Quote:
Originally Posted by NewNorthMainer
As a young woman, I was accepted to the Sorbonne to study for my doctoral degree. My fluency in French was not good but serviceable, my reading comprehension superior.
While the reading comprehension has not changed, my ability to retain even grammar or vocabulary with which any intermediate French student is conversant... de mal en pire.  This has to do with speaking with native French speakers I encounter in New Brunswick. I freeze up, in a way I would not have done as a young woman. I'm now 58 and wonder if retaining the ability to speak a foreign language declines with age, or if being tongue-tied may have to do with communicating with everyday people outside ivory tower situations.
These brain freezes are troubling me. It has been almost thirty years since I was slated for the doctoral degree, yes, but I should have retained more than I have. |
Although it might take a little longer to learn and retain new vocabulary & grammatical structures in a foreign language as an older adult, one should still be able to do with it with a little extra effort.
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