Are you too old to learn a foreign language?

your father heard that the best time to learn a  language is when you're young preferably before  

turning 18 and it's even better if you move to  a country where your target language is spoken  

as a kid then you will definitely sound like a  native speaker okay it is true that you might  

not pass as a native speaker if you start later  and I will explain why a little later however  

you can still acquire a level of proficiency that  will allow you to connect with people successfully  

and make new amazing friendships many people have  become bilingual later in life either by choice  

or by necessity for example I am bilingual and I  am bilingual by choice English is not my native  

language my native language is Russian and I've  been learning English for 10 years now I think  

when I was a teenager I was absolutely obsessed  with English that was the time when I discovered  

YouTube and I started watching different  YouTube creators and I was just like wow I  

absolutely have to learn English because I  want to understand what they're talking about  

and that was my motivation I just wanted to learn  English because I wanted to watch YouTube videos  

so that was my choice and that's how I became  bilingual by choice not by necessity well maybe  

sometimes later in life I needed English  because of my studies or I needed English  

because of my job but originally this spark was  created within me because I loved English with  

all my heart the same is true for Chinese  because I'm also learning Chinese right now

something interesting happened to me when  I moved to Mexico that's when I discovered  

learning a language by necessity I had to  study Spanish because now I lived in Mexico is

you have probably heard that with age your brain  is not developing as fast and this leads to a  

decline in your ability to learn a new foreign  language after a certain age yes it is true that  

the ability to learn a foreign language is the  strongest at least grammatically before the age  

of 18. because after that many scientists see a  precipitous decline to become completely fluent  

you should actually start before the age of 10.  and here what I mean by the word fluent is if you  

want to sound exactly like a native speaker like a  hundred percent like a native speaker if you want  

to understand the culture on a very good level  if you don't want to have any accent you have to  

start learning the language seriously before the  age of 10. and actually guys the reason for that  

is mind-blowing babies can actually distinguish  all the different sounds in all the different  

languages and after a certain age what happens is  we only focus like our brain only starts focusing  

on certain sounds in our Target languages for  example if your race bilingual if your parents  

always talk to you in two languages you will  be able to distinguish these two languages very  

easily even as a baby like those two kind of  sounds that are predominant in each language  

however slowly but surely you will lose the  ability to understand I don't know all the  

other different sounds for example Japanese or  Chinese if your parents never speak to you in  

these languages however the reason why I'm filming  this video is to actually tell you guys that the  

idea that it is impossible to learn a new foreign  language after a certain age has been challenged  

multiple times in numerous research articles  This research article for example concludes that  

there are other factors that play a huge role in  language acquisition and before I share with you  

guys all the other factors that might influence  your language acquisition as an adult I wanted to  

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and it also teaches me important things about  time management and we're going to talk about  

a little bit later but one of the main reasons  why it might be so hard for adults to learn a new  

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to skillshare for sponsoring this video okay now  let's talk about the main two factors that might  

play a role in your language acquisition as an  adult the first factor is usually the level of  

your formal education usually it's easier for  people to learn a second language as an adult  

if they already have all of those systems in  place usually people who love studying and who  

already got you know a sort of formal education  they have all of those systems in place and they  

know how to use them to achieve their goals for  example to learn a new language usually when you  

go to college you're taught how to study how to  do certain things and for some people it might  

be very beneficial like all of those things  tips and tricks that your college professors  

taught you might be actually very useful when it  comes to your language learning later in life as  

for me I had an amazing college professor who  taught us English and she would always explain  

how English is all about connecting with new  people because thanks to English you can meet  

so many different people from all over the world  and I think because of her right now I have this  

passion towards language learning and I absolutely  love traveling I have a meaningful conversations  

with locals the second factor is usually time I  know that you can always find time for something  

you really want to do but just think about that  usually when you're an adult you have a lot of  

other priorities in life for example your career  or you want to start a family right you're getting  

married you're having kids and all of those  things are legit and they take a lot of time  

actually when I was moving to Mexico the first  six months I barely study the language because  

I was so busy with you know moving arrangements  with just other things and honestly Spanish was  

the last thing on my to-do list and obviously  because of that I couldn't really communicate  

with people in Spanish the first six months and  only later I started practicing Spanish more  

because I kind of freed up my schedule and at the  same time I realized that it was actually my top  

priority with that said I really want to drive it  home for you guys that it is absolutely possible  

to learn a new language later in life if you're  20 if you're over 20 over 30 over 40 over 50 60  

Etc it's absolutely possible to learn a new  language there are so many examples of people  

who learn a new language later in life and I  can be an example for you for example because  

I started learning Spanish like seven months  ago so when I was 22 23 years old I understand  

stand the 22 and 23 is not the same as being  53 for example but still I'm not a kid anymore  

and I'm kind of in this era of oh I have a lot of  other things on my plate but I also have to learn  

a foreign language I think there are actually  numerous advantages of learning a foreign language  

later in life and I want to share a few of them  with you right now the first is you can use your  

life experience and I for example already have a  lot of life experience when it comes to language  

learning thanks to learning English and then  learning Chinese and college I know what works  

for me and all of those things I can Implement to  learn Spanish successfully the second Advantage is  

you're in control of your life right you probably  already have a job you know you kind of know what  

your schedule looks like and this way you can find  the time if you really want to for example when I  

was in college it was kind of tough for me to find  time to learn Spanish because I already had to  

learn Chinese and I just had a lot of classes you  know I had classes I had homework there were a lot  

of things that were not in my control so that's  why sometimes I would slack off but now I'm not  

in college anymore so I'm in control of my life  and I can create a schedule that works for me the  

third Advantage is when you're an adult usually  you understand the main reason why you need to  

learn a foreign language for example my main goal  I guess is to connect with new people and it's  

fine for me if I never sound a hundred percent  Chinese or 100 Spanish or if my accent in English  

always stays like this I'm pretty content because  my goal is to talk to people to build meaningful  

connections because that's what I like to do and  that's why from the very first day I always try to  

focus on speaking speaking the language as much as  I can and finally I want to talk about this word  

fluent a little bit because yes to be completely  honest I used to talk a lot about oh becoming  

fluent in English in the past however right now I  want to change my strategy a little Because deep  

down I know this is not what I stand for I don't  want to become fluent in English because what is  

fluency some people say that fluency means being  indistinguishable from a native speaker well I  

am not a native speaker sometimes you can still  hear you know certain mistakes or my accent is  

not perfect and honestly I don't want to I'm tired  of chasing this fluency goal because at the end  

of the day I understand that it is not my true  goal however if you approach this word fluency  

from a different perspective and think of it as  oh I'm able to conduct all the business of my  

daily life successfully well yeah then I am fluent  in English because I feel completely comfortable  

when I speak English every day and because of that  your window of possibility stays open because when  

you learn language as an adult usually if you  think of fluency as something very narrow right  

I'm a native speaker well yeah then this window is  going to close at adulthood but then if you change  

the definition a little bit then you can learn a  foreign language at any point in life perhaps even  

more important than when one learns a language is  how how are you learning this foreign language and  

I always say that the best way to learn a foreign  language is by immersion unfortunately a lot of  

people think that immersion means going to this  foreign country living there yes it might be a  

great idea for you guys if this is something  you want to do if this is one of your goals  

for example right now I live in Mexico and I still  practice my in English I don't live in the United  

States because it's not something that I want to  do right now and I can't just you know sit back  

and say well I don't live in the US so no I can't  really learn English it's absolutely not true you  

can create this immersion for yourself you can  create this environment for yourself by watching  

movies watching YouTube listening to podcasts and  just trying to speak the language as much as you  

can so yeah I think that's all I wanted to share  about learning a new language as an adult I hope  

this video will motivate you to start learning  a new language and realize that there is so  

much more to language learning than just becoming  fluent don't forget to give skillshare a try and  

start learning a new skill by clicking the link in  the description and I'll see you in my next video