronunciation, starting with the silent consonants such as "s" or "x" at the end of words.

Such an individual would be loathed by the French for a generation or two but afterwards would likely be considered a hero.

(English needs another round of cleanup as well).

[CrimsonTidegirl]

“A Great way is listening to music.”

Listening to Rammstein has helped me with German.

[lee martell]

Have you studied French as a second language?
Most people would not know about the actual pronunciation of those consonants. I certainly didn’t know.

[lee martell]

I had not heard of ‘A French Village’ before now.
It was a very popular TV series, on from about 2009 to 2017.
Most countries have certain long running dramas that capture the essence of that culture. In Mexico they are often called
Telenovelas. One of the most popular was called
“Yo Soy Betty, La Fea”. It was imitated in the American series called ‘Ugly Betty”.

[Cronos]

Oglądaj seriały jak “Nad Niemnem” albo “najdłuższa wojna nowoczesnej europy” albo czterdziestolatek

[Cronos]

Have you looked for classes by Allaince Francaise?

[lee martell]

I may do that. They have been around for years.

[Cronos]

I learnt French for years at AF, right up to baccalaureate. In person classes definitely do help.

[dfwgator]

Yes, I found this great YouTube channel that has a lot of Polish movies/series with subtitles:

https://www.youtube.com/@KINEMATOGRAFIAPOLSKA

[chud]

I've been learning German.
Lots of great resources on YouTube for German content.