Does Age Affect Language Learning Abilities?

When it comes to language learning, age can affect things, but maybe not to the level we might think.

As you age you may need to approach a language slightly differently, but you can still reach a high level and become fluent.

I will go through some things that age can affect, but the reality is that it doesn’t matter what age you are, you can start learning a language and you can get results, if you want to learn a language then just do it.

Anyone Can Learn A Language

The reality is that anyone can learn a language. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are from and more importantly …what age you are …everyone can learn a language.

We are all born with a brain that is designed to communicate and is extremely good at deciphering patterns in language. This is exactly why kids can just absorb languages so quickly, it really is just a natural ability we have.

It is kind of like how we are built to walk. We may need a little practice to get started, but once we get going it is very natural. The same is true for language, we are not so great at the start, but so long as we get enough exposure to it, it will start feeling very natural to us.  

A lot of people think this ability goes away as we age, but it doesn’t. Our brains still have the same capability to process and decipher new languages. We of course have very different brains to babies, as we are now consciously aware of things, but that subconscious language function is still there.

All we need is exposure to the new language and we can still learn it.

(You can read more about – Can Anyone Learn A New Language?)

Adults Have Responsibilities That Distract Them From Languages

When you look at how adults learn languages it makes sense that they do not see the same level of success as kids.

Kids just sit there and absorb everything around them, all day long. They are constantly being exposed to the language and this is how they make such fast progress.

When you look at adults, they set a small amount of time a side to learn. If you are sensible you will do this every day, but a lot of people don’t. They may just have a few lessons a week.

It makes sense why this happens, adults have responsibilities, they have things they need to do. Language learning needs to be squeezed into a busy life, so it’s only natural we can’t give it our full attention and a lot of time.

I am certain that if we could all dedicate as much time as babies do to language acquisition, we would make equal amounts of progress, potentially even more.

Imagine your full time job was to study a language and you didn’t have anything else to worry about …you would be fluent in no time!

There is a large part of me that would love to take 6 months off from everything and just focus on a languages. I am certain I would make incredible progress if I could spend all day, every day just studying, but the reality is I can’t, there are bills to pay and everything else in my life.

Adults Learn In A slightly Different Way To kids

When you look at how kids learn and how adults do, it is usually very different.

Kids will sit there and listen to everything and try to process what is what. They basically use the immersion method and parents make the listening content very comprehensible for them.

Think about how you talk to a baby. You keep things short and simple and even sometimes just say singular words that you end up repeating over and over again. Their little brains start to recognise the words and eventually they start to copy you and repeat them back.

When you look at adult learning, it is all done very differently. We are able to consciously process information and we are just told what one thing means and how it related to what we already know.

A child is shown a picture of a dog and the word “dog” is said over and over again until they start to associate the picture with the sound …adults are told “this means dogs” and they understand the concept right away.

The thing is, adults can actually learn like children. Let’s say you are learning French and I show you a picture of a dog and keep saying “chien” you are going to start understand that this means dog in French.

You can learn the whole language like this, exactly like how a kid does …or you can kind of mix the two styles. You can do immersion and hear words repeated over and over again, but you can also learn words and their meanings, so you can basically get the best of both worlds.

This will still take a long time, but you can make significant progress, extremely quickly.  If more adults spent time learning like this, they would actually understand that age is not a factor in learning.

Kids Are Happier With Ambiguity

One of the big advantages kids have is that they are happy with the ambiguity in language. They don’t understand a lot of things and they don’t care. This is something that becomes a real challenge the older you get.

I remember being young, maybe 6 years old and watching the news. I could understand a lot of the words, but I also had no idea what was going on. I certainly didn’t understand the whole context of what was being reported on. The thing is, I didn’t care, I just watched it anyway.

As we age, we don’t like this feeling, we like to know what is going on and we like to understand everything. When something is unclear we tend to shy away from it. This is obviously a problem when learning a new language, as the vast majority of it will make no sense to us.

Even now I struggle with this feeling. I will be immersing in my language and if something is unclear to me, I don’t like it, I have to fight with myself to keep paying attention and I have to tell myself that it is okay if it isn’t 100% clear.

When I look back at being a kid I can remember things like the news slowly becoming clearer as I aged. I reached a point where I could fully understand it, and I also know I can have this feeling again in the language I am immersing in now.

I just need more exposure to the language and with time my knowledge will expand and I will understand it all. It is just important to ignore that feeling of discomfort and accept the ambiguity for now.     

Adults Already Have A Language They Can use To Help Them

I have kind of touched on this already, but we all have a language already and we can use this to help us learn a language

As I already mentioned, we can consciously be told what something means in the new language and we can use our native language to understand this. If I say “chein means dog in French” you have just used English to learn French.

Kids do not have this benefit, they have no understanding of anything, so in a way, adults are actually more efficient at learning languages. We can use our comprehension of the world to really help us.

Your Native Language Can Get In The Way

While our native language can help us learn, it can also get in the way of things and be a hindrance.

Our native languages are extremely strong and we are extremely comfortable using this to do everything. This is not helped by our brains being designed to be efficient, which means it will always look for a shortcut where ever possible.

This can then result in our native language getting in the way of the new language. We will always try and override things into our native language as it is just easier and quicker, which is not what we always want when we are trying to learn.

This problem is most commonly seen when we are translating in our head. We will be watching something in the new language and trying to just understand it, but our brains will recognise that this is slow and painful and just try and force us to think in our native language to make things “easier” which kind of defeats the purpose of our studies.

This can be frustrating, but with time your brain will realise that it can just let you think in the new language and it won’t consider it as less efficient. 

Memory Does Decline As You Get Older

It is true that memory can decline as you age, however, this is not always the case and it does not mean you can’t learn new things.

Often the memory declines when you are not really engaging your brain. The brain is very efficient with how it uses it energy and if it thinks you are not using something, it will lose it.

This means if you are not really using your memory, the brain isn’t going to waste its time keeping that area strong.

However, the great thing is that engaging with a language actually uses your memory, so you brain will actually keep it working well.

You don’t learn a language because you have a good memory …you learn a language so that you can strengthen and maintain your memory.

As we age we need to keep using our brains and language learning can be a great way to do this. 

Cognitive Ability Can Decline As You Age

Your cognitive ability can also decline as you age, but this is the due to the same problem that can affect your memory, if you do not use it, you can lose it.

Your brain will not waste its time keeping your cognitive skills sharp if you are not using them. This means you need to be engaging in things to keep yourself sharp as you age. So long you are keeping your brain strong; you shouldn’t see much decline as you age.

Again, language learning can actually facilitate this and help keep your cognitive abilities stronger for longer

You should start learning a language now to keep your brain strong and healthy as you age. 

Your Believes May Be Limiting You

The biggest problem that age brings is a limiting belief.

If you go out and ask 100 adults if they think they can learn a language, most will say no. They believe it is not possible. 

The thing is, none of them have tried. If they actually give it a go they would see it can be done. However, the fact they think it can’t be done will limit them. They will just assume it won’t work and they won’t really try or give it enough time.

These types of believes can result in a self fulfilling prophecy and this only helps further the belief that it is not possible.

We need to change this view and make people realise that we can learn a language at any age.

The sooner we start believing it is possible, the sooner we will have more people actually trying it and being successful.

(You can read more about – Am I Too Old To Learn A New Language?)

Conclusion

Hopefully now you can see that age can affect language learning, but ultimately it is still possible to learn at any age.  

Our age can affect things both negatively and positively and if we play to our strengths and put enough effort in, then we can learn a language

Children may have it slightly easier as they are less aware of what is going on, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have the same success.

If you have been thinking about learning a language, but you think you are too old …you are not. Start learning and you will see it is possible.