fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2408 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2408 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

__________________________________________________

02.

__________________________________________________

03.

__________________________________________________

04.

__________________________________________________

05.

__________________________________________________

06.

__________________________________________________

07.

__________________________________________________

08.

__________________________________________________

09.

__________________________________________________

10.

__________________________________________________

11.

__________________________________________________

12.

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 051 secrets from Secret Submission Post #344.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

My mother tongue is English. I began learning my second language (French) at the age of 10. I began learning my third language (Arabic) at the age of 21. I began learning my fourth language (Korean) at the age of 24, and my fifth (Chinese) at the age of 25.

I'm college educated in my first three languages (degree'd and everything), and I'm at least basically grammatically and syntactically correct in my last two. I love learning languages, and the people who've taught me are usually surprised and impressed I learn so quickly and easily.

So uh... based on most research I've read, people mostly stop being able to grasp new languages after puberty finishes. Am I a freak of nature or something? I'm very confused.

Am I

just a freak of nature or something?

(Wow DW way to cut me off a-hole)

Some people have a natural talent towards learning languages. It seems that you are one of those lucky people. Be happy! Many people wish they had the knack.

From what I've heard, it's much more difficult to learn a new language after puberty for most people, but I've never heard of it being impossible.

I've also read something suggesting that part of the problem for adults is that they tend to approach language learning differently to children, so it may be the case that it's not all about brain wiring and such.

Congrats, though, it's still very impressive. I'd love to learn other languages but I suck at it, so. =/

sounds like you're off to the side of the bell curve, congrats

adults can learn new languages, it just usually takes us longer

Our brains are all different.

And I'm mad jealous of yours.

I believe it's just one of those generalizations and some people are just naturally inclined to learning a language.

Good for you and just be proud of your accomplishments.

It's harder after puberty, but that doesn't mean you can't do it, especially if you're prepared to put the hard work in, which you obviously are. A natural aptitude and enjoyment probably helps a lot with motivation. It's also said that's once you learn a second language, it's easier to learn more, so there's that. Or you might be even a language prodigy - someone with an unusually high aptitude for learning languages. Either way, I wouldn't say you're a freak of nature - but you would definitely be a significantly above average language learner. Congrats! If I was you I'd get myself a fancy, high paid high status job as some sort of translator.

SA
*were you

I'm learning German right now with college classes, but I've grown up with it around (but never actually learned to speak) so I was quite comfortable with it when I started seriously learning.

I've heard of people learning several languages well into their adulthood, so it's not impossible, just hard. Even the other people in my class find it to be difficult and they're all 18-23 year olds. From what I've seen, adults seem to face problems like having a hard time with different pronunciation.

I've taken several, but slow down after a couple of years. Really rough Dutch, French, Spanish, Japanese and Mandarin. I'm disappointed I haven't gotten very far with many of them, though with French I can at least use a little here in Canada. And Chinese I guess, depending where you are.

You're not a freak of nature. Everyone has things they are better at than others.

For me, language is very difficult. In fact, I had problems with my first language and I know I worked more than twice as hard as everyone else in my second language classes. Yet, a lot of them were as proficient as me or better.

Everyone has certain talents. Yours is language. There are others like you. Then there are others like me. Our talents lie elsewhere. I'm assuming you're not as good as your peers in something else. It's just how people are. We all have our own talents and limits.

I don't think this is abnormal/weird at all.

I grew up speaking English, but I was around Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian all the time (which I tend to think developed my ear and gave me the awesome ability to memorize strings of random nonsense syllables). I took two years of high school French, and 15 years later, I can still read a book in the language. I learned enough Italian to hold a decent conversation about unprepared topics with native speakers from diverse parts of the country in two weeks. I went back this summer, and I could still get shit done even though I haven't thought about the language in almost a decade.

Honestly, I attribute all of this to languages just being my thing. I've met a lot of people in my day who are similar - I did my undergrad and grad degrees in languages, which tends to attract a certain ilk. Anecdotally, the people I've met who can pick things up easily tend to be people who either learned or were around other languages as a kid.

So no, not weird. Just different like everyone else. ;-)

[ SECRET POST #2408 ]

Weird language acquisition?

OP

Re: Weird language acquisition?

Re: Weird language acquisition?

Re: Weird language acquisition?

Re: Weird language acquisition?

Re: Weird language acquisition?

Re: Weird language acquisition?

Re: Weird language acquisition?

Re: Weird language acquisition?

Re: Weird language acquisition?

Re: Weird language acquisition?

Re: Weird language acquisition?