Received this from Brip Blap via email today. It's by an adult who has not been successful at learning languages.
Why should we care what he has to say? Here's the take-away for me: Adults learn second languages all the time. Jobs and lovers are specific motivators mentioned in the article. With a compelling reason, I, too, can learn Spanish.
The author also says that it's easier to pick up a language when immersed. Again the take-away: The more I expose myself to the target language, the more I will learn.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Thanks for the link (I'm the author/editor of brip blap)! The interesting thing is that this was a guest post, so it's a very different point of view than my own. I have learned four languages other than my native English (German, Latin, French and Russian) although I only claim proficiency in two (German and Russian), mainly due to having lived in both countries.
ReplyDeleteHowever, my brother took Latin and nothing else. He's a very smart guy - got a master's degree at 21, etc. - but he had NO aptitude or interest in languages. It's led me to the conclusion that the overwhelming key to learning a foreign language is desire. You have to want to learn. I really wanted to learn German (being of German heritage) and I really wanted to learn Russian because I had dreams of being a spy :). But motivation is key, followed by immersion which can be achieved outside the target country by constant reading and listening to radio/podcasts/music/etc. in that language. I listened to TONS of German kids' shows on cassette, and lots of Russian music CDs.
Thanks for the mention!