Am I Too Old To Learn A New Language?

There is wide held believe that the older you get, the harder it is to learn a language. Some people even believe that after a certain age, it’s actually impossible. 

Luckily, this is not true.

There is no limit to when you can start learning a language. If you feel like it’s too late for you, you are wrong.

It doesn’t matter what age you are, you can start learning a new language today and you can reach a very high level! You just need to put the work in and you will get the results.

What Is The Best Age To Learn A New Language?

Although you can learn a language at any age, there are some differences in how we learn at certain ages.

It is true that it can be more advantageous the younger you are which is probably where the mistaken belief comes from that you can only learn languages as a child. If we look at how you learn at different ages you will see how age can affect things.

How Do Small Children Learn A Language?

Babies, toddlers and small children are absolute language learning machines. Basically every waking second for them is a learning experience and they just suck it all in like sponges.

This is the time when they learn their mother language, which is literally the language that their mother teaches them. This will usually end up being be their native language but children at this age can actually learn two languages at the same time and are somehow able to keep the two languages separate in their brains.

They don’t really “learn” they basically acquire the language by being exposed to it non-stop. This why you have to talk to babies, this is how they learn and work out what things mean.

Small children’s learning ability is incredible and there is no doubt that this is the best time to learn a language. However, if you are reading this, I’m guessing it’s a bit too late for you to start at this age. 

The myth that this is the optimum time to learn is absolutely true, but that doesn’t mean it is too late for you now, as it’s not the only age at which you can learn a language.

How Do Older Children And Teenagers Learn A Language?

This is also seen a very good time to start learning a language. If your parents are not bilingual, then your first exposure to a second language is probably going to be at high school.

It is generally agreed that at this age children are still excellent learners and usually take on board a new language with ease.

I know a large number of you are reading this and thinking “I didn’t learn anything at school”. I would certainly agree with you, I found language lessons at school to be awful.

However, I do believe that if you are given the right learning conditions at this age (and for some people that is school) then you can learn a new language quite easily as you are still developing and able to learn rapidly during this time.

Children of this age are able to learn through acquisition, but are also able to consciously study and learn about how languages work. This is why kids of this age are taught about grammar in their own language at this age, as well as usually a second language at school.  

This is also the age category where acquiring an accent can still happen although this is often debated.

It is said that young children and older children are both developing their listening and vocal skills at this age and are able to acquire a native accent more easily because of this.

Again, just because this can be a good time to learn, does not mean it is the only time. You can still learn after this, but you may not be able to acquire an accent as easily.

How Do Adults Learn A Language?

Once we reach adulthood we seem to believe that lanaguge learning cannot be done. We think that maybe if we are a young adult, we might be able to learn a new language, but only in certain circumstances.

The truth is that this is not true and we can still learn a language with no problems. Although our rate of daily learning is reduced compared to that of a small child, we still have the ability to do. The ability to learn does not go away.

Stop and think about how many things you have learned as an adult. Probably things like how to drive, or do certain tasks for your job or even stuff around tax. These are all things you learn as adults.

It just might take a little more conscious effort to learn a language as an adult compared to a child, but it can be done.

You can also still acquire a language through immersion at this age, but it takes a long time and by consciously engaging through the language in other ways, you will be able to get there faster.

(You can read more about – To Learn A Language From Scratch)

Why Do We Think It’s Impossible To Learn A Language As Adults?

I think if we look at the common issues adult language learners face, it will start to make sense why so many people wrongly think that they cannot learn a language.  

Basically, if you are aware of these issues, and avoid them, there is no reason why you cannot learn a language as an adult.

Adults Are Too Busy With Life (They Don’t Put The Time In To The Language)

One of the main reasons we struggle with learning as adults is because we do not put the time in. We have other life commitments that get in the way.

When you think about a baby, their job is to just sit there and listen to the world around them. They just immerse in the language all day long in between naps.

They are spending nearly every waking minute learning; you are spending 15 minutes a day. You can easily start to see how this might make adult learning not as efficient as a child’s.

You need to understand that language learning takes a lot of time and we as adults underestimate this and just do not put enough time into learning. If you speak to anyone who has learned a language as an adult, they will all tell you the same thing …they spent a long time immersing in the language.

This means they spent hours every day listening to the new language and studying. We have been tricked by all these online courses that sell you the goal of learning a language in a few weeks by simply doing 5 minutes a day.

This is not enough, and then when the progress doesn’t quite work out after doing this, you blame it on being too old, rather than the fact that you haven’t spent enough time with the language.

Adult Have A Fear Of Making Mistakes In A Language

As adults we don’t like to be wrong. This is fine in general life, but when it comes learning this is a huge hindrance.

Learning form mistakes can be one of the best ways to learn. In language learning mistakes will happen a lot. However, as adults we hold back and try to avoid the mistakes.

We protect ourselves by not getting out of our depth. We avoid learning new things as we are worried about doing it wrong.

It sounds so stupid, but it’s a very real problem. This drastically slows down our progress as we are not willing to make mistakes.

When we look at children, they don’t care about this. It’s normal for them to get things wrong. It’s normal for them to be confused by topics and not understand things fully. They don’t care, they just keep going.

When you couple this fear with the small amounts of time we dedicate to studying it can make the mountain of learning a language just seem too much to climb, and is why so many people believe it can’t be done.

Can You Learn An Accent When Learning A Language?

Having a good native accent in a language is quite rare as an adult learner.

This is probably because of a few reasons. By adulthood we have already established our own accent and vocal sounds. This is pretty much an automatic skill by this point. 

Trying to rewire this is and learn a new way is like trying to learn a new way to breath. It’s going to be a little difficult.

I would say it is not impossible, but it would take a whole lot of work.

However, this work is never done. We are all of the age where “good enough”, is good enough.

Most of us are happy to be able to speak the language, even if the accent is all wrong. Everyone we speak to can still understand us just fine, so why should we work on changing our accent? Speaking in our own accent is good enough, its gets the job done.

It’s this attitude along with the extremely high amount of effort it would take, stops us from trying to master the native accent.

I agree with this approach though. Does it really matter is someone has a different accent? I know it instantly shows they are not a native, but I’m sure no is trying to pretend like they are. 

I think being able to speak the language is more than enough. I can live without having a native accent, being able to just communicate is more than enough for me.

How Does The Adult Brain Actually Work When Learning A Language?

It used to be thought that once you reached a certain age you brain was set. Like how your bones stop growing. However, recent studies have shown that the brain has a bit more plasticity than we realised.

I think a lot of us can probably notice this in ourselves. Have a think about how you have changed over the years. Maybe you are a lot calmer now? Or maybe you are more closed off.

It doesn’t really matter exactly how you have changed, but just think what you where like in your early 20s and what you’re like now, I’m sure some aspects on your personality have changed over the years.

These changes may be positive or negative. They may have been caused through physical trauma, life experiences or just from you trying to learn how to better yourself over the years.

Either way, who we are at 18 years old is not set across our whole lives and this shows our brain is able to still able to grow and change as we age, which means there is nothing stopping us from adding a new language in there at any point if we want to. 

Physical Brain Structure Of A Language Learner

The brain is made up of neurons that have pathways between them. Memory works by building these pathways between the neurons.

The more we use these pathways the stronger we make them, which in turn make the memories become stronger.

Learning a language literally builds new neurons and the more we practice and the better we become the stronger the pathways for this language become.

This has two benefits, we firstly become better at our new language, and secondly, we are making our brain stronger by building these new neurons.

These neurons and pathways can be built all the way through our lives, and the more we make and the stronger we make them, the healthier are over all brain health is.

This relates to the old saying “if you don’t use it, you lose it”. Don’t switch your brain off when you get older. Keep learning to keep your brain strong.

A healthy brain as you get older is exactly what you want as it can help delay things like dementia. Learning a language as an adult can actually keep you healthier. 

(Read more about how Learning Is Good For The Brain)

Conclusion

There is no age limit to when you can start learning a language.

You should be aiming to keep your brain sharp and healthy all your life. Learning a language is an excellent way to keep you where you need to be mentally and it will also give you a whole new world to explore through the language and culture that you acquire.

If anyone tells you that you can’t learn a language as adult, they are lying and you should make it your goal to prove them wrong.

Life is short and you will not regret spending the time to learn a new language, it is very achievable and very much worth the effort. . 

(You can read more about – Learning A Language As A Adult)