What’s The Best Age To Learn A Second Language?

One of the most common questions that adults ask themselves regarding language learning is when it is the best time to acquire a new language. Although most studies suggest, and oftentimes scientifically prove, that the ideal time-period is childhood, I hope that you are convinced that this is not always necessarily true.

As the video above explains, there are several theories that suggest that if you get more exposure to a language at a young age, ages 2-13, you have more plasticity in your brain, which is better at making connections and is more adaptable. On the other hand, adults' brains are better at focusing and have complex thought processes, making it faster when learning a new language. The main reason behind this phenomenon is that you are using conscious systematic learning.

That being said, I have met just as many bilingual and multilingual individuals who have acquired a second, or a third language as early as birth up to their 80s. I, myself, have a little bit of bias, as I have always been brought up bilingually and have acquired the benefits that come along with it, but am just as motivated and dedicated to my language studies as individuals who were brought up monolingually. If you want to learn about my experience being raised in a bilingual household and what it was like to attend a bilingual elementary school, make sure to read my post "Raising Your Kids Bilingually” in March 2016. For more information about bilingualism, make sure to read my post “5 Benefits of Bilingualism: Why You Should Be Blingual” in February 2016.

I want to assure you that age is nothing but a number and that anyone is capable of starting from scratch, or of restarting language learning at any age. Due to our incredible brains, we are able to acquire new information at a rapid speed and have the possibility of communicating with all types of people. If you are above 13 and are reading this, do not automatically beat yourself up and tell yourself that you can never learn another language. Most importantly, try not to get into the mentality that you are too old, or were not a good enough student in your language class, and therefore cannot pick one up. My biggest recommendation is to get into a positive mindset, and even trick yourself into believing that you will reach a somewhat difficult goal sooner than you would expect. It is all psychological: if you tell yourself that you can do it, the motivation will come more easily. As the little blue engine said, "Can you do it?"... "Yes you can."

If you were struggling with motivating yourself to start, or to build up on your language, you might benefit by reading my post titled "How to Stay Motivated When Learning a Language" in March 2016. Aside from that, make sure to watch inspirational YouTubers who were monolingual a few years back, but have come to master, and to become fluent in dozens of languages. My favorite polyglots from which to gain inspiration are: Benny Lewis, Tim Doner (I have an entire post devoted to how he inspired me to become a hyperpolyglot titled "Tim Doner: The Hyperpolyglot That Inspired Me" in February 2016), and Luca Lampariello.

Foreign Language Vocabulary Builder Using Anki (Application)

I have been waiting months to write this post, because I wanted to make sure that I gave you the best tips and that I genuinely knew how to best use Anki. In case you have never heard of it, Anki is an application, which you can download online for free, or on your phone for a decent price. I first found out about it when I read a book that gave practical tips on ways that you could start making a better use of time when learning languages. Although I have not been able to use it every day, due to being a full-time student and doing a lot of extracurricular activities, I have used it for a total of over a year, so I can confidently say that Anki alone is one of the most valuable tools of which I have taken advantage over the years. I have not only increased my vocabulary, but also now know how to teach myself abstract words that are harder to master.

The way that it is used is very simple. When you open up the application, you have three tabs from which to choose: Decks, Add, or Browse. If you click “Decks”, you can directly click on one of your decks and start learning a fixed number of cards a day. For example, in my deck named “Deutsch”, it currently says that I have 30 new cards and 0 new cards. This means that, based off of the amount of cards that I want to learn per day, I should review all 30 of those cards today.

If you click on the tool icon to the right of where it says “New”, you have 4 options: Rename, Options, Export, and Delete. If you want to change the name of one of your deck of cards, simply click “Rename” and type in what you want that deck to be called. In the options tab, you can choose “Default” if you feel that you can study the amount of cards that the program is defaulted as. You can also choose “Show new cards in random order”, or “Show new cards in order added” under “Order”. Lastly, you simply choose how many cards you want to learn a day in a certain graduation interval (ex: 1 day), as well as change the easy interval and the percent of your starting ease.

I usually learn 10, or 20 cards a day, but what is great about this application, is if you ever feel that you cannot learn, say 20 cards a day like you originally set out to do, you can adjust that every day if you feel like it is necessary to do so. Anki is an application that you can adjust based on your particular needs and does not make you do something that you do not want to do.

Now that I have covered the basics as to how Anki works, you are probably wondering how I actually use it. Although I will try to do my best to explain how this application works, please make sure to watch the video that I attached above, so that you know how to properly use it step by step. Otherwise, you will probably be very confused and will not understand what I feel like any language learner should know how to use. The first step to adding cards to a deck that you name is to click “Add” and to click on one of the decks that you have, so that you are assured that the new cards that you will add are placed into the correct deck.

Then, I go to www.google.com/images and search for an unknown word in its original language (keep in mind that this step is absolutely crucial if you want to get the most out of this application). For example, if I did not know that “la Estrella” were “the star” in Spanish, I would type in “la estrella” and would find the image that most appealed to me. In other words, I try finding images that are not only visually appealing, but that also help me remember what the word means without translating it from Spanish to English. I then pu the word in its original language where it says “Back”, or I will copy and paste a phrase that is attached to an image and leave the word that I am trying to learn underlined like this: ___________.

Although this process can be time-consuming, what is great about it is that there is truly no wrong way to do it. You do not have to add 100 new words every day. Instead, you have to be consistent and try to use it every day when you are starting if you can. If you cannot, then try using it several times a week. It should not take you more than 15 minutes to study the amount of words that you asked Anki to show you, and it is a really fun and interactive way to expand your vocabulary. Instead of simply using the traditional notecard method that can be tedious to write and use, you are using, reading, and saying new words in your target language. This forces you to switch from, say German mode to English mode.

What is most important about this process is that you search for words, or even phrases of the words that you want to learn in your original language. Avoid translating words as much as possible, and only do so to quickly check if you know the direct translation from your target language to your native language, but avoid putting in any words, or even images that contain words in your native language if you want to expand your vocabulary by twofold, or threefold.

I hope that you found this post practical and helpful. Have an amazing week and continue enjoying summer!

How to Improve Speaking a Language

There is no doubt that languages require a lot of time to master; however, what you should know how to do well is how to speak a language with ease. This does not mean that you should expect perfection, or that you should expect to not say any mistakes when speaking, but it does mean that speaking should ultimately be your start and your end goal. You may be asking yourself: why is that the case? As Benny Lewis has said, languages are used to communicate ideas with others. Languages are not a passive activity, but rather an activity that is constantly used.

If you have been struggling finding a starting point on how to improve in a language, or have felt frustrated with your progress, I hope that you realize that there are many solutions that can help you get back on track. In other words, there are many ways in which you can get better at language learning. Below, I will give you 4 tips that Alex Rawlings, a famous hyperpolyglot, talks about in the video above, and will expand on his points.

1. Get a Language Partner

Not surprisingly, it has become more and more easy to find native speakers and other languages partners with whom to practice languages thanks to the internet. Now that we have Skype, meetup groups, and websites that are designed for languages speakers to find language partners, there is no reason to say that you simply cannot practice speaking. If you type up “language learning websites, “language learning chat-rooms”, or type up other key words that have to do with practicing your conversational skills, hundreds of results will pop. I personally recommend iTalki, and will eventually devote an entire post to this amazing language learning website.

What I have done this school-year is become friends with other international students and friends who are native speakers of my target languages. As we have strengthened our friendships, I have slowly become more comfortable talking to them in English, and eventually ask them if I can practice my target languages with them. I cannot remember of a single time in which my friends have said no, which has been very reassuring for me. 

If you think that this is too unrealistic for you, you can ask your friend if you can have a meal, or do something together and speak English for half of the time and then your target language. That way, you both get to practice speaking both languages. You can also ask your friends, or classmates who are looking for someone with whom to practice, and ask him/her if you can do so whenever you have free time, or whenever you go somewhere together. All it takes is asking someone once, and, if it goes well, you will be assured to have a language partner for many years to come.

2. Talk to Yourself

As weird as this tip may sound, what I have found most helpful and most reliable is talking to myself in my target languages when nobody else is around. I have been doing this for several years now, and have found that I have drastically improved my vocabulary and my confidence in speaking by using a powerful tool: repetition. By talking about my day, or about what is going on around me, I pinpoint what I am comfortable talking about, and on what I need to improve. 

Whenever a word, or a phrase comes up that I do not know, or that I learned at some point, but can no longer remember its meaning or its translation, I write it down in a notebook. That way, I can make myself read all of the new vocabulary that I learn every time that I decide to talk to myself. Even though it may take something get used to, it will eventually become second nature, and can even help you step out of your comfort zone, especially if you are shy, or are a perfectionist when speaking.

3. Learn Vocabulary in Phrases

This tip is very helpful, especially when you are first starting out in a language. Instead of learning a word out of context, you can learn it through a song, or through a particular phrase that you read often. That way, whenever you are in a situation in which you can use that word, you can say it in a phrase without having to translate it from one language to another in your head.

For example, when you first start out learning the basics in French, you learn how to say “I would like”, which translates to “Je voudrais”. For years, you know how to comfortably use this phrase, and know what it means, but do not know that it is in the conditional. As you progress in the language, you will eventually realize that you had always known the endings for the conditional mood without even knowing it. Phrases like these are what will help you get out of confusing or uncomfortable situations, and can help you master survival skills, as well as help know how to say more complex sentences.

4. Imagine How You Will Use the Language

The last tip that Benny Lewis gives us in the above is to think about how you will use the language in your everyday life. Another way to think about it is coming up with scenarios in which you can say certain phrases, or talk about your day in various realistic situations. Some could include: being at a restaurant in a foreign country that speaks your target language, having a conversation about your academic and personal goals with your friend, or asking where the restroom is. What is important to remember is that are endless situations in which you could put your languages to use. Constantly reminding yourself why and for what you are going to use them is going to help you stay motivated to continue learning them (Feel free to read my post titled "How To Stay Motivated When Learning a Language" if you want to get some tips on how you can stay on track when learning languages).

No matter how comfortable you currently feel speaking your target language, I hope that you learned that there are endless ways in which you can continue to improve in them. There is no doubt that there are thousands of individuals around the world who want to be more confident in, and who want to practice what they have learned over the years. Deciding how and with whom you are going to practice them is what is ultimately your choice.

Being Afraid of Making Mistakes in Another Language

Ironically, I believe that what hinders, and discourages most people from continuing to make progress with a language is making the mistake of not making mistakes. By the end of this post, I hope to convince you that what has kept you from moving from one level of language learning to the next is the fact that you have been too scared of being wrong. Believe me, I used to be one of the shyest girls in my grade, and rarely voluntarily raised my hand to volunteer, or to ask questions. Many people often discourage others to raise their hands, or to ask questions unless they know the right answers. In school, I always wanted to be right, and wanted to impress my classmates by answering complex questions.

This is where I went wrong. I was always expecting perfection. I gave myself unrealistic, and high expectations. I would easily become frustrated, and would tell my parents that 10, or more years of French had been useless. If this situation sounds similar to yours, do not be worried. Luckily, I have learned that we cannot expect perfection, not even those of us who are OCD, or are perfectionists. If we expect to not make any mistakes when speaking, or dealing with aspects of our target language, we will automatically fail. Even though I am technically considered a native English speaker, English was my second language, and I rarely ever speak it at home, putting me at a disadvantage from most of my classmates. But even so, I have clarified grammar points, or how to spell words to people who are native English speakers. This shows that even native speakers can make mistakes. That is the beauty of being human: learning from our mistakes, and pushing ourselves to our limits.

Instead, what I encourage you to do is to try to speak every time that you get a chance to do so. If you have not already done so, and have studied a language for years, it is never too late to start doing so. What Benny Lewis (the famous polyglot that I have already mentioned) has said is that language is used to communicate and to share ideas with others. If you can write, and read in a language well, that is impressive, but if you cannot understand its native speakers, or speak it, then you have failed to do what a language is meant to do. Let’s compare languages to math (a subject that I was never good at). If you memorize an equation and know for what it is used, but you cannot apply it to real-world situations, then it is as if you did not know the equation. Language-learning requires you to step out of your comfort zone, and to learn from your mistakes.

Being a native Spanish speaker, there have been many times in which my friends have wanted to practice their Spanish with me. In my opinion, those who have done so successfully are not the ones who had perfect grammar, or who used complicated vocabulary to try to impress me. Instead, those who made grammar or vocabulary mistakes, or who translated words literally from English to Spanish are the ones who were brave. Why? The reason is simple. They were willing to say what they knew, and spoke to me in a natural way. Native speakers also pause, and sometimes have to think about what they want to say the way that they want to say it, but that is part of communication. What matters is that you are trying, that you are willing to learn from your mistakes, and then correct them. Being fearless is what separates bad language-learners from exceptional ones.

Before ending this post, I will share a small anecdote to hopefully inspire you to start speaking your target language as often as possible, even with native speakers. I started taking German I as a sophomore in high-school, and had hopes to someday reach the AP level. At the time, I was trying to do this on a whim, and forgot about this goal for a long time. When I went to a language immersion camp for a month-long high-school credit program, I was attempting to learn enough German in order to skip German II, and move on to Honors German III as a junior. At first, the task was daunting. I was placed into the third level out of six after only taking German for a school-year, and having little to no writing or speaking practice.

There were several people in my group who had taken German for 2 years, a girl who had taken it for 4 years, and a boy who had gone to the camp for 3 years. I was definitely the underdog in the group, but pushed myself out of comfort zone every day. I asked my teacher clarification questions, and used the little vocabulary, and grammar that I knew. By the end of the session, I had only spoken in German from breakfast through dinner time for 10 days (a language pledge that you could choose to do), something that I would have never imagined of accomplishing. How did I manage to learn so much in such a short amount of time? I was fearless. I was brave, and made many mistakes. I conjugated verbs incorrectly, and blanked on words, but could not freely express myself, and used what I knew.

I had girls in my cabin who had had years of practice with the language, which only pushed me to keep on learning more. The first day of camp, I could barely formulate a sentence. One of my friends claims that she could not understand what I was trying to say that day. However, by the end of the camp, I could easily communicate with girls who had gone to the camp for 10 years. This shows that speaking is the most important aspect of a language. Do not worry, and take a few deep breaths. Speaking is not as scary as it seems. Native speakers are not trying to look down upon you. Instead, we want to encourage you to keep on striving to reach your language-learning goals.