It’s so easy to pick it up as as a child when everyone arounds you is speaking that language, but for some reason becomes difficult to pick up another language and learn it even if you’re constantly surrounded by people who speak it? why’s that?
In: Biology
I am not sure if kids have a significant advantage just because they’re younger, and this post also doubt https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/hxqrzc/do_children_actually_learn_languages_quicker_than/. But it still pretty popular theory.
But even if they don’t have this ability. They just have much better conditions than most adults. They have their entire surroundings using this language,1 or 2 personal tutors ready to ask any questions or correct them. And most important, they don’t know any language at the moment. They just don’t have a choice. Adults, even if they are in another country and surrounded by a new language, they still have ways to avoid learning it. They can communicate in the internet in their native language for example. Or scroll social media in their native language.
Also adult’s standarts for learning new language is higher. If you are a kid you have at least five years to start speaking normally, and you are likely to still improve your language skills for the next 3, maybe 5 years? As an adult you don’t have that much time. You try to learn as fast as possible. And even 2 years to start forming any sentences is a long time.
I’m sure there is some neurological / linguistic answer to this, but for me it’s just that my adult brain is focused on many many more things at once than my child brain.
Its hard to remember the Dutch word for vegetabels while my brain is also remembering and figuring out my work projects, my household chores, when my bills are due, what to get dad for his birthday, how to drive a car, who to vote for, what I want to do on the weekend and what is the meaning of life.
You can still learn language as an adult, you only have to allow yourself the chance to “look dumb” and speak “broken language”. If you look at language as means to convey your thoughts to another person, then as long as you get your point across it’s good enough.
But for adults it’s often: “I don’t want to speak like a 4 year old” and you block yourself from taking those first steps. You hold yourself up to some standard, and your pride gets in a way of looking like a rookie.
Kids don’t care. A kid will tell you your face is disfigured, and that your forehead is massive. Adult is less likely to tell you those things, because we teach ourselves to look nice to the outside. Same goes for speaking a different language.
Common myth. A child doesn’t really compete with the cognitive abilities of an adult brain. Children take around a decade to learn their first language, an adult with a comparable level of immersion learns a foreign language in 1-3 years.
Your samples are just being skewed by the adults who don’t try to learn new languages.
What makes you think it’s easier for a child? Have you ever spoken to a 6-year-old? They sound like idiots (only partially kidding, here). Children are bombarded with language throughout the day, everyday. They generally have at least one person talking near them and to them the majority of the time. They have people whose careers are centered around teaching them how to read, write, and speak. It still takes them over a decade to become adequate. If you had this as an adult, you could learn a foreign language much faster than most children learn their native language.
Doesn’t it have to do with the plasticity of the brain or something?
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