Most people learn English from a child in
schools. For some it comes easily while for many it is very difficult and
despite the fact that they are learning it for years, they still have a hard
time sticking their sentences. However, there are also those who learn
languages by themselves. Just hear a word then see its meaning and remember for
years. Take a look what brain benefit when you are learning languages from the
early age.
- Does it come easily to learn
languages for you or not?
- How many languages do you know?
Have you learnt them yourself or in the school/courses?
- Do you agree that it’s harder
to learn languages when you are older?
Comments
2. Besides native Polish and “good enough” English, I used to learn German at school, but I hardly remember anything. In case of English, I learned it at school and additional courses.
3. Hard to tell. I can’t see a clearly visible difference between now and earlier in terms of ease of learning. I guess it starts to be noticeable at older age than we are right now.
2. I know 3 languages - Polish, English and French. Polish is my mother tongue. English was a compulsory subject in every school I went to - so I'm quite good at it. I learned French in courses. All in all, I think I don't have enough predispositions to learn a new language on my own.
3. I think yes. Learning a new language is not only about remembering new vocabulary or grammar rules. Being fluent in speaking and ability to think for a while in this language is also very important. It's easier for a child to conduct such changes than for adults.
I know my native language, i.e. Polish. In addition, I can speak English at a certain level. In high school I studied German a lot, so if I refreshed my memory, I might be able to say something. I learned languages myself, through school and at school, but school education hardly helps in learning foreign languages.
It seems to me that older people are generally more difficult to learn. Children learn much faster and better because when they grow up their body changes and more readily adjusts to stimuli from the environment.
English is the only language I can speak on a quite good level. Also I've been learning german for a while and I'm going to try to learn this again, that's on of my plans for the new year :)
I don't really know is it harder to learn language when you're older. In my opinion it's never too late and it's important to push yourself to constantly learn new things.
It depends on the language. For example - English is quite easy, I feel very confident in writing in English, worse in speaking, but in general I have never had major problems with it. Also German is a simple language, in my case I learned grammar very quickly, but worse with learning new words. Once I tried to learn Russian, but I stopped at the Cyrillic alphabet, I learned it when I was in elementary school, but I still remember every letter. I have never dealt with the rest of the languages however, it's rather difficult for me to learn new ones, but sooner or later I would probably manage.
2. How many languages do you know? Have you learnt them yourself or in the school/courses?
I know my native language - Polish. I learned English and German throughout the whole process of my education, but there were always more hours of English in schools. I learned Russian on my own, very short and long time ago. However, I never attended any language schools or any kind of additional lessons.
3. Do you agree that it’s harder to learn languages when you are older?
I think it's true. It's like learning a nativ language as a small child. The sooner we start to interact with people who use it, where we hear it at every turn, we simply get used to it and we get to know it very quickly. It will be much easier for children to absorb new information than for older people. The sooner you start learning a new language, the easier it will be to return to it or continue learning in the future, because you will associate or remember many things with contact with the language in your youth.
In addition to my native language, I know two other languages. I have studied each of them in language courses and watched films in a given language. I had less of a problem with learning English because we come into contact with it every now and then, it just surrounds us. With French I had more difficulties because of my pronunciation.
I can't tell you whether it's more difficult to learn languages when you're older, because I don't think I've reached the point where I can describe myself as "older". However, I have met with older people on courses and I have seen that they have had very great learning difficulties.
I was also leaning German in the past and both were not challenging for me to learn and get to know them better. I learned both of them in school and also by myself by daily encountering it in TV Shows, Games, Article on the internet etc.
Nowadays however i haven't used or learned German so I don't remember much because I mainly use English on daily basis.
I don't think i would need to learn another language in the future but I believe it would definitely be harder to learn rather then learning at younger age as it was proven that at certain age it's much harder for you to learn anything.
I think it depends on the language. English is quite accessible to many people. It is globally known and available everywhere. I'm better at writing than speaking, but overall I've never had a problem with it. German is also a simple language because we were taught this language since school. It has become equally simple for us. I tried to learn Japanese once but stopped with a few words. However, I've never dealt with the rest of the languages, it's rather difficult for me to learn new ones, but sooner or later I will manage.
2. How many languages do you know? Have you learned them yourself or in the school/courses?
I know several languages. I studied them mainly at school. Sometimes I went to extra classes or a course. However, I mainly started learning languages at school. I have never attended any language schools.
3. Do you agree that it's harder to learn languages when you are older?
I think it is harder to learn languages when you are older. Language learning requires a lot of focus and motivation. We do best when we are at school, this is our main occupation. Ratings and parents are our motivation. It will be much easier for children to absorb new information than for older people. The sooner you start learning a new language, the easier it will be to return to it or continue learning in the future, because you associate or remember in contact with the language in your youth for many years.
I can speak english, a little bit of spanish and basic german. I am polish so obviously i can speak in my native language. I've been learning languages at school, had courses but in my opinion it is best to learn it through reading, playing video games, watching tv series. I am sad that i can't turn spanish subtitles on polish netflix. I wanted to do it so i could learn it quicker.
I disagree with that. I had a lot of troubles to learn languages when i was younger. At the moment it comes with an ease. I think that it is about being more confident and you have stronger feeling of purpose while learning at older age.
I think it comes to me easily, but only basics of languages. Only english is excpetion for me. I have been learning multiple languages since 10 years and I have only go beyond basics in engilsh. I used to learn Italian and German and it was hard for me, especially Italian.
2. How many languages do you know? Have you learnt them yourself or in the school/courses?
I know 4 languages including polish. Second is of course english and the others are German and Italian, but in this two I only know the basics as I mentioned earlier.
3. Do you agree that it’s harder to learn languages when you are older?
Maybe, I don't know. For sure when you are a kid you have more time to learn langauges becuse everthing you do is just learning new things, but as adlut you have experience and you are more mature so you know how to study and you can do this on your own.
1. I wouldn't say it is easy for me, however , I also can't say that I'd find it extremely difficult. I guess my ability to learn languages are kind of average.
2. I can speak polish, which is my native language and english. I learnt english in mainly private courses, as it is difficult to learn language at school, no matter whether it is easy for you to learn languages or not.
3. I suppose learning anything when we are older is more difficult. However, it is never too late to try afterall.
I don't think I have any problems with learning languages. I have started learning one in a kindergarten. Later on I have tried some other because I had to pass a language. Now it's easier for me to absorb it.
2. How many languages do you know? Have you learnt them yourself or in the school/courses?
I use English every day. I study in this language, so I can say that I practice English every day. I know the basics of Russian and French. I have been studying Japanese for three years. I learn languages at school and at home alone.
3. Do you agree that it’s harder to learn languages when you are older?
It's hard to say, I don't think it is a problem at my age, maybe it concerns a lot older people.
Learning languages is kinda difficult for me, for example, English is already difficult for me, because there is no one speaks English in my country, this also results in a poor English education system in my country. I didn't have the environment to use English and couldn't learn it well properly so that I couldn't communicate in English normally for first 3 months when I first arrived in Poland.
2.How many languages do you know? Have you learnt them yourself or in the school/courses?
Cantonese, Chinese, English and one semester of Polish language study, I learned Cantonese by myself and family, the others I learned in the school, though I learned English 90% by myself because the English education in China is really poor.
3.Do you agree that it’s harder to learn languages when you are older?
Yes, mostly like it is not because of the intelligence, but the time, we are getting less and less free time when we are being older, if learning a new language won't benefit us much, then most people would prefer to spend less time on it.
It depends on the language. Each language has different grammar and vocabulary rules, so it cannot be said that I can learn any language for a certain period of time, but it seems to me that learning languages is not a very difficult thing for me, but it definitely exhaust.
How many languages do you know? Have you taught them yourself or in the school/courses?
Let's count together: Ukrainian (native), Russian, English, Polish, and I'm learning a little German. And all of these languages, with the exception of Ukrainian, I taught at school or at courses. I must say that it is difficult to learn the language from books. Language is a means of communication between people, and therefore to learn it better with people.
Do you find it harder to learn languages when you are older?
Yes. But it seems to me that it is affected by how many languages you have learned when you were young. I mean, when your brain is more active, you could just train it to learn languages, and in that case, learning languages might be easier.
2. I know Ukrainian as it is my native language, Russian, English, Polish, Japanese. These are the languages I speak everyday or at least remember them and can construct some sentences that make sense (in case of Japanese). Aside from that, I used to study French for two years in middle-school but without the practice I’ve forgotten it, and German, study of which was a bit chaotic and uneven so the result is quite average. I can’t study by myself – I’m too lazy and need someone to stand behind me with a stick to get something done. That’s why I either attended language courses or took classes in school if were available.
3. It is generally more difficult to learn something new when you get older, including languages.
2. Unfortunately, I only know English.
3. It's certainly harder to learn a language when you're older. Then you have more things on your mind, you are busy with work. Also, the older you get, the brain works a little differently, so learning comes a little harder.
I guess I’m pretty average when it comes to learning new languages. It doesn't come very easy but it’s not too hard for me either. I like learning them though, because it’s very satisfying going to a different country and being able to communicate with natives in their mother tongue.
How many languages do you know? Have you learnt them yourself or in the school/courses?
I know 2 languages - English and Spanish and both of which I learnt in school when I was younger. Although I haven’t used Spanish in quite some time and I would need to revise it a little bit to be able to talk to someone. That’s why it’s important to use foreign languages often in order not to forget how to use them.
Do you agree that it’s harder to learn languages when you are older?
I think it’s slightly harder to learn languages when we are older, because of the brain plasticity. That’s why children learn everything better and quicker than the adults, but it doesn’t mean it’s impossible to learn something new when we are older. The advantages of learning languages later on in life are that we already know which techniques work better for us and we can focus more on the areas of language that are interesting, such us the business side of it.
It’s hard for me to learn languages, probably because my long-term memory is so arranged. At school, when it was necessary to learn some verse by heart, I could do it half an hour before class and show it perfectly, but at the next day I completely forgot it. At subconscious levels, I don’t remember things that I don’t need. I really love documentaries, especially about nature, I can watch the National Geographic issue about some Central Asian Shepherd Dog with great interest, but in two days I can hardly remember anything that I’ve watched about it.
How many languages do you know? Have you learnt them yourself or in the school/courses?
I know four languages, but if the question is about different languages, then my answer will be three. I know Russian and Ukrainian, the second one is my native language, the first one I have never learned, but I can speak it fluently. All Slavic languages are more or less similar, those who know Russian without much difficulty will be able to learn Belarusian or Ukrainian or Bulgarian, or even such as Polish and Macedonian and Croatian and so on.
Do you agree that it’s harder to learn languages when you are older?
I don’t know, in 30 years we’ll see.
Rather yes. Some people (not only my parents) told me, that I have the ability to learn the language. I can hear the pronunciation quite easily, and I can repeat it.
2. How many languages do you know? Have you learnt them yourself or in the school/courses?
Except for my native language - Polish and English. I started to learn Polish more for myself, the decision to come here to study came much later.
English, like most people, started in primary school. However, I did not always get good teachers, and unfortunately I was not motivated enough to learn the language at the proper level. After coming to Poland, I continued learning both languages, all conditions are good.
3. Do you agree that it’s harder to learn languages when you are older?
I agree. I can't exactly feel some of the language shades as well as in my native language. Perhaps the problem is that I'm not good enough at abstracting, and as the video says, I'm missing a new language through the prism of what I already know, without perceiving it as completely new.
p.s.
Пекарь Пётр пёк пироги. А ещё он знает английский на уровне C2. Будь как Петя.
2. I know English and a little German. When it comes to English I learn this language in the school, but also I attend English course. In my opinion surrounding in foreign language and studying phrases not words are the best way to learn foreign language.
3. I agree that it is harder to learn foreign language when you are older, but if we do our best we shouldn't have problem to learn it sooner or later. Moreover, we should take into consideration that not only age but also intelligence, motivation and attitude toward learning affect language acquisition.
2. To be honest I can say that I speak Polish and English well. Besides these languages I know basic phrases in German and Swedish.
3. Certainly yes. Apart from the fact that when we are older, we simply don't have so much free time to learn, in our youth our mind is much more absorbent.
2. I know 2 languages, I learned a little on courses and a little myself.
3. Definitely, now it is more and more difficult for me to learn.
2. I speak Polish, English, German and a little Japanese. I started learning English in primary school and I see huge benefits from starting this early. Sometimes I hear the world for the first time and I can sense what it could mean. I make mistakes too but this language is natural for me. I learned German since middle school and I was quite good but as I don't use it anymore I can't speak fluently now, although I can still understand a lot. Japanese is more of a hobby for me as the writing is too complicated... But I can understand some things. It is the most recent language for me, so I guess I am less and less able to learn new languages.
3. Yes, as I already mentioned it before, I have more and more troubles with new languages. When I watched my parents struggle with English in the past I couldn't understand it, but now I know it was harder for them as they started in their mid-20s. I'm quite proud of them that they reached a certain level, to be honest.
2. I speak Polish and English. I learned English in school and in computer games/internet.
I used to study Russian in elementary school and junior high school (for about 5 years).
I remember the letters and the whole alphabet, I can read. I also remember some words.
3. Yes, I agree. The younger brain absorbs knowledge better. Younger people have more time to learn.
2. I know 4 languages. Ukrainian – is my native language, Russian, English, Polish. Ukrainian, English I have learned in school. Russian language I have been learning at home by watching different movies and listening to audiobooks. Polish language using books and podcasts.
3. Yes, as our brain works worse when we are becoming older. We cannot influence this factor, so of course, it will be harder to learn foreign languages later.
2. I was kind of trilingual from the beginning. I speak Ukrainian and Russian because of where I am from. Also my mother is English teacher and she started teaching me English when I was 4 years old. From what can I say - knowing two or more languages is really useful. I also know Polish as I mentioned above. For 3 years I was studying German but I forgot it already.
3. I heard about it, but I cannot prove it on myself. So far so good.
2. I "know" is too big word. I think I can speak English at a communicative level, but I still have a lot to learn. The most important in learning foreign languages is to use this language often so that it becomes natural and easy for us.
3. Of course I agree. If we start learning a foreign language as a child, there is a good chance that as an adult we will be fluent in it.
2. I know four languages and want to learn one or two more (German, Japanese). Ukrainian and Russian I learned at home. I can say that this is my two native languages, as I can speak fluently in both of them (in Russian I speak with a strange accent due to the lack of speech practice). In school, I continued to learn Ukrainian and started to learn English. Then I completely transferred my digital life to the English language. And now, every device, every site that I visit and every book or article that I read is in the English language. Polish language I started to learn when I came to Warsaw and mostly from the environment and other people.
3. I think that it's in general harder to learn when you are older. I'm not informed enough about that, but know that it's connected with neuroplasticity and its changes over the years.
2. I know English and I learned Spanish too, but for me it had and has sense only with Native Spicer. This kind of classes are more interesting for me. I learn English and Spanish at school.
3. Maybe. If children start learning languages in kindergarten, then it is much easier for them to learn several languages at once.
I know 4 languages, two of them I learnt trough life, third - started in school but not so successful and the last one also in real life.
I don't think that it's harder to learn new language in older age. The ability to learn something depends on the plasticity of the brain and cognitive functions. There are many different exercises that will help improve the process of memorization and learning.
It used to come pretty easy but now it is not as simple as it used to be. Nowadays I have to put a lot of work into it to learn a language. On the other hand now I understand much more from films, games or articles in a foreign language so my passive learning might be even better than it used to be.
2. How many languages do you know? Have you learnt them yourself or in the school/courses?
I speak fluent English, but that’s the only language which I know to that level. I used to learn German and Spanish but those were a pain for me to learn so I haven’t achieved as much as I could have from those lessons. I understand a lot but I can barely speak them. I used to also study Japanese but it didn’t last long.
3. Do you agree that it’s harder to learn languages when you are older?
Definitely. When you are younger, your brain works like a sponge and absorbs nearly every information it receives. Later such ability gets weaker and weaker, but when older people very often get more disciplined and that makes a huge advantage for them.
2)It depends on how we mean by knowing the language. If being able to read texts with a dictionary is considered good enough then it should be about 6, if being able to live and efficiently work in a country where this language is considered native, then the count will go down to the 4.
3)I would say it is debatable. Children do have a better memory, that much is indisputable, but I'm a strong believer that the most efficient learning rate is only achievable with regular work and strong self-discipline. Which are not the qualities you will often find in children or younger people.
1. I think it depends. I've learned english practically by myself from video games, when I was still a kid. Moreover I can honestly say that none of my schools had any impact on it, even though I had English in every single school. My speaking language is bad, because of this though. But there were also different languages. I tried learning Spanish somewhere around secondary school. It didn't work out, as I quickly ran out of motivation and abandoned it completely. Also during secondary school, I had to have two foreign languages. One was English and since we had only one more to choose from - German. I can't really say, that I at least tried to learn it, because well... I simply didn't even try and to this day I probably can't say nor understand anything in this language. Then in high school there were more languages to pick from besides German - Russian and Portugal. I choose the latter and even though I didn't enjoy it too much, I learned it pretty well and fast. Lastly I tried learning Japanese on PJATK, but I have to admit it was way too time consuming. Probably none other subject on PJATK requires us to learn as much as Japanese, and even though I loved those lessons, as you can see I don't continue them :(
2. English by myself. I wouldn't say that I 'know' Japanese, because there's still so much more to learn for me, but I guess we can include it. Portugal in high school, but I barely remember it, because I didn't use it ever since. I have also learned Cyrillic once. It was annoying me, that I couldn't understand what some people type, even though their language sounds so similar to our. Took me few minutes to remember it, but reading letters was its only use, so it ended like Portugal.
3. As you can see from my first answer it really depends. I think that it's more about finding enough time, which we have much more as children. Another important thing is motivation. Then age probably doesn't make such a big difference, even if we learn faster as children.
I learned them while being in school and I think that this is also the best time to learn languages as you are used to learning. Also I think learning new languages comes easier as you are younger person. Our brains are more used to learn new subjects and catch up thinks more naturally. Think about that we do not remember how we learned our first native language, it just comes naturally.
Actually, it depends if learning a new language is like an hobby or it critically necessary for some reason. If I will be practising with new language every day and trying to use it everywhere then the results will be forthcoming.
How many languages do you know? Have you learnt them yourself or in the school/courses?
Like most here, English I've started learning in school. Also, I've had a couple of years Deutsch, but without practice, only some basic knowledge left. Polish I've started learning in polish saturday school. I've tried Japanese language courses here in pjatk, but unfortunately, because of lack of time abandoned.
Do you agree that it’s harder to learn languages when you are older?
No, it's actually a myth, it doesn't depend only on how old are you. There is a video on TED which disproves this.
I can speak 4 languages as for now, but I’d really like to learn few more. I’ll start learning Swedish pretty soon and would like to learn Spanish and Italian someday. I’m native in Ukrainian, I’ve learnt Russian at a very early age, I don’t even remember how, I just remember reading in Russian, watching TV in Russian etc. I’m learning English my whole life in school, university and from some educational websites. I started to learn Polish on courses, but I guess most of my knowledge I’ve gained just by talking with Polish native speakers.
I don’t know, I guess I’m not that old yet, but my mom say that it is harder to learn anything when you’re older :)
It depends on language. It was easy for me to learn English, Polish and Russian, but I simply cannot learn French because for me a lot of it's words are very similar.
How many languages do you know? Have you learnt them yourself or in the school/courses?
As I mentioned before, I know English, Polish, Ukrainian and Russian. English I have learned in school, Polish - on courses, Russian I learned simply watching movies and Ukrainian is my native language.
Do you agree that it’s harder to learn languages when you are older?
No, I don't agree with that, I learned Polish during this year and it was easy for me. Maybe I'm not old enough to say that it’s harder to learn languages when you are older :D
Depends on the language and the will. If language is the same to my native, grammatically, I mean both have forms of words in different cases (like Polish and Russian). It is easier to make an analogy, just because it is closer to our understanding. But if language has another construction, for example (English and Polish), you must pay your attention on basics. If you`ll understand how sentences are building, you`ll reduce the process of learning to the number of known words. And here comes the will, if really want to know, you`ll remember, and everyday you`ll remember more and more words.
2) How many languages do you know? Have you learnt them yourself or in the school/courses?
My teacher of foreign literature said: “You are the human so many times, how many languages you know.” I decided to be a human only one time, but for hundred percent. I have learnt it at school, it`s my native language.
3) Do you agree that it is harder to learn languages when you are older?
No, I disagree. Maybe it is harder to clean your mind, to make some free space to new information, but for sure, the process of understanding is the same in younger or older brain. And of course, the will, older people just don`t really want to do this, rather they need it, and this is very big difference. They just suffer themselves, trying to remember some rules. Much easier to understand it, and understanding can only be achieved when you really want it.