📲 The app I use to learn languages 👉🏼 bit.ly/3YCS0b8 🆓 My 10 FREE secrets to language learning 👉🏼 www.thelinguist.com ❓What do you think are the biggest advantages and disadvantages that children and adults have in language learning?👇🏼
Lets all remember that it takes babies/kids 6 years to be considered "fluent" in their native language. Which is a long time, but when you think of how much a 6 year old knows.. it's not a lot, just enough to say what they need to say (grammatically incorrect) and they can understand what their mom or anyone says to them. And as adults we have the privilege of acquiring vocabulary but the listening comprehension (at least for me with Portuguese) is much more difficult than for a baby. It is still crazy to me that people can speak in their native language but not read.. I don't understand how that works.. but it just goes to show, if we just listen and listen and listen.. eventually we'll get there. And of course read read read and we'll understand even better
That's because a kid doesn't have to just learn a language, it has to build the whole structure of applying meanings to symbols. That's what takes long, and once it's established the mere learning of new symbols to connect to the already established map is far easier. Grown-ups can become fluent in a language in under a year with ease depending on how they go about doing so. The way schools teach languages is almost an atrocity. It's inefficient and boring and that's why noone likes or enjoys it. There's far better and far more efficient ways out there.
Well, yes and no.. it doesn't really take 6 years, don't forget that the child starts out as a tiny baby. A friend's child, a native Japanese speaker, came to my country at the age of 5 and was a very good speaker in her native language - she chatted with everybody about everything. And she learned my native language in months, it took her less than a year to be come absolutely native in capability. Pronunciation was never an issue, she got it 100% right from first try, every time.
@@tohaason That's an interesting anecdote. I do wonder if she doesn't have some barely noticeable pronunciation errors because studies suggest that children discard sounds that don't occur in their native language and can never truly reintroduce them later. It would be interesting to follow, though I suspect she has no issues.
@@tohaason About everything? I wouldn't even consider myself to be able to talk about everything in my language To talk about something you need some knowledge, how can a 5-year-old know about everything? I don't know about you but I don't talk to children the same way I do to adults I do agree that they can learn almost perfect pronunciation. But they don't always learn it that fast. I've known many children that can't pronounce the Spanish R at that age And if we talk about vocabulary It takes them years to learn new words, and they probably learn the most once they know how to read In the case of the Japanese, it takes them 9 years of education to learn the official kanji At least to my definition of fluent an average kid is far from being one
Well, I can say that "I got there" eventually by listening and listening and listening. Every since I was kid I liked American movies and songs I would casually watch movies with subtitles just because I liked the way it sounds. As I grew older I started to look up for the lyrics of my favorite songs in English and eventually I got into language learning. I started learning English trough youtube videos first from Brazilian teachers then as became more advanced I switched up to only native English teachers. I remember spending hours and hours on a karaoke game for the PS3 trying to sing along with the lyrics. I watched UA-cam videos in English, talk shows featuring my favorite actors and stand up comedy in English... I can understand and translate to my native language almost everything from English to Portuguese My only problem and regrets is that I didn't any time speaking English I have never said a word in English and that is a problem when you are trying to be fluent in a second language You have to actually speak right from the beginning of your language learning journey If you don't speak you will be more and more in your comfort zone and that will ruin your learnings.
I've been watching u since 2011 and I'm really glad that ur content is getting more wide-ranging, diversified and even more sophisticated in terms of editing, as opposed to the past where it was mostly repetitive, today I feel that there is research and effort done before every video and this makes ur videos more captivating and educating.
Kids get a huge amount of input and they don't care at all about making mistakes. As adults, we feel ashamed or stupid when we make mistakes, so we often try to avoid it. This can mean that we're reluctant to practice speaking a language we're learning. Very young kids don't have this same reluctance. I work with kids under five, and they make a lot of mistakes when speaking. A LOT! Over and over again. They make a mountain of mistakes in vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar, yet they keep speaking without any hesitation. Adult language learners (myself included) could learn a lot from this attitude.
Thank you, Luca!, I look forward to doing another interview with you. We have been "compagnons" in the good cause of promoting language learning for quite a few years now!
There’s a meme that goes more or less like this: Person 1: “I’ve been studying for a year and I only have an eight-year-old’s grasp of the language” Person 2: “How long do you think it took the eight-year-old?” I love this.
Thanks again Steve for a deeper perspective on this topic. I’ve recently moved to Portugal and I’m learning the EU core version of Portuguese. Attitude. Attitude. Attitude. That’s a biggie for me. Whenever I hear someone express negative, fatalistic attitudes toward learning the language, I tend to avoid sharing my language learning experience with them. If asked about my personal language learning journey, I tell people I’m a one year-old in a retiree’s body. A one year-old buying food at the market, signing official contracts, and navigating my way around the country.
As the father of a 3 year old who has excellent English and a smidgen of Swedish, I want to say this is a really excellent video. I like the new style of editing etc., I think it suits your videos. Keep up the great work Steve!
I've watched two Ted talks about this topic. One saying children are linguistic genius by a neuroscientist, and the other saying adults are better than children in learning languages, by a polyglot. Both are a lot intersting and help me in my language learning journey. Steve, i'am very happy found you post new content here in UA-cam, keep going! ❤
I think Children are better but it really does depend on what access they have to the language. I live in a Spanish speaking country and my son is a native Spanish speaker but he's equally if not better in English which he didn't actually start to speak until he was about ten. However, I had spoken and read to him in English since birth, he just always responded in Spanish and then one day decided to switch language. I am British, he has an American like accent.
What we have to notice is : The children frequently have several times more experiences with listening to the language than numerous of us. We can be frustrated that a child maybe can speak in french or other language better than we , but it is good. Do you compare yourself with 100 hours learning language to the child who have been listening to the language for a few thousands hours ? Additionally, they spoke more than us and have a lot of passive vocabulary. Sorry for mistakes but i hardly write in English (it is foreign language for me). If someone notice errors, please Let me know. I have been learning English hard for a few months Greetings from Poland! Edit : The children practice every day, Adults can have problems with make a simple question during a child asks the mom every day : "what is it?, where will we go? etc." They naturally speak and gradually increase their amount of vocabulary, gradually speak more and better with confidence. For example :"tie shoes" (i checked it a minute ago with Google translate, why? Because i have never used this phrase , its simple for foreigners, but i dont need it, i will not use it in next years and it isnt necessary) The children acquire it naturally and its simple for them because they need it in every day life For learners this phrase is in "extended English", i have never heard a phrase "tie shoes" before
Alwaye a pleasure watching a new video. Steve, you are my biggest inspiration for learning languages. Ive taken everything youve said about language learning and im applying it to learning japanese and it has been a BLAST. The amount of influence you have on people is just amazing.
I love this video and this topic! I've been thinking about this for the past 4-ish years as I've been more seriously learning language as an adult and have many of the same thoughts! Going to save this to share with friends 😄
Talking about the naturaly process of acquiring grammar: I started learning Levantine Arabic with Pimsleur. Once I was done with Pimsleur lessons, I looked up Levantine Arabic grammar. I realized I already knew all of it but I didn't know how the different aspects of grammar were called. It took me three months to reach that level. I still struggle with the grammar of languages that I've been studying for years in a more traditional method.
Excellent content Steve as always , only been "acquiring" French for a year and the last month added Japanese and enjoying every day with no self pressure just immersing myself in various ways for a few hours a day. Your footage and interviews etc have been very pivotal and inspirational. Thank you 🙏
Sehr interessantes Video Steve! Ich bin sehr fasziniert und begeistert von deiner Arbeit, alles was du sagst macht so viel Sinn und deckt sich mit meinen eigenen Erfahrungen. Ich wünsche dir und deiner Familie einen tollen Indianersommer in Kanada 🙂
Thanks Steve, I'm a beginner learner I'm stuck in A2 skill level in English and watch videos like these make me happy with my path learning, I know that is a long path and a real know that I need to understand better the patterns of the English, and your videos make me able to understand better this, so I'm very appreciated.
I believe that adult can learn a new language more effectively than child.after nearly 1 year learning by a correct way,most of adults can talking with others,reading magazines and articles and then get the main info of them.but this degree for children may spend 10years. And in chinese input software,the phrase“verb+不+verb”may not be fulfill automaticly.For my opinion,the phrase is a kind of abbr. from"verb+or+antimeans vreb",for example: 你吃饭还是没吃饭→你吃（饭）没吃（饭）. this kind of phrases invisible the word“还是”(or).
This is a very interesting and informative video, given your remarkable level of personal experience. On a personal level of learning new skills as an adult, I agree wholeheartedly that attitude is crucial, along with hard work. A growth mindset is essential. Mistakes are learning opportunities.
That makes me think about a funny situation. I’m a French guy and I’ve been father for a little bit more than 2 years. My best friend, who is maroccan, has been speaking to him in Arabic since his birth. Now when she tells him something he corrects her in French. For example, when she says in Arabic: go and get your shoes; he instantly replies: non chaussure ! Too funny
Steve is not just a language-learner, he's a language-scholar. I love videos like these because that side of him really shines through, and it's an interesting topic, and great to corroborate the methods of LingQ through science and research rather than just personal success. You can tell he takes inspiration from Dr. Krashen. Steve truly is a legendary man. I wish he were my grandpa and would come around for Thanksgiving so we could just chat about languages casually with no anxiety and no time pressure. But that's just a silly dream of course.
I need to comment on one particular point in the video - the one about "rewards". Yes, a reward is useful in keeping up a desire to continue. But (as a former victim of the Duolingo delution for too long) I think there's something super important to say here: The reward must be _what you get when you understand/learn_, i.e. the interesting things you learn from what you can understand. The reward must _not_ be any kind of gamification reward, e.g. game points and the like. Including increasing your n-day "streak" or whatever. The moment the brain starts to even think about how what you're doing can increase your game status - in that moment the brain also fails in doing what it should, which is to purely immerse in the material with its only concern being about understanding what the material communicates, or about what it wants to communicate itself. In short - the reward must be what you get from the material itself. Nothing else. An implicit reward. Anything else just moves focus away from the real deal. Edit: Typo
7:46 To be honest, my learning strategy is just learning how to read and then consume tons of japanese media. Basically, because that's how I learned english as a spanish person. If it weren't because of the internet, I wouldn't be writing this right now. In other words, my learning strategy is just getting raw input from native speakers.
The brain is composed of neural networks. Learning in neural networks involves obtaining optimal solutions from a large amount of data, rather than rule-based processes like grammar. When adults acquire language as well, it's necessary to learn natural expressions, rather than relying on rule-based grammar processing. For understanding the language acquisition of the human brain, it is essential to consider not just the brain's functions but also its learning mechanisms. It's a known fact in neuroscience that the brain continues to develop throughout one's lifetime. Consequently, we can say that the learning mechanism of the brain remains the same throughout life. If the learning mechanism remains consistent over a lifetime, then the learning process for language in adults and children is the same.
Comment first before watching hehe, When i had a child one day i'd like to speak English with him or her, because i want my child to listen to my English, it would be cool i guess. Sadly, now i don't have a child but someday i will for me child who are living in English speaking countries would learn faster due to environment, everonment give them good atmoshere for them to learn any languanges from scratch, and when parents has time to veg out they can teach them well. Kids in the USA even some of them smart Enough to speak more than two languanges, this is adorable video i've ever watched, espacially the thumpnail cuteness overload.😍 9:31 Like that part when you said that adults can refuse new things wheareas a child always attract to new things indeed, they couriousity is high when it comes to learn anything.😊
THere's also this subconscious comparison between your native language, at which you're mighty good, fluent actually, and your target language which you struggle with. This comparison tends to discourage people. They therefore need to be made aware of that fact and congratulated whenever they manage to say or understand something in the language they're learning, even when there are mistakes as long as it's been clear enough. As a matter of fact, understanding how we speak, how the process works, from the depths of our mind to the outside world, (and the other way round) helps us replicate this when we want to learn a foreign language. This is all so exciting.
Whether the learning mechanisms of the brain remain consistent throughout life is a topic of ongoing research and debate in the field of neuroscience. While it's true that the brain continues to undergo changes and adaptations across an individual's lifespan, the extent to which the fundamental learning mechanisms persist remains a nuanced question. One viewpoint suggests that certain aspects of brain plasticity, the brain's ability to reorganize and adapt its structure and function, might diminish with age. This could imply that the brain's capacity for rapid and flexible learning, which is especially pronounced in children, might decline as individuals grow older. As a result, some researchers propose that language acquisition and other forms of learning might become relatively more challenging for adults compared to children.
Very interesting Steve Im Australian and learning bahasa Indonesian, I have already learnt a lot of mandarin Always nice to hear your advice Cheers Steve
Thank you very much friend, I nailed English for a 3months without teachers support that s absolutely incredible. Chinese mandarin for 6months, why a lot of people learning languages 5-20years, thats circus.
Thanks for the informative video. I'm very interested in this topic. In my opinion comparing children and adult language learning is like comparing apples to oranges. As far as I know, children acquire the language in an organic way thanks to the implication of the limbic system and our subcortical areas (Lieberman, 2000; Petitto, 2009). Thanks to this, it is connected to our body through "an intricate web of personal memories, images, sensory associations and affective reactions" (Pavlenko, 2005). I think the main difference when it comes to language learning is children's natural ability vs adults' systematic approach. Let's not forget that adults -unlike children - have already completed Piaget's "formal operational stage", so their thinking is now well established and more systematic. Lieberman, P. (2000). Human language and our reptilian brain. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Pavlenko, A. (2005). Emotions and Multilingualism. New York: Cambridge University Press. Petitto, L. A. (2009). New discoveries from the bilingual brain and mind across the life span: Implications for education. Mind, Brain, and Education, 3(4), 185-197.
Language has constrained diversity. To address the unconstrained diversity, the only way is for many natural entities to learn expressions through exposure, rather than rule-based processing. AI modeled after the brain can engage in conversations without a sense of incongruity through deep learning. The learning process of natural language processing AI involves statistical learning using transformers from natural text to obtain optimal solutions. This mechanism is exactly the same as how children learn natural expressions by imitating adults.
In neuron level learning may be similar to everybody but , as mentioned, our brains "stops growing" when we are around 25. A child's brains are highly "moldable" in early years an when school starts (5-7 yr) that flexibility slows down and stabilizes and again in puberty brains have more potential (which can be harmed by alcohol/drug use). Medical studies show that our brains are capable of evolve throughout our whole life and even create new connections/pattern in order to compensate damaged areas. But were are also different learners and, i dare argue, therefore inherently are better or worse to comprehend different aspects. For example music/playing, mathematics or languages - people just "can" these things in different levels regardless of how much effort they put into learning and never gain same knowledge. I've studied first English, then Swedish, thirdly German in school (classic classroom way). Did an introduction to Latin also. Then I continued to study English, Swedish and German in University plus had one course of Norwegian. Now I've used more than 4 times the amount of hours to learn Italian than I'd used to learn German (which I can use to communicate easy matters) with very slim results. My conclusion is that now ++50 yrs old I won't be able to gain same proficiency in Italian than I have in English or Swedish - in German (that I've used quite little) maybe, but fluency never.
All of the sudden,I feel funny. I found Steve Kaufmann's repetitive couragement is like a learning hypnosis. That can reinforce our motivation to learn.
I've a sad story about this topic, because when I was a child and I made a mistake in my pronunciation, in Spanish, my father far to help me to say it or say these words in te right way he laughed at me, that made me feel afraid to learn even anything, anyway I already forgive him (LOL), but they were sad memories at least. :(
Even though both sides have own perks, i think Children can learn languages much easier than adult. We can know easily because we are using our native language spontaneously
From my humble ignorant perspective I would resumed it in one word! Shame! Children don't know shame! I started to learn English in FL as a teen in HS and every time I tried to communicate was corrected with funny remarks by my peers because of my accent! So I stopped trying, then I moved to NY when the only way to communicate was English and even my Tarzan's language was welcome, only then I became fluent and even almost lost my accent. Coming back to FL, when I started being getting corrected again, my accent came back! Funny though the people correcting me most of the time were Hispanic!🤪 I guess this is why there's a saying "There is no worse wedge than the same suit"🤣
If we truly devote ourselves to learn a language as much as a baby does, we can learn that language in a much shorter amount of time. If a child learns a language in 6 years to be considered as fluent, imagine what happens when you try to learn a language for 6 years with the RIGHT methods! The only two problems of learning languages as adults are the attitude and usage of incorrect methods.
Remember that children are terrible at learning languages!! Talk to someone on their 3rd birthday and see how fluent they are, test their vocabulary... ask them to read a book! Adults after a few years of daily practice can learn a language fluently, so the idea that children have some magical ability to learn fast that adults don't have is kinda ridiculous. A committed adult can learn a completely foreign language to fluency in a year if they try very hard, and in a few years with a non-extreme amount of effort
You haven't mentioned a very important aspect of adult learners who aim to learn a foreign language which is they need to understand the logic of the foreign language. Since their knowledge of life and knowledge of their native language is wider, they have a better capacity to understand the logic behind the language they are trying to learn and in order to be able to understand the logic or the grammar it has to be taught in their native language becuase one cannot understand the logic of a language without being able to understand the langugae.
Don't agree at all. I prefer to learn from the native speaker of the language, or better still from the language itself through lots of listening and reading.
@@Thelinguist I don't agree at all either. The native speaker teacher is only needed if the student is a baby or a child. The critical period enables the baby/child to have competency in the target language by exposure to the target language which means they are able to acqire the target language without being actively taught by a teacher. However, adults don't have that ability because they have lost that brain plasticity. That is why, acqusition is no longer an issue. Active learning is required. If I don't speak French, listening to French songs all they long doesn't make me a fluent or accurate speaker in French. You need to do more reseach before fooling millions of ppl with your unscientific thoughts on language learning and teaching. The science of language acquisiton and learning is not open to interpretation. You are neither a linguist nor a neuroscientist. Moreover you don't have a degree in Educational Studies. Just because you have the ability to learn many languages doesn't make you a scientist. I strongly believe that most of your language ability comes from your multicultral background.
4:29 The process you're describing is spot on, but please don't say the brain "deduces" rules. I think people would be so much less confused if they understood that language acquisition is induction, NOT deduction. I'm doing my best to explain to as many people as I can exactly what these terms mean, in an intuitive way: How do we learn language? ua-cam.com/video/_-w1VewAaq0/v-deo.htmlsi=otpYNKUdt2lgK83J Also it's confusing to say that our brains induce "rules", they actually induce patterns. The difference between rules and patterns is also very important: Grammar doesn't exist ua-cam.com/video/YNJDH0eogAw/v-deo.html
One thing I can't understand. When I was seven years old, I already knew Finnish, my native language, quite well. I could speak, understand speech (except for some of my mother's commands), read books, and understand movies in Finnish as well as foreign language movies with Finnish subtitles. Writing was more difficult and still is. Then, at the age of 11, I started studying English. I've been studying English for almost 70 years now. I can speak well enough to hold a conversation in English, but I often come across words I don't know or remember. There are many words that are difficult for me to pronounce, reading is challenging, and I don't understand movies without subtitles. I can write in English with the help of Google. However, I have to use English every day. For fun, I also study other languages with online teachers. We use English for studying because very few online teachers know Finnish, although there are some.
My listening is horrible, but watching your videos I feel like I’m fluent in English hahahaha you speak so clearly, even when using unusual words (for me). Thank you for tips and hints. God bless you Best regards from Brazil 🇧🇷
can a monolingual adult learn a foreign language? yes. will they learn to speak one as proficiently as a native speaker? most likely not. is that a problem? most likely not. too many people seem to take extreme positions on this topic. "you can't become a native speaker!" so what? you can still communicate with people you would never be able to if you spoke only one language. "i have no talent so i won't bother." stop complaining and just get to work if you wanna speak another language. "you can learn to speak a foreign language better than native speakers" it has no bearing on your own language learning journey. why compare? insecure much? also what stick are you using to say this or that guy speaks some language better than someone else? just start working on your foreign language if you feel like it and just stop if you don't enjoy it anymore.
the child is probably also getting way more input. They'll hear people talking around them for like 12 hours a day. This many hours a day is an unlikely goal for someone learning a language on their own
My 4 year old said i was stupid so i made her get a job and i charged her rent. That was 6 years ago and she hasn't gotten used to it. I pay her the exact same as i did when we first agreed to it. 5 dollars and hour and she has to pay for the things she uses around the house. Due to inflation I've been diligently keeping perfect accounting of everything she uses and she is never able to make ends meet. Who's the dumb one now?
So much time and many words spent on a basic piece of knowledge. No, adults can't learn anything like children. The time has gone inevitably. Just deal with it.
Steve Kaufmann's German is the best I have heard from a North American person. Steve literally sounds like a native German in his age, perfect pronunciation, clear pronunciation, well "organized" in terms of time
Children are better at learning languages. No question. kids are cognitively better at learning languages because the critical period of the brain goes up until 12. After 12 we lose the ability to acquire languages, we can only learn them. Language acquisition happens effortlessly and even unintentionally. Language learning, on the other hand, requires intentional effort (study).
@@wagnerjunior6524 There’s no doubt that children always master their mother tongue, whereas adults often struggle to learn a second language. But adults have some advantages, and well known polyglots sometimes speak better than most native speakers.
You're right. Adults can be "better in some respects" as long as they don't compare themselves with children. The organic ability of children compared with adults' systematic approach causes never ending discussions on the topic.@@wagnerjunior6524
flaw in your lecture, natural acquisition process of a language is already EXPIRED after age 14. the only way that you can learn other lingo must be built ON the structure of your native, basically the more difficult your native tongue, the faster you learn other SIMILAR structure lingo groups. in other word, the english CAN NOT learn the german while the german can the english. german's difficult structures sentence has male or female bin bist ist sind sein seit conjuate beyond the limit of the enligish more mathematical, plural has forms like haus, haeuse, hausen, hause, haus, hauss, all equally probable. der des dem den die der der... ein eines einem einen... keeps on going conjugates adjective adjective noun mit meinen schoenen buechen, with my beautiful books all german verbs have angehen umgegen aufgehen ausgehen vorgehen + flipped ones..... to infinity. english speakers WILL never learn the subtleties and meaninigs, but only confusions.
Children are pretty terrible learners considering the fact that they're literally constantly surrounded by native speakers, and it takes them years to reach a conversational level
Kids are way better than adults at learning languages and many other things. The advantage that adults have over kids is rote memorization. So an adult can memorize vocabulary faster than kids get it through immersion. It’s not very sustainable and leads to burnout which is why kids win every time. Adults don’t benefit from immersion as much as kids do.
I for one can't memorize vocabulary faster than kids, absolutely not. I couldn't do that even back when I had an extremely good memory (some decades ago). The only way I can acquire vocabulary is exactly how kids do it - through association and some level of immersion. The difference is only that I can decide where to focus my immersion (I can buy a course which provides me with input at the most optimal level, for example). What's needed for associative, immersive learning is "comprehensible input", but not only that, you need interesting input, no, SUPER-interesting input. The very important difference between children and adults is that a) children aren't usually self-conscious about stuff. They quickly ask about anything and everything, and they talk about anything and everything without a second thought. And b) children have many more things that they feel are interesting. I remember my childhood very well, I remember what I did, and what I was thinking, and not the least how I felt about it. A child wants to know everything, and a child can feel immense exhilaration about tons of things. This goes away as you get older. The huge problem for me in finding not only comprehensible input for myself when learning Japanese is to also find input which interests me enough. It's too easy for the brain to get bored. And when that happens the magic (of learning) doesn't happen either. But when I _can_ find something then I suddenly learn something, automatically.
The problem - if that's what one can call it - is that a baby has no language yet, so its first language is IMPRINTED where none exists. This is the primary reason why a child learns language so effortlessly early on. In an adult, on the other hand, a language is already established, so efforts to learn additional languages are filtered through an already-existing mother tongue. This creates a certain tension, which tends to lead to anxiety and frustration. Adults can, of course, learn additional languages, but, at best, they become "near-native" in their fluency, and they almost invariably bear an accent from their first, imprinted language. Even when I meet someone who says that they speak such and such a language "fluently," unless they learned it in early childhood, there is always something there that gives them away as non-native speakers.
Checkout online resources for polyglots such as Richard Simcott and Luca Lampariello. By all accounts they have a native level accent in many foreign languages. Bear in mind that language coaches can teach an actor to speak convincingly in a foreign accent e.g. English to American.
@@StillAliveAndKicking_ I've met, and hung out with, Richard Simcott. The man is a savant and is not representative of the average language learner. How many people are going to hire - at great expense - a language therapist to erase a native accent? Children learn languages accent-free because their facial musculature - and the tongue is a muscle - is still developing and has not established patterns that will eventually be, for all intents and purposes, impossible to overcome. Having said this, what's wrong with having an accent? Even in the U.S., there are regional accents and no groundswell of desire to erase them.
I'm a native trilingual, and all three of my native languages have a slight accent of the other two. I also use grammar that may sound wrong to monolinguals. In English, for example, I usually put "only" where "que" would go in French, whereas others seem to put it where "ne" would go, and if there are two verbs and multiple constituents that could take "que", I get frustrated and end up rewording the sentence.
@@robertklose2140 I’ve known many people who learnt a second language at age 8-11 years old to native level i.e. bilingual. So the existence of existing language is not a barrier to the acquisition of a second language to native level. Decades ago I learnt some Welsh, and I was told that my accent was excellent even though I hadn’t spent that much time on it. I’ve met countless people who speak 3 or 4, or more, languages to native level, with native accent. A child moving to a new area will gradually pick up the local accent by default. I don’t agree that the facial muscles lose their ability to learn new sounds. I was able as an adult to partially pick up northern Irish and Scottish accents, for comedic purposes, such that speakers said they were excellent. Had I lived in those areas, I would have acquired the ability to imitate them in a year or two. As an adult I learnt the Welsh ll sound, the French and German guttural r, the two German ch sounds. The adult brain has that capacity, if the owner works at it, just as children do. I believe that adults can develop the capacity to learn foreign sounds, and othervaccents of accent i.e intonation, stress and timing. Most adults don’t listen to other people, which is a major impediment. I agree that it is incredibly hard to get a perfect native accent. I agree that there is little point once it is at a near level i.e. clear and intelligible. I have a regional non standard accent in English. Incidentally I think Simcott works with native speakers to nail his accents. I have listened to many non native English speaking polyglots, and often I cannot tell that they are foreign.
You're right. All the confusion, in my opinion comes when we compare children's organic ability with adults' systematic approach to language learning. Failing to understand this causes never ending discussion on the topic.
📲 The app I use to learn languages 👉🏼 bit.ly/3YCS0b8
🆓 My 10 FREE secrets to language learning 👉🏼 www.thelinguist.com
❓What do you think are the biggest advantages and disadvantages that children and adults have in language learning?👇🏼
i need/ want a Indonesian book so bad if anyone knows where to find free inline books plz lmk
Kris kristoffersen
Lets all remember that it takes babies/kids 6 years to be considered "fluent" in their native language. Which is a long time, but when you think of how much a 6 year old knows.. it's not a lot, just enough to say what they need to say (grammatically incorrect) and they can understand what their mom or anyone says to them. And as adults we have the privilege of acquiring vocabulary but the listening comprehension (at least for me with Portuguese) is much more difficult than for a baby. It is still crazy to me that people can speak in their native language but not read.. I don't understand how that works.. but it just goes to show, if we just listen and listen and listen.. eventually we'll get there. And of course read read read and we'll understand even better
That's because a kid doesn't have to just learn a language, it has to build the whole structure of applying meanings to symbols. That's what takes long, and once it's established the mere learning of new symbols to connect to the already established map is far easier. Grown-ups can become fluent in a language in under a year with ease depending on how they go about doing so. The way schools teach languages is almost an atrocity.
It's inefficient and boring and that's why noone likes or enjoys it. There's far better and far more efficient ways out there.
Well, yes and no.. it doesn't really take 6 years, don't forget that the child starts out as a tiny baby. A friend's child, a native Japanese speaker, came to my country at the age of 5 and was a very good speaker in her native language - she chatted with everybody about everything. And she learned my native language in months, it took her less than a year to be come absolutely native in capability. Pronunciation was never an issue, she got it 100% right from first try, every time.
@@tohaason That's an interesting anecdote. I do wonder if she doesn't have some barely noticeable pronunciation errors because studies suggest that children discard sounds that don't occur in their native language and can never truly reintroduce them later. It would be interesting to follow, though I suspect she has no issues.
@@tohaason
About everything?
I wouldn't even consider myself to be able to talk about everything in my language
To talk about something you need some knowledge, how can a 5-year-old know about everything?
I don't know about you but I don't talk to children the same way I do to adults
I do agree that they can learn almost perfect pronunciation.
But they don't always learn it that fast. I've known many children that can't pronounce the Spanish R at that age
And if we talk about vocabulary
It takes them years to learn new words, and they probably learn the most once they know how to read
In the case of the Japanese, it takes them 9 years of education to learn the official kanji
At least to my definition of fluent an average kid is far from being one
Well, I can say that "I got there" eventually by listening and listening and listening.
Every since I was kid I liked American movies and songs
I would casually watch movies with subtitles just because I liked the way it sounds. As I grew older I started to look up for the lyrics of my favorite songs in English and eventually I got into language learning. I started learning English trough youtube videos first from Brazilian teachers then as became more advanced I switched up to only native English teachers. I remember spending hours and hours on a karaoke game for the PS3 trying to sing along with the lyrics.
I watched UA-cam videos in English, talk shows featuring my favorite actors and stand up comedy in English...
I can understand and translate to my native language almost everything from English to Portuguese
My only problem and regrets is that I didn't any time speaking English
I have never said a word in English and that is a problem when you are trying to be fluent in a second language
You have to actually speak right from the beginning of your language learning journey
If you don't speak you will be more and more in your comfort zone and that will ruin your learnings.
I've been watching u since 2011 and I'm really glad that ur content is getting more wide-ranging, diversified and even more sophisticated in terms of editing, as opposed to the past where it was mostly repetitive, today I feel that there is research and effort done before every video and this makes ur videos more captivating and educating.
Kids get a huge amount of input and they don't care at all about making mistakes. As adults, we feel ashamed or stupid when we make mistakes, so we often try to avoid it. This can mean that we're reluctant to practice speaking a language we're learning. Very young kids don't have this same reluctance. I work with kids under five, and they make a lot of mistakes when speaking. A LOT! Over and over again. They make a mountain of mistakes in vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar, yet they keep speaking without any hesitation. Adult language learners (myself included) could learn a lot from this attitude.
Wonderful video as always Steve!
Thank you, Luca!, I look forward to doing another interview with you. We have been "compagnons" in the good cause of promoting language learning for quite a few years now!
There’s a meme that goes more or less like this:
Person 1: “I’ve been studying for a year and I only have an eight-year-old’s grasp of the language”
Person 2: “How long do you think it took the eight-year-old?”
I love this.
😀
Anyone that claims they have a similar ability of a native eight year old after a year, or after some years, is lying and or delusional.
Thanks again Steve for a deeper perspective on this topic. I’ve recently moved to Portugal and I’m learning the EU core version of Portuguese. Attitude. Attitude. Attitude. That’s a biggie for me. Whenever I hear someone express negative, fatalistic attitudes toward learning the language, I tend to avoid sharing my language learning experience with them. If asked about my personal language learning journey, I tell people I’m a one year-old in a retiree’s body. A one year-old buying food at the market, signing official contracts, and navigating my way around the country.
Yes. This is the way.
Fico feliz em saber que estar a aprender a falar português,, Am from Angola i love you
As the father of a 3 year old who has excellent English and a smidgen of Swedish, I want to say this is a really excellent video.
I like the new style of editing etc., I think it suits your videos. Keep up the great work Steve!
I've watched two Ted talks about this topic. One saying children are linguistic genius by a neuroscientist, and the other saying adults are better than children in learning languages, by a polyglot. Both are a lot intersting and help me in my language learning journey. Steve, i'am very happy found you post new content here in UA-cam, keep going! ❤
Would love to see a debate between these two
@@IntoTheSkyy only if the debate is in two different languages. I don't know why I think that would be interesting.
I think Children are better but it really does depend on what access they have to the language. I live in a Spanish speaking country and my son is a native Spanish speaker but he's equally if not better in English which he didn't actually start to speak until he was about ten. However, I had spoken and read to him in English since birth, he just always responded in Spanish and then one day decided to switch language. I am British, he has an American like accent.
Most intresting video you made so far ! Thank you to be my inspiration for learning new languages
What we have to notice is :
The children frequently have several times more experiences with listening to the language than numerous of us.
We can be frustrated that a child maybe can speak in french or other language better than we , but it is good.
Do you compare yourself with 100 hours learning language to the child who have been listening to the language for a few thousands hours ?
Additionally, they spoke more than us and have a lot of passive vocabulary.
Sorry for mistakes but i hardly write in English (it is foreign language for me).
If someone notice errors, please Let me know.
I have been learning English hard for a few months
Greetings from Poland!
Edit :
The children practice every day, Adults can have problems with make a simple question during a child asks the mom every day : "what is it?, where will we go? etc."
They naturally speak and gradually increase their amount of vocabulary, gradually speak more and better with confidence.
For example :"tie shoes"
(i checked it a minute ago with Google translate, why? Because i have never used this phrase , its simple for foreigners, but i dont need it, i will not use it in next years and it isnt necessary)
The children acquire it naturally and its simple for them because they need it in every day life
For learners this phrase is in "extended English", i have never heard a phrase "tie shoes" before
You can tie whatever you want. Even a tie. 😊 Hi from Ukraine!
Alwaye a pleasure watching a new video. Steve, you are my biggest inspiration for learning languages. Ive taken everything youve said about language learning and im applying it to learning japanese and it has been a BLAST. The amount of influence you have on people is just amazing.
It is amazing to watch a small child so quickly and naturally achieve the language competency of a small child
I love this video and this topic! I've been thinking about this for the past 4-ish years as I've been more seriously learning language as an adult and have many of the same thoughts! Going to save this to share with friends 😄
I have a female relative that learned hindi from her dad, english from her mom and spanish from her nanny before she was ten years old.
I always had this question in my brain, thanks for answering!
Talking about the naturaly process of acquiring grammar:
I started learning Levantine Arabic with Pimsleur. Once I was done with Pimsleur lessons, I looked up Levantine Arabic grammar. I realized I already knew all of it but I didn't know how the different aspects of grammar were called.
It took me three months to reach that level. I still struggle with the grammar of languages that I've been studying for years in a more traditional method.
You are the grandpa that I didn't have! Greetings from Brazil!
Excellent content Steve as always , only been "acquiring" French for a year and the last month added Japanese and enjoying every day with no self pressure just immersing myself in various ways for a few hours a day. Your footage and interviews etc have been very pivotal and inspirational. Thank you 🙏
Sehr interessantes Video Steve! Ich bin sehr fasziniert und begeistert von deiner Arbeit, alles was du sagst macht so viel Sinn und deckt sich mit meinen eigenen Erfahrungen. Ich wünsche dir und deiner Familie einen tollen Indianersommer in Kanada 🙂
Thanks Steve, I'm a beginner learner I'm stuck in A2 skill level in English and watch videos like these make me happy with my path learning, I know that is a long path and a real know that I need to understand better the patterns of the English, and your videos make me able to understand better this, so I'm very appreciated.
If you get what Steve say, your level is much higher.
You are b2 in listening
Your English seems a lot higher than you give yourself credit for ! You’re doing awesome !
I believe that adult can learn a new language more effectively than child.after nearly 1 year learning by a correct way,most of adults can talking with others,reading magazines and articles and then get the main info of them.but this degree for children may spend 10years.
And in chinese input software,the phrase“verb+不+verb”may not be fulfill automaticly.For my opinion,the phrase is a kind of abbr. from"verb+or+antimeans vreb",for example:
你吃饭还是没吃饭→你吃（饭）没吃（饭）.
this kind of phrases invisible the word“还是”(or).
吃了没?
吃不吃?
i can tell from your usage of English that your mother language is Turkish. 😅
This is a very interesting and informative video, given your remarkable level of personal experience. On a personal level of learning new skills as an adult, I agree wholeheartedly that attitude is crucial, along with hard work. A growth mindset is essential. Mistakes are learning opportunities.
That makes me think about a funny situation. I’m a French guy and I’ve been father for a little bit more than 2 years. My best friend, who is maroccan, has been speaking to him in Arabic since his birth. Now when she tells him something he corrects her in French. For example, when she says in Arabic: go and get your shoes; he instantly replies: non chaussure ! Too funny
Steve is not just a language-learner, he's a language-scholar. I love videos like these because that side of him really shines through, and it's an interesting topic, and great to corroborate the methods of LingQ through science and research rather than just personal success. You can tell he takes inspiration from Dr. Krashen.
Steve truly is a legendary man. I wish he were my grandpa and would come around for Thanksgiving so we could just chat about languages casually with no anxiety and no time pressure. But that's just a silly dream of course.
I like the quick pause of video between chunks 👍
Steve I'm listening your mini stories on LingQ to learn English
I need to comment on one particular point in the video - the one about "rewards". Yes, a reward is useful in keeping up a desire to continue. But (as a former victim of the Duolingo delution for too long) I think there's something super important to say here: The reward must be _what you get when you understand/learn_, i.e. the interesting things you learn from what you can understand. The reward must _not_ be any kind of gamification reward, e.g. game points and the like. Including increasing your n-day "streak" or whatever. The moment the brain starts to even think about how what you're doing can increase your game status - in that moment the brain also fails in doing what it should, which is to purely immerse in the material with its only concern being about understanding what the material communicates, or about what it wants to communicate itself.
In short - the reward must be what you get from the material itself. Nothing else. An implicit reward. Anything else just moves focus away from the real deal.
Edit: Typo
7:46 To be honest, my learning strategy is just learning how to read and then consume tons of japanese media. Basically, because that's how I learned english as a spanish person. If it weren't because of the internet, I wouldn't be writing this right now. In other words, my learning strategy is just getting raw input from native speakers.
Love your little chats! 🥰 Good advice 🙂Thank you.
The brain is composed of neural networks. Learning in neural networks involves obtaining optimal solutions from a large amount of data, rather than rule-based processes like grammar. When adults acquire language as well, it's necessary to learn natural expressions, rather than relying on rule-based grammar processing.
For understanding the language acquisition of the human brain, it is essential to consider not just the brain's functions but also its learning mechanisms. It's a known fact in neuroscience that the brain continues to develop throughout one's lifetime. Consequently, we can say that the learning mechanism of the brain remains the same throughout life.
If the learning mechanism remains consistent over a lifetime, then the learning process for language in adults and children is the same.
Yes! I've tried to explain this in an intuitive way here:
Grammar doesn't exist ua-cam.com/video/YNJDH0eogAw/v-deo.html
Comment first before watching hehe,
When i had a child one day i'd like to speak English with him or her, because i want my child to listen to my English, it would be cool i guess. Sadly, now i don't have a child but someday i will for me child who are living in English speaking countries would learn faster due to environment, everonment give them good atmoshere for them to learn any languanges from scratch, and when parents has time to veg out they can teach them well. Kids in the USA even some of them smart Enough to speak more than two languanges, this is adorable video i've ever watched, espacially the thumpnail cuteness overload.😍
9:31
Like that part when you said that adults can refuse new things wheareas a child always attract to new things indeed, they couriousity is high when it comes to learn anything.😊
THere's also this subconscious comparison between your native language, at which you're mighty good, fluent actually, and your target language which you struggle with. This comparison tends to discourage people. They therefore need to be made aware of that fact and congratulated whenever they manage to say or understand something in the language they're learning, even when there are mistakes as long as it's been clear enough. As a matter of fact, understanding how we speak, how the process works, from the depths of our mind to the outside world, (and the other way round) helps us replicate this when we want to learn a foreign language. This is all so exciting.
Whether the learning mechanisms of the brain remain consistent throughout life is a topic of ongoing research and debate in the field of neuroscience.
While it's true that the brain continues to undergo changes and adaptations across an individual's lifespan, the extent
to which the fundamental learning mechanisms persist remains a nuanced question.
One viewpoint suggests that certain aspects of brain plasticity, the brain's ability to reorganize and adapt its structure and function, might diminish with age.
This could imply that the brain's capacity for rapid and flexible learning, which is especially pronounced in children, might decline as individuals grow older.
As a result, some researchers propose that language acquisition and other forms of learning might become relatively more challenging for adults compared to children.
ChatGPT response
Very interesting Steve
Im Australian and learning bahasa Indonesian, I have already learnt a lot of mandarin
Always nice to hear your advice
Cheers Steve
Remember:
Bahasa means languange😂
Thank you very much friend, I nailed English for a 3months without teachers support that s absolutely incredible. Chinese mandarin for 6months, why a lot of people learning languages 5-20years, thats circus.
Thanks for the informative video. I'm very interested in this topic. In my opinion comparing children and adult language learning is like comparing apples to oranges.
As far as I know, children acquire the language in an organic way thanks to the implication of the limbic system and our subcortical areas (Lieberman, 2000; Petitto, 2009). Thanks to this, it is connected to our body through "an intricate web of personal memories, images, sensory associations and affective reactions" (Pavlenko, 2005).
I think the main difference when it comes to language learning is children's natural ability vs adults' systematic approach.
Let's not forget that adults -unlike children - have already completed Piaget's "formal operational stage", so their thinking is now well established and more systematic.
Lieberman, P. (2000). Human language and our reptilian brain. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Pavlenko, A. (2005). Emotions and Multilingualism. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Petitto, L. A. (2009). New discoveries from the bilingual brain and mind across the life span: Implications for education. Mind, Brain, and Education, 3(4), 185-197.
Language has constrained diversity. To address the unconstrained diversity, the only way is for many natural entities to learn expressions through exposure, rather than rule-based processing.
AI modeled after the brain can engage in conversations without a sense of incongruity through deep learning. The learning process of natural language processing AI involves statistical learning using transformers from natural text to obtain optimal solutions. This mechanism is exactly the same as how children learn natural expressions by imitating adults.
Hi your English is very comfortable to listen and easy to understand for me. Thank you for giving such an interesting movie.
I bookmarked this video without any hesitation ❤🎉
Estoy empesando a 😂estudiar soy una mujer de mas de 60 años ,seme a dificultado ha blar y quiero el inles Briranico🎉 gracias
Note: Distilling/preditor, explicit/prior knowledge/
That was a good video 🎥 Steve. Thank you 🙂
A very insightful presentation.
Once the student loses the fear of confusion, the real learning begins.
In neuron level learning may be similar to everybody but , as mentioned, our brains "stops growing" when we are around 25. A child's brains are highly "moldable" in early years an when school starts (5-7 yr) that flexibility slows down and stabilizes and again in puberty brains have more potential (which can be harmed by alcohol/drug use). Medical studies show that our brains are capable of evolve throughout our whole life and even create new connections/pattern in order to compensate damaged areas. But were are also different learners and, i dare argue, therefore inherently are better or worse to comprehend different aspects. For example music/playing, mathematics or languages - people just "can" these things in different levels regardless of how much effort they put into learning and never gain same knowledge.
I've studied first English, then Swedish, thirdly German in school (classic classroom way). Did an introduction to Latin also. Then I continued to study English, Swedish and German in University plus had one course of Norwegian. Now I've used more than 4 times the amount of hours to learn Italian than I'd used to learn German (which I can use to communicate easy matters) with very slim results. My conclusion is that now ++50 yrs old I won't be able to gain same proficiency in Italian than I have in English or Swedish - in German (that I've used quite little) maybe, but fluency never.
All of the sudden,I feel funny. I found Steve Kaufmann's repetitive couragement is like a learning hypnosis. That can reinforce our motivation to learn.
I've a sad story about this topic, because when I was a child and I made a mistake in my pronunciation, in Spanish, my father far to help me to say it or say these words in te right way he laughed at me, that made me feel afraid to learn even anything, anyway I already forgive him (LOL), but they were sad memories at least. :(
Very well balanced treatment of the subject. Thanks.
Steve could you allow the English subtitles for your videos because it comes just in Portuguese for me 🇧🇷
Fascinating explanation
Even though both sides have own perks, i think Children can learn languages much easier than adult. We can know easily because we are using our native language spontaneously
Interesting indeed.
From my humble ignorant perspective I would resumed it in one word! Shame! Children don't know shame!
I started to learn English in FL as a teen in HS and every time I tried to communicate was corrected with funny remarks by my peers because of my accent! So I stopped trying, then I moved to NY when the only way to communicate was English and even my Tarzan's language was welcome, only then I became fluent and even almost lost my accent. Coming back to FL, when I started being getting corrected again, my accent came back!
Funny though the people correcting me most of the time were Hispanic!🤪
I guess this is why there's a saying "There is no worse wedge than the same suit"🤣
I agree. When I correct my students, they laugh if they're kids and worry if they're adults.
Thank your for your useful videos
Good video. Thanks!
If we truly devote ourselves to learn a language as much as a baby does, we can learn that language in a much shorter amount of time. If a child learns a language in 6 years to be considered as fluent, imagine what happens when you try to learn a language for 6 years with the RIGHT methods! The only two problems of learning languages as adults are the attitude and usage of incorrect methods.
How to you acquire and retain proper pronunciation?
Great lesson
Remember that children are terrible at learning languages!! Talk to someone on their 3rd birthday and see how fluent they are, test their vocabulary... ask them to read a book! Adults after a few years of daily practice can learn a language fluently, so the idea that children have some magical ability to learn fast that adults don't have is kinda ridiculous. A committed adult can learn a completely foreign language to fluency in a year if they try very hard, and in a few years with a non-extreme amount of effort
La primera vez que aprendí "how old are you?" me pareció una estúpida forma de preguntar por la edad de una persona.
Thanks for sharing
What’s your opinion on Glossika?
Great video
A very good video on the subject. Everything psychological is biological
You haven't mentioned a very important aspect of adult learners who aim to learn a foreign language which is they need to understand the logic of the foreign language. Since their knowledge of life and knowledge of their native language is wider, they have a better capacity to understand the logic behind the language they are trying to learn and in order to be able to understand the logic or the grammar it has to be taught in their native language becuase one cannot understand the logic of a language without being able to understand the langugae.
Don't agree at all. I prefer to learn from the native speaker of the language, or better still from the language itself through lots of listening and reading.
@@Thelinguist I don't agree at all either. The native speaker teacher is only needed if the student is a baby or a child. The critical period enables the baby/child to have competency in the target language by exposure to the target language which means they are able to acqire the target language without being actively taught by a teacher. However, adults don't have that ability because they have lost that brain plasticity. That is why, acqusition is no longer an issue. Active learning is required. If I don't speak French, listening to French songs all they long doesn't make me a fluent or accurate speaker in French. You need to do more reseach before fooling millions of ppl with your unscientific thoughts on language learning and teaching. The science of language acquisiton and learning is not open to interpretation. You are neither a linguist nor a neuroscientist. Moreover you don't have a degree in Educational Studies. Just because you have the ability to learn many languages doesn't make you a scientist. I strongly believe that most of your language ability comes from your multicultral background.
4:29 The process you're describing is spot on, but please don't say the brain "deduces" rules. I think people would be so much less confused if they understood that language acquisition is induction, NOT deduction.
I'm doing my best to explain to as many people as I can exactly what these terms mean, in an intuitive way:
How do we learn language?
ua-cam.com/video/_-w1VewAaq0/v-deo.htmlsi=otpYNKUdt2lgK83J
Also it's confusing to say that our brains induce "rules", they actually induce patterns. The difference between rules and patterns is also very important:
Grammar doesn't exist ua-cam.com/video/YNJDH0eogAw/v-deo.html
One thing I can't understand. When I was seven years old, I already knew Finnish, my native language, quite well. I could speak, understand speech (except for some of my mother's commands), read books, and understand movies in Finnish as well as foreign language movies with Finnish subtitles. Writing was more difficult and still is.
Then, at the age of 11, I started studying English. I've been studying English for almost 70 years now. I can speak well enough to hold a conversation in English, but I often come across words I don't know or remember. There are many words that are difficult for me to pronounce, reading is challenging, and I don't understand movies without subtitles. I can write in English with the help of Google. However, I have to use English every day. For fun, I also study other languages with online teachers. We use English for studying because very few online teachers know Finnish, although there are some.
I tall takes time. Try working on LingQ.
I have already given up studying English. I am now trying to learn some other languages, Russian and Greek ...
My listening is horrible, but watching your videos I feel like I’m fluent in English hahahaha you speak so clearly, even when using unusual words (for me).
Thank you for tips and hints.
God bless you
Best regards from Brazil 🇧🇷
can a monolingual adult learn a foreign language? yes.
will they learn to speak one as proficiently as a native speaker? most likely not.
is that a problem? most likely not.
too many people seem to take extreme positions on this topic.
"you can't become a native speaker!" so what? you can still communicate with people you would never be able to if you spoke only one language.
"i have no talent so i won't bother." stop complaining and just get to work if you wanna speak another language.
"you can learn to speak a foreign language better than native speakers" it has no bearing on your own language learning journey. why compare? insecure much? also what stick are you using to say this or that guy speaks some language better than someone else?
just start working on your foreign language if you feel like it and just stop if you don't enjoy it anymore.
Just go read "The Loom of Language."
London se namaste. Mai Hindi siik raha hu. When will there be Hindi on Linq ??!!
Aap Duolingo par seekh sagte hain. Abhee acha banaya hai.
How do you feel about picture flash cards?
that can help
It takes 20 years for babies to learn a language. And so do adults.
Вы просто прекрасны, çok güzelsin abim❤
the child is probably also getting way more input. They'll hear people talking around them for like 12 hours a day. This many hours a day is an unlikely goal for someone learning a language on their own
What if you start learning a language at 14 years old?
Great.
Hi, Steve I have a question what is the difference between American words and british words and is lingq teachs u.s.a accent or british
Thanks
Words are mostly the same, almost all the same, and you can choose you accent at LingQ.
@@Thelinguist thanks 🙏 you're the best
尊敬するKaufmann 先生 へ
あなたは池谷裕二さんという東京大学薬学部の研究者をご存知でしょうか？あなたのお話を伺うに、あなたが仰っている言語習得に関するテーマについて、機会があれば是非あなたは彼と対話なさることをお勧めいたします。その様子をわたしは拝見したいです。きっと知的な刺激に満ちた時間になることと思います。
My 4 year old said i was stupid so i made her get a job and i charged her rent. That was 6 years ago and she hasn't gotten used to it. I pay her the exact same as i did when we first agreed to it. 5 dollars and hour and she has to pay for the things she uses around the house.
Due to inflation I've been diligently keeping perfect accounting of everything she uses and she is never able to make ends meet.
Who's the dumb one now?
?
❤❤❤
Children speak any language like a CHILD.
The baby is the most motivated. Its survival depends on acquiring the language 🤣😂
So much time and many words spent on a basic piece of knowledge. No, adults can't learn anything like children. The time has gone inevitably. Just deal with it.
14:14
İTÂÂT ET İTÂÂT E ➕
SNDZ YAKAR 🌬🔥🔥🔥🖖🏻
Short answer: they can but they don't
❤
Inspiring...
Steve Kaufmann's German is the best I have heard from a North American person. Steve literally sounds like a native German in his age, perfect pronunciation, clear pronunciation, well "organized" in terms of time
That thumbnail 😂
👍✌🙌👏🇧🇷
Children are better at learning languages. No question.
kids are cognitively better at learning languages because the critical period of the brain goes up until 12. After 12 we lose the ability to acquire languages, we can only learn them.
Language acquisition happens effortlessly and even unintentionally.
Language learning, on the other hand, requires intentional effort (study).
As Steve said, in some respects an adult can be better.
@@StillAliveAndKicking_ But over all children are better.
@@wagnerjunior6524 There’s no doubt that children always master their mother tongue, whereas adults often struggle to learn a second language. But adults have some advantages, and well known polyglots sometimes speak better than most native speakers.
@@StillAliveAndKicking_ But over all children are WAY better at learning languages.
You're right. Adults can be "better in some respects" as long as they don't compare themselves with children. The organic ability of children compared with adults' systematic approach causes never ending discussions on the topic.@@wagnerjunior6524
Adults cannot learn like children, it's impossible. That is why, we have schools.
i wouldnt say impossible but it's more like that learning like a child can be extremely tedious to the adult brain
@@TheRedFoxMcCloud No, it's impossible because after the first five years of life human brain changes completely.
flaw in your lecture, natural acquisition process of a language is already EXPIRED after age 14. the only way that you can learn other lingo must be built ON the structure of your native, basically the more difficult your native tongue, the faster you learn other SIMILAR structure lingo groups. in other word, the english CAN NOT learn the german while the german can the english.
german's difficult structures
sentence has male or female
bin bist ist sind sein seit conjuate beyond the limit of the enligish
more mathematical, plural has forms like haus, haeuse, hausen, hause, haus, hauss, all equally probable.
der des dem den die der der... ein eines einem einen... keeps on going
conjugates adjective adjective noun mit meinen schoenen buechen, with my beautiful books
all german verbs have angehen umgegen aufgehen ausgehen vorgehen + flipped ones..... to infinity. english speakers WILL never learn the subtleties and meaninigs, but only confusions.
Children are pretty terrible learners considering the fact that they're literally constantly surrounded by native speakers, and it takes them years to reach a conversational level
"Do adults learn languages like children". Well, I have learned Japanese, but I didn't know Children was a language.
Kids are way better than adults at learning languages and many other things. The advantage that adults have over kids is rote memorization. So an adult can memorize vocabulary faster than kids get it through immersion. It’s not very sustainable and leads to burnout which is why kids win every time. Adults don’t benefit from immersion as much as kids do.
I for one can't memorize vocabulary faster than kids, absolutely not. I couldn't do that even back when I had an extremely good memory (some decades ago). The only way I can acquire vocabulary is exactly how kids do it - through association and some level of immersion. The difference is only that I can decide where to focus my immersion (I can buy a course which provides me with input at the most optimal level, for example).
What's needed for associative, immersive learning is "comprehensible input", but not only that, you need interesting input, no, SUPER-interesting input.
The very important difference between children and adults is that
a) children aren't usually self-conscious about stuff. They quickly ask about anything and everything, and they talk about anything and everything without a second thought. And
b) children have many more things that they feel are interesting. I remember my childhood very well, I remember what I did, and what I was thinking, and not the least how I felt about it.
A child wants to know everything, and a child can feel immense exhilaration about tons of things. This goes away as you get older.
The huge problem for me in finding not only comprehensible input for myself when learning Japanese is to also find input which interests me enough. It's too easy for the brain to get bored. And when that happens the magic (of learning) doesn't happen either. But when I _can_ find something then I suddenly learn something, automatically.
The problem - if that's what one can call it - is that a baby has no language yet, so its first language is IMPRINTED where none exists. This is the primary reason why a child learns language so effortlessly early on. In an adult, on the other hand, a language is already established, so efforts to learn additional languages are filtered through an already-existing mother tongue. This creates a certain tension, which tends to lead to anxiety and frustration. Adults can, of course, learn additional languages, but, at best, they become "near-native" in their fluency, and they almost invariably bear an accent from their first, imprinted language. Even when I meet someone who says that they speak such and such a language "fluently," unless they learned it in early childhood, there is always something there that gives them away as non-native speakers.
Checkout online resources for polyglots such as Richard Simcott and Luca Lampariello. By all accounts they have a native level accent in many foreign languages. Bear in mind that language coaches can teach an actor to speak convincingly in a foreign accent e.g. English to American.
@@StillAliveAndKicking_ I've met, and hung out with, Richard Simcott. The man is a savant and is not representative of the average language learner. How many people are going to hire - at great expense - a language therapist to erase a native accent? Children learn languages accent-free because their facial musculature - and the tongue is a muscle - is still developing and has not established patterns that will eventually be, for all intents and purposes, impossible to overcome. Having said this, what's wrong with having an accent? Even in the U.S., there are regional accents and no groundswell of desire to erase them.
I'm a native trilingual, and all three of my native languages have a slight accent of the other two. I also use grammar that may sound wrong to monolinguals. In English, for example, I usually put "only" where "que" would go in French, whereas others seem to put it where "ne" would go, and if there are two verbs and multiple constituents that could take "que", I get frustrated and end up rewording the sentence.
@@robertklose2140 I’ve known many people who learnt a second language at age 8-11 years old to native level i.e. bilingual. So the existence of existing language is not a barrier to the acquisition of a second language to native level. Decades ago I learnt some Welsh, and I was told that my accent was excellent even though I hadn’t spent that much time on it. I’ve met countless people who speak 3 or 4, or more, languages to native level, with native accent. A child moving to a new area will gradually pick up the local accent by default. I don’t agree that the facial muscles lose their ability to learn new sounds. I was able as an adult to partially pick up northern Irish and Scottish accents, for comedic purposes, such that speakers said they were excellent. Had I lived in those areas, I would have acquired the ability to imitate them in a year or two. As an adult I learnt the Welsh ll sound, the French and German guttural r, the two German ch sounds. The adult brain has that capacity, if the owner works at it, just as children do. I believe that adults can develop the capacity to learn foreign sounds, and othervaccents of accent i.e intonation, stress and timing. Most adults don’t listen to other people, which is a major impediment. I agree that it is incredibly hard to get a perfect native accent. I agree that there is little point once it is at a near level i.e. clear and intelligible. I have a regional non standard accent in English. Incidentally I think Simcott works with native speakers to nail his accents. I have listened to many non native English speaking polyglots, and often I cannot tell that they are foreign.
You're right. All the confusion, in my opinion comes when we compare children's organic ability with adults' systematic approach to language learning. Failing to understand this causes never ending discussion on the topic.