The age question is one that I get all the time. Often it's not even a question but just a statement: I just think I am too old to learn a new language.
So, is it too late for you to (really) learn and speak a new language?
Like Mahatma Gandhi once said:
"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever"
The way I see it, the best day to start learning a new language was yesterday. Second best is today.
But let's take a moment to see what science and all my years of experience teaching have to say when it comes to age and languages.
As babies we are born with a brilliant cool little brain completely ready and crazy hungry to learn how to speak. This process begins as soon as the baby is able to hear and the little one starts to apply some amazing learning talents without even having to think about it.
To explain this children's innate talent for language, psycholinguistics invented the concept LAD (Language Acquisition Device). We don't fully understand what happens and how it works, but it basically turns little kids into amazing language learning machines. Unfortunately this wonderful gift we are given at birth starts to wear off around the time we turn 3 until it goes away for good around the age of 6 or a bit later (different opinions here). One way or another you and I lost our LAD years ago. So, is there any hope for us?
There is. Well of course there is! We are not going to learn the same way as a child but we can learn. I am living proof of it as I type these words in a language I learned later in life.
For much of the history of neuroscience it was believed that the adult brain was a fixed structure that, when damaged, could not be repaired or changed. However tons of research published in the last 4 decades show that the brain is in fact a dynamic and ever changing structure that can adapt itself to new experiences and, yes, make room for a new language. This phenomenon is called neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity means our brain's capacity to change its shape, to reinvent itself, to create new brain cell connections and store new knowledge. From my point of view as a language coach neuroplasticity means that my student is capable (and willing) of learning and adapting to new ways of talking about the world. Sometimes in ways radically different from those she learned through her mother tongue.
For the longest time we thought this kind of skill and plasticity was exclusive of the very young. Today scientists know that the brain keeps evolving for way, way longer than most people believed. Some new studies say that it actually keeps maturing and evolving until our late 40s. Today a new student in her early 40s told me she was worried about her chances of learning a new language at this stage in life. Well, you are at the very peak of your brain power girl! I am forty myself. And I have never felt more ready to learn new things.
It is also true that studies show that we start losing some of our neuroplasticity as we age. This makes learning new grammar rules and syntax a bit more difficult, but it does not mean at all that you can't learn a language. Just that sometimes you might need to work a bit (just a bit) harder.
But not all is bad. In fact, scientists think that age can help us learn new words. This is because new words can be easily mapped onto a learner's pre-existing knowledge. I have more chances of learning the word "euphemism" if I am already aware of the idea and the word in my own language. My five year old will beat me at naturally absorbing grammar and syntax every time. However I know he is not ready for euphemisms.
I have taught a lot (A LOT) of students in their late 60s, 70s and even 80s and very rarely I have encounter real issues. In many ways they tend to have an advantage: time. The extra time to practice and study that a lot of my younger students struggle to find with their busy schedules.
More often than not the problem with resistance towards adapting and internalizing new grammar rules and syntax comes with some types of personalities (regardless of age) more than with age itself. If you want my opinion I would be more worried about your personality type and study habits than the year you were born. Don't forget that learning a language is only 20% brain power and 80% behavior.
So really. I don't care how old you are. I don't care if you are in your forties, fifties, sixties, seventies or even eighties. You can do this.
In fact the danger of age is very real but also a paradox. Only those who are convinced they are too old to learn are the ones who actually end up failing. Not because they can't learn but because they think they can't and don’t even try. Like Henry Ford put it once:
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.”
So tell me: what is it going to be?
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