Age and learning a foreign language?
467089
At around age 6, certain neural paths forge themselves in the brain, and though they are capable of extending themselves in the things they know, the set paths of knowledge severely cuts off the sort of open-circuit knowlege aquisition young children possess.  The brain must do this to continue to build on retained knowledge - interestingly enough, language is so vital to our species that it wants to set itself early in development.  Therefore, the abilities to reproduce certain sounds spoken in other languages depletes quickly.  \nA newborn to age 2 year old can reproduce every sound of all languages.  They lose this ability early, and in the US we don't teach other languages until high school, when it's almost too late.  In europe they teach multiple languages at young ages and many Europeans are bi- or tri-lingual.  That is the best way, to teach at a young, young age.  I myself sing Spanish and German folk-songs to my young nieces and nephews.  They love it, and now they sing them with me.
159374
I used to think the same when I was very young, you never know when an information is going to come in english or español or francais or portuguese, you never know. So don´t be afraid of learning more stuff in your life!!
353513
The age group choosed by you for improving the langugage is not correct. For this achievement, you may contact the people without any age, creed or religision, whatever it is.
784080
It's going to depend on which languages you want to learn.  If the languages you want to learn are European in origin, I have a suggestion.  \n\nWhen I was in High School, I wanted to take a foreign language course, and I had to choose between Spanish and French. I chose Spanish, but for various reasons, I failed it. For the next 24 years I was under the impression that I couldn't learn a second language.\n\nThen when my daughter was taking Spanish in High School, I found that I still remembered quite a bit of it, and began to rethink my impression about my linguistic ability.\n\nOne day I read that Esperanto was the easiest language on earth to learn. I began learning it as an experiment to see if I really could learn a foreign language. Now I'm fluent at it, and have gone on to learn Spanish (I finished the 3 Pimsleur's Spanish courses in 1 year), and moved on to German. Later I learned a little Polish (to take a business trip to Poland) and studied Mandarin Chinese (just because a friend told me about the free course work on chinesepod.com).\n\nKnowing Esperanto first, helped greatly in my other linguistic experiences, but the thing that surprised me the most was that there is a culture around Esperanto that is alive and vibrant, with Music and Literature (both translated and original). Esperanto is my favorite of all the languages, and the easiest to learn of all my language experiences.\n\nPope John Paul II has called Esperanto the "New Latin".  \n\nThis article on Wikipedia is a very interesting article about the benefits of learning Esperanto before other languages.\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaedeutic_value_of_Esperanto
282167
YOur question requires a much more complex answer than can be given in this format.  \n\nIf you check the links I've attached they will give you detailed information on language, speech and communicaton development beginning at six months of age.\n\nI hope this information is helpful to you.
702628
Frankly, schools start too late learning languages and children do not learn to appreciate the benefits of learning a language. A lot can be to do with the school also. My school, despite being a good one, had a poor attitude to languages. I wanted to learn 2 at GCSE and I ended up with no GCSE's in a foreign language. I only got to take a measly certificate in French and they gave me the qualification a year late because they lost one of my oral exams in the cupboard of one of the modern languages rooms. I took my GCSE's in 2002-2004, so fairly recent and this was the first year they made languages optional. Furthermore, probably we have downward spiral going on, where the influence of one thing, just makes things worse (e.g. the poor attitude makes kids not want to learn, which makes teachers not want to teach, etc...). I am a person who is very much for learning languages, as I know fully well not everyone is going to be speaking English, which is the common view now (Yes alright I do know that loads people speak English and it may very well take over) and it kind of limits "to an extent" your ability to embrace a culture- I feel terrible when I go on holiday and I can't say at least a few words in the language of the country I am in.
1164586
This is an interesting question.\n\nLinguists, especially those who study second language acquisition (SLA), are aware that most people who learn a new language after about the age of 15 always speak with an "accent".  It is quite rare, in fact, to meet a person who doesn't.\n\nWhether or not this means that the person is not a fabulous user of the language is somewhat beside the point.  I am acquainted with a German woman who now teaches in English at an American university, for example.  As far as the grammar, pragmatics, and many other characteristics of her English, she uses English very very well.  In some cases, her ability to use English in an academic setting is superior to that of many native speakers.  However, she speaks English with an accent.  Does that mean that she is not able to use English to communicate?\n\nAnother complicating factor is that our perception and even comprehension of language is confounded by our perception of the person who uses that language.  A classic study that demonstrates this was performed by a researcher named Rubin.  In that study, students listened to a lecture.  They were shown different pictures and told that the person in the picture gave the lecture.  Students who were shown a picture of an Asian male did not perform as well on a comprehension test as students who were shown a picture of a Caucasian male, even though they listened to the same tape recording.  This type of effect, where our comprehension is affected by our perception of the person as well as that person's language, can affect interactions with non-native speakers as well.\n\nBecause so few non-native speakers are able to speak with an accent that sounds native-like, language teachers in general don't make it a goal to train their students to sound like native speakers.  However, there are some features of accents that can be changed to make them more understandable.  Native speakers often listen to the length of the vowel, for example, to tell the difference between the words "beat" and "bead".  So non-native speakers can be trained to make the vowel in "bead" longer than the one in "beat", which will help native speakers to understand them better.  However, one thing that frustrates me as an ESL teacher is the inequality of this; I teach the non-native speakers how to make their accents more understandable, but I never teach the native speakers how to understand accents better.  I find that to be quite unfair.  Who says the native speaker is the one that should be catered to?\n\nIn answer to your question, I know some people that I consider very "fluent" in English despite the fact that they speak with accents.  However, native speakers of English certainly do seem to react when they sense that someone doesn't speak English exactly like they expect.  How much of this is language-related and how much of this is (gulp) prejudice is up for grabs.\n\nEven having written that, I am aware of the irony that I complain about the inequality and unfairness that's built into teaching ESL pronunciation, but I still continue to teach it.  In addition, my ability to speak with a very native-like accent is something that I take some pride in as a non-native speaker of Spanish, for example.  So although I am aware of these issues, I am still contributing to them.\n\nAlso, as a linguistic researcher, I am increasingly interested in the problem of perception.  There is a lot of evidence coming out in research studies today that the reason people speak English with an accent may not be that their English sound system is influenced by their native language, but that their perception of English as they hear it is.  In other words, because they hear things through the sound system of their native language, English might sound more like their native language to them than it does to English speakers.  Therefore, when they hear and store new vocabulary words
159461
usually 16-18, but more importantly they will want someone who can actually speak english and is not too lazy to spell out "anyone".
845148
I speak English, Bulgarian, Russian, Spanish, Italian, French; studied Chinese, Arabic, Portuguese and Farsi...\n\nI can't even BEGIN to list the advantages that weren't even mentioned in the previous replies. But just for the sake of showing some effort, here are a couple of things that make you really appreciate understanding (and using, eventually) a foreign language:\n\nI. Humour (you learn to "get" all the jokes). This is also the shortest way to make friends and become accepted anywhere. Also gives a profounds insight into the culture. Understanding another culture's humour is 70% of the culture per se already. Usually, humour is applied to the most important issues in a society.. Once you get that, you're in.\n\nII. Money.. Obviously. I don't think anyone can deny the fact that languages are "useless" in the INFORMATION AGE. \n\nIII. Respect -- to me personally, knowing a language (in any and all of its aspects) has become a source of healthy self-esteem and significant satisfaction in respect to my social status and interactions.\n\nIV. It's SEXY -- if you know how to use it, it can be the most potent aphrodisiac served on the most succulent plate of all: the tongue ;) I would advise every one to serve themselves in that sense.. ;)\n\nV. It's intelligent -- the philosophy that everyone "educated" already speaks English, so there's no point in learning other languages is the most self-destructive one that a culture can present to the world. It is a philosophy of arrogance and ignorance. The worst thing one can do is not learn. Learning, of whatever you want, is the definition of an intelligent being. The important thing is to avoid following boring, conventional methods when you study... Learning is all about innovation, about finding new things and information, about enriching your ways. So, there's no reason why you should go with the established system. You should experiment and try different little ways and find the one that is most pleasant to you :)\n\nOn this positive note, I bid you good night B-)\n\n\nVeronika
7042
The best way to learn foreign languages (Polish in this case) is to contact native speakers. I recommend learning from each other so that both learners gain accesss to 'living language'. \nhttp://www.slf.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/etandem/etindex-en.html\nCheck it to find out if it is that what you need. Here you can register (it is FREE of charge)and then enjoy a great language exchange.
220745
The best way to improve your foreign language learning is to be surrounded by people who speack only That language.I came to Canada when I was 13 and I didn't speack a word of english.It was hard.......first few month...after 2 month of watching The Simpsons...dahh...lol..I was able to understand some...and then I went to school with all candaian kids..and after 3 month I was able to speack english...well not perfect..but at least I understood pretty much everything their were saying...I hope this helps...be surrounded by people who speack that language...move to that country...if you want it bad...you'll get it.
637076
They have these wonderful things that you used to only be able to get on cassette. "Books on tape" Now thanks to technology you can buy a CD. Also books on the language might help get you started. You might want to look into taking a class in German, not too many schools offer it anymore, you might want to look into getting a private tutor. But alas, nothing is as great or as good of a teacher as actually spending time in a country/area where that is the fluent language. You'll have to learn. It's like a sink or swim situation.
1035247
Language Acquisition is not an easy process. Learning a new language is easy if the new language is from the same linguistic family, but learning English is going to be difficult if the first language of the speaker is Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Hindi or even Arabic. But if the learner is introduced to a new language in the childhood then things are better, you won't be able to learn a language in 2 months, learning a language is not a joke. You might be able understand and speak few words but proficiency is not possible.
33293
Usualy learning a foreign language that belongs to a linguistic group completely different from the languages you already learned before , takes at least 6-8 month if living in the society talking that language ( in this example english ) and having mass media in that language ,and will take much more , approximately twice as long , that's mean 1 year to 18 months if living in a society talking another language than the learning one or living in your homeland . \n    As less you talk another language than the learning one , as soon will you be able to learn the new language .
85098
I'd say hang around people at school who speak that language. You can also take classes. Like Irish said, the older you are, the harder it is to learn.
1088516
I studied this language when I was just 15 because of my mother's orders and its easy actually. Its like learning english minus the correct grammar. \n\nBut the thing is you have to practice or use it frequently or else you will be forgetting it. But don't worry, handouts are also provided. \n\nHave fun.
789830
The problem with this question is that no one has personal experience at learning a language in two different ways, so no one has the ability to compare two ways of learning a language in personal experience and see which one was more effective.  If we believe a certain thing helps language learning, we will think that thing helped us inasmuch as we believe that we are good language learners.  Imagine that I believe that standing on one leg is helpful for language learning, so I take a German class and make sure to stand on one leg while I take my class and do my assignments.  If I learn German later, I'll say, "See, I knew that standing on one leg helped."  But in reality, it was probably other things I was doing that helped.  Therefore, it's important not to just do what people say from personal experience, but to follow what research says on the topic.\n\nAnd, since you asked, I'm a linguist and I study second language acquisition, so here are some things that I think work, based on my knowledge of linguistics research:\n1. Get as much exposure to language that you understand as possible.  Read in the language, watch movies in the language, watch television programs, listen to the radio, etc.  Try to choose materials that you will understand.  For example, you can choose books or magazines on topics that you already know well, so your general knowledge of that topic will help you to understand the material in a new language.  Part of going to a language class is doing this too, because when your teacher talks to you in the language, he/she should do things that help you understand more of what he/she is saying, such as use pictures and gestures, repeat, and slow down.  The more you understand, the more your mind has to work with when it's trying to figure out how to speak that language.  Therefore, songs, games, listening to other people, and many other activities are all helpful, because they help you get exposure to meaningful material in the new language.  By the way, a site that has radio stations from all over the world is www.mikesradioworld.com.\n\nWhatever you do, don't do a lot of work that involves your native language.  It's okay to explain grammar in a person's native language once in a while, but don't watch a movie with English subtitles, for example.  If your brain has subtitles to read, it won't have to pay attention at all to the language that you are trying to learn, and you won't get that much out of it.  Likewise, exercises where you translate to and from your native language aren't always that helpful.  Also, don't try to practice something before you've been exposed to it.  This would be like trying to do long division before you know how to do subtraction -- the material just isn't in your brain.  The good news is that, if you've been exposing yourself to authentic materials in the target language, you'll be exposed to a lot of things.\n\n2. I think that most researchers and language teachers nowadays believe that some type of practice is important.  So, find a willing conversation partner.  This could be a classmate (a non-native speaker) or a native speaker.  Research has shown that non-native speakers don't learn "mistakes" from each other, only good things.  So speak away!  (And don't forget to write, if you want to learn how to do that, too.)\n\n3. Have realistic goals for what proficiency level you want to get, what kinds of things you want to learn, and how long it will take.  Language learning is sometimes hard work, and it can involve discipline to expose yourself to the target language if you aren't in an environment where it is used all the time.  Likewise, it's not realistic to expect yourself to be fluent in a new language if you only study it once a week for about a year.  Finally, consider exactly what you want to do with the language, and focus on learning that.  I don't really need