Everyone on earth has heard of the idea that kids can learn language better than adults (and the implied added idea that adults are hopeless and should just give up trying). I want to try to dispel that idea.
One part of languages that people talk a lot about is accents. Most people never reach a native level accent, and it’s really not necessary to, but the vast majority can achieve an understandable accent (some people might not be able to achieve this at all and that’s a whole other topics, but they are the minority). Overall accents are an area where you should give best effort and try to be as clear as possible, but not something to obsess over as a metric of language success.
Ok, having gotten over that topic, let’s talk about kids vs adults. Kids have the benefit of lots and lots of time, and more neuroplasticity, but adults have the benefit of motivation (ability to push through boring stuff), knowledge of languages and the world (you already know the concepts you are learning, and you know how a language works on a basic level (verbs, nouns, etc)). One benefit kids have that adults can learn is lack of fear of failure, this is one huge limiter that many adults are stopped by. I had a cousin who until the age of 6 or so would say things backwards (“Im tired because I want to go to sleep”) even after he had spent hours and hours listening to people talk. Kids learning is not some kind of magic as commonly portrayed, it’s a lot to do with willingness to make mistakes, willingness to try something new, etc. It’s not the case that kids listen for 3 years and then suddenly just start speaking correctly all at once as people like to imagine when discussing languages, in reality kids first get the basics, then they are forming basic sentences and making constant mistakes, and then they learn more vocabulary, then they spend years going to grammar school 3 hours a week, etc. It’s actually a very slow process.
More than anything this idea that “it’s new and so difficult” to learn a new language is what holds people back more than anything. I believe most people can get to a 5 year old level speaking ability (if not higher) in a language in around an hour a day for a year (assuming you learn effectively and the right way). Keeping in mind that 5 year olds still often have trouble spelling many words, they have incorrect grammar at times, and lack a ton of vocabulary. From that “5 year old level” the core snowball is formed, watching videos, some occasional grammar lessons, and learning writing/reading (if you want to) is just going to make that snowball continue to grow.
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