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I'm in my 60's. I started studying Spanish, using Duolingo, for 10 minutes a day 6 years ago.
While I still can't understand a word the lawn crew say to one another, I can do two things: Read basic instructions, street signs, etc. written in Spanish, and say nice things to Spanish-speaking people.
I really pleased some people on my recent trip to South America, by asking simple questions and giving compliments in their language. Some of them even complimented me on my pronunciation!
I think the main thing about learning a language is immersion in it for extended time. I studied English for 9 years in school. When I came to the US at the age of 23, I could speak English almost as well as I speak it now (after I have lived in the US for 40 years), but I could not understand what people were saying. It took 9 months in the US to be able to easily and automatically follow conversations. It is not the rational part of your brain that handles this. I suspect it would be the same now with any new language. You can't become fluent in a new language from books and tapes, you really have to go there and spend time with people daily. Maybe take classes for two semesters, but not the language classes with other language non-speakers. Like, take chemistry classes in French with French students.
I think the main thing about learning a language is immersion in it for extended time. I studied English for 9 years in school. When I came to the US at the age of 23, I could speak English almost as well as I speak it now (after I have lived in the US for 40 years), but I could not understand what people were saying. It took 9 months in the US to be able to easily and automatically follow conversations. It is not the rational part of your brain that handles this. I suspect it would be the same now with any new language. You can't become fluent in a new language from books and tapes, you really have to go there and spend time with people daily. Maybe take classes for two semesters, but not the language classes with other language non-speakers. Like, take chemistry classes in French with French students.
This is true but also difficult to achieve. Australians are just as “lazy” as Americans with languages for much the same reasons. Older people like me generally had to study French at high school, and in my Mother’s time Latin was required to be able to go to university. Not any more.
But these days, every so often, the governments will try to mandate some language learning in the curriculums and hit the wall, as there simply are not nearly enough qualified teachers. Immersion is next to impossible except in a family context unless you are able to live overseas for months.
Whereas the daughter of our cousin in Italy is attending an English immersion high school near her home, the closest we get to that are a couple of Italian immersion pre-schools here in Sydney. All schools teach in English.
I have been doing a course this year, however, and it is structured that the intermediate level is taught mostly in Italian and the advanced level is entirely. It is one of the only Italian courses still available as even the universities have cut way back on European languages and replaced them with Asian ones.
I continue to try to improve my Italian for three reasons, I love visiting Italy and it is handy, secondly learning languages is supposed to be good for your brain and unfortunately there is a lot of dementia in my family. Thirdly I find I have a lot in common with the people I have met in courses. Those who are the most fluent have generally attended immersion courses in Italy, but usually only for a couple of weeks.
Last edited by MarisaAnna; 04-06-2023 at 04:23 PM..
I think the main thing about learning a language is immersion in it for extended time.
Indeed. We took the express route with Spanish by spending four months at a 1v1 immersion school in Guatemala, started out at 6 hours per day and eventually burnt out some dialed it back to 4 hours per day. We left there at a solid conversational level and good foundation, then spent most of our time over the next years living in Latin America.
There are also a lot more online learning options now which are great especially if your target language is spoken in cheaper countries so you can have a teacher for $6-$7/hour. Obviously this works well for Spanish, but as far as I can tell the only way I can use affordable online French teachers is if I want to end up with a Haitian accent.
Like I said, previously, I live in a 55+ mobile home community here in Tucson and my Mexican roommate (30% proficient in English) has done a lot of work around here, re-coating roofs, building handicap ramps, painting houses, building decks. I'm the interpreter.
And I hear too many complaints: Why can't he speak better English? And then I remind them that in this part of the country it was ordained that this part of the country will always remain bi-lingual, including California, and I ask them why they don't know any words in Spanish? That quiets them up!
There's a woman who teaches Spanish to seniors at our community center, but she's lucky if she can even get 2 seniors that are interested.
One owner said she wouldn't hire my roommate unless he spoke good English. And then when I told her he only charges $100 to re-coat her roof (other charge $800-$1000), and $450 to paint her entire house, she relented.
I see more enjoyment in just trying to learn another language, than having any expectations to learn it well / be fluent. People might put a higher priority if they are actually planning to visit a location and use it, which is great. But there should be no one "right way" or definite level to reach.
I also like trying to learn common words in various languages (German, French, Italian, Vietnamese) for more variety, rather than depth in just one language. So you can approach them horizontally or vertically.
The United States does Not have an official language.
I had to check whether we do, English is called our National Language officially, but 22% of people speak another language at home at times. I suppose the problem here for language learning is that the languages spoken have changed constantly over the past seventy years, in particular.
Whereas the most common was once Italian it is now Mandarin followed by Arabic, Vietnamese and Cantonese. The only people I know who still regularly speak Italian or Italian dialects are in their late eighties.
But I think that even though it is fairly useless for me to try to learn Italian in a practical sense, I gain benefit from it in enjoyment.
I see more enjoyment in just trying to learn another language, than having any expectations to learn it well / be fluent. People might put a higher priority if they are actually planning to visit a location and use it, which is great. But there should be no one "right way" or definite level to reach.
I also like trying to learn common words in various languages (German, French, Italian, Vietnamese) for more variety, rather than depth in just one language. So you can approach them horizontally or vertically.
I tell people that if you learn the easiest language to learn, Spanish, you suddenly have 22 keys in your pocket to 22 Spanish speaking countries.
You can impress people just with pronouncing the Spanish words perfectly, very easy to do. B's become V sounds, J's become H's sounds. The Spanish speakers pronounce Biden: Vee-Den, emphasis on Den. Trump becomes Troomp! U's are pronounced with the oo sound.
I was talking to a Spanish speaker one time and his favorite car was the Jetta, pronounced Hay-tah. I had a very hard time figuring out what a Hay-tah was.
Another fun way to learn Spanish or French is clicking the subtitles on watching DVD's, which are displayed at the bottom of the screen.
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