It’s Hard to Learn French in Middle Age

Re:It’s Hard to Learn French in Middle Age by cageface on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @08:08AM (#19787158)

I learned Vietnamese in my mid 40s. I think it’s just a matter of persistence and patience. As adults we’re less willing to be novices for an extended period of time.

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Re:It’s Hard to Learn French in Middle Age by malpighien on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @01:18PM (#19789909)

Imho the way languages are taught is too often counter intuitive to the way we communicate. The issue is not accepting to be a novice but the harmful doxa dictating that in order to learn a language you first need to start thinking dumb before expressing a complex line of thoughts. It is mind numbing to be deprived of coordination when expressing yourself and the resulting brain atrophy caused by years of saying My name is.. I live in... I have... This stuff is such and such etc... is the biggest deterrent to learn a new language and become fluent in it.

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Re:It’s Hard to Learn French in Middle Age by deanstag on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @09:21AM (#19787639)

NOTE: this comment does not add anything to the discussion

"As adults we’re less willing to be novices for an extended period of time." - I read this comment and thought to myself "Interesting" and moved on to other web pages. And then it hit me again and again that this was absolutely true in a lot of cases where me or my friends found it frustrating to learn something new. Thank you for putting it this way.

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