Learning a new language

[Lianne]

Katri wrote: "Chrissie, about your experiences with Swedish, I think one of the problems might be that we in small Scandinavian countries aren't really used to anyone learning our language. Hearing our language spoken with a foreign accent can just be seriously difficult to decipher for anyone who doesn't routinely deal with foreigners, or is not used to foreigners with your particular accent. It doesn't necessarily mean anyone's trying to be rude. I certainly don't always find it easy to understand foreigners who are speaking Finnish, those few times I hear it. And if the foreigner hasn't really learned our language's way of pronouncing things but uses some other language's phonemes, intonation etc. it's nearly impossible to understand even with the best of will, especially if we don't know their language of origin. It's a bit different for people whose language is much more often learned by foreigners so they more routinely have to deal with foreign accents."

That's interesting! I always thought it would be cool to learn one of the Scandinavian languages. I had a colleague during my grad program who picked up Swedish while she was studying there (for the semester) and I think she's still competent in it, it's pretty cool.

I've been taking Italian language classes for the past few months now (am at the equivalent of a B1, I think) and I've been enjoying it. It seems to come a lot easier to me than French, but I hope to go back and brush up on French at some point.

[Rayna]

When I was a toddler we had an au pair from Sweden (we're still in touch with her), and I believe she taught me a few phrases. We still have a few children's books in Swedish. I love languages, but am not very good at learning them. I need to brush up my Italian and then start learning French and German, but maybe I'll move on to Swedish after that...

[Chrissie]

Swedish is much easier than French, that is for sure.

[Lisa]

Chrissie wrote: "Swedish is much easier than French, that is for sure."

Oh, good to know. I learned Spanish easily as a child, and I do think Spanish is the easiest foreign language for native English language people to learn. I struggled mightily with French in college. Ending up taking just 2 semesters of it. I don't think it was taught very well but mostly it was me with a the problem of learning it.

[Chrissie]

I don't learn any language easily, but I manage.

[Lisa]

Chrissie wrote: "I don't learn any language easily, but I manage."

I couldn't learn/relearn Spanish at 12. But I learned easily at 9. I think for many, and definitely for me, it's hard to learn new languages after puberty/age 12 or so.

[[deleted user]]

I learned German at the ripe old age of 35, and I'm working on Japanese (although I've gotten lazy). Being in Germany, and being immersed in the language really helped. When my daughter & I were studying Japanese together, I felt that I was retaining it, but now she's moved on to Chinese. I think some people, like my daughter, have a knack for languages.

[Lisa]

Jeannette, Some people definitely have a knack, but unfortunately I'm not one of them. I'd love to be multilingual, both speaking and reading/writing. I can learn a bit but only a bit. A few decades ago I learned a bit of ASL and that was fun. Maybe if I'd had people to talk with I could have learned more. Immersion helps.

[Kim]

French is my second language. I learned it when I was eight.For the first three months that I was at school it felt like I could understand nothing at all. After than I charted my progress by the daily dictation. The first occasion that I made no mistakes was a cause for celebration!

It's so much easier to acquire a second language as a child than as an adult. However, the acquisition of a second language at any age makes it easier, I think, to learn a third or a fourth. I've spent time learning Persian as an adult and the fact that I speak French and studied German in high school definitely helped me come to grips with that language.

[[deleted user]]

I think the biggest advantage to learning a second language as a child is that the vocal chords "learn" to make the sounds needed for proper pronunciation of the second language. Lea was immersed in German from infancy, but she chose to respond in English, and as a result her German lagged behind. She has a very good German accent, and will always pronounce things as a native would. But, she had to get up to speed with proper grammar. All of her German tended to be "at home" talking, and certainly not "school-level" quality.

[Kim]

The ability to acquire correct pronunciation is definitely an advantage of learning a second language as a child. As an adult I've discovered that I cannot roll an "r". This isn't a problem with French, where the "r" comes from the back of the throat, but it gives me a speech impediment in Persian. I think it may be an issue with the physiology of my mouth and tongue, because my husband (who in addition to speaking French speaks Tahitian, where "r" rolling is required) and my children (who speak only English and a very little French) don't have the same problem.

[[deleted user]]

I can't roll my r's, nor can I distinguish or correctly reproduce the ü or ö sounds all the time. I'm mostly okay with the z and pf sounds.

You should hear Lea speaking Mandarin -- her teachers are impressed. Language is her thing; math is not. ;)

[Chrissie]

Learning languages is very hard for me, but I was not immersed in a different one as a child. I cannot roll Rs. There are words in Swedish I cannot pronounce correctly because of this. There is a lot my mouth can't do. Unfortunately, I learn more easily through seeing rather than hearing. Language teachers should keep his in mind. What works for teaching one student will not work with another. For something to fasten in my head I must see it. I can remember where the definition of a particular word is - in which book I learned it and where on the page it was, but the definition itself, that I forget! I find this very strange.

[Lisa]

I could roll my Rs at age 9 but couldn't when I took Spanish again at age 12, and certainly cannot now. Learning as a child is easier, and for me, hugely easier.

[Manybooks]

I am always much better reading and writing a language (any language, even English and German) than speaking it. Even now, when my brother and sister live in Germany and Switzerland, while they definitely speak more fluently than I do (which is also due to lack of practice for me), my writing and my writing style is more coherent than theirs (with less grammar mistakes). And I'm basically the same with English, even French and the small amount of Spanish I know (much better at reading and writing than at speaking, pronouncing, anything oral or aural).

[Lianne]

Gundula wrote: "I am always much better reading and writing a language (any language, even English and German) than speaking it. Even now, when my brother and sister live in Germany and Switzerland, while they de..."

That's interesting! I don't know if it's because of the way I studied languages in the past few years but I think I'm a better reader with another language than speaking it. I know I should practice speaking more but for whatever reason the words always escape me when I start formulating a sentence! lol

Kim wrote: "I've spent time learning Persian as an adult and the fact that I speak French and studied German in high school definitely helped me come to grips with that language."

That's true; although I never mastered French very well when I was in high school, I remembered enough since it's helped me understand Italian grammar right now.

[Rayna]

Babies are actually born with the ability to make every sound in every human language. As they grow up and acquire their first (and sometimes second) language, they lose the sounds that they don't use. That's part of the reason why younger children have an easier time picking up pronunciation of new languages.

I'm also a very visual learner, but having tried to teach myself out of a book, I know that I also need to hear the language and be able to practice. I think that's probably my biggest hurdle in language learning.

[Nelson]

Learning a new language is always difficult, believe me. I tried to learn Spanish, but failed miserably. I honestly believe that it is possible to do with outside help. You can do it with the help of a college application essay writing, there is more info at EduBirdie about it. I hope that it will be a great help for you towards the road of learning!