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> I always wondered why kids could learn a handful of languages and adults struggle to learn anything past one. > Maybe it’s my personal bias but it seems a lo

> I always wondered why kids could learn a handful of languages and adults struggle to learn anything past one. > Maybe it’s my personal bias but it seems a lot easier to learn other things than language as an adult. I started to speak properly when I was 4, I was a bit late. But imagine the following: You'd go to a country that you don't know the language of for the next 5 years. You can assume that you don't need to worry about your survival as food, water and shelter are provided for you among some luxuries like internet. Basically, you achieved financial independence. The challenge becomes: in this new land you have to learn the local language within 5 years. There is, however, one caveat. You are only allowed to interact with the local population in their (spoken and body) language. You're not allowed to use any other educational resource. In other words, you have to learn a new language exactly like a baby does. Could you do it in 5 years? I bet if you set your mind to it, you really could.

throwaway5778 6y ago
Your 2 years estimate is way too conservative, I've seen people do it in a year, sometimes a few months if the languages are close enough (French-Italian-Spanish-Portuguese etc.) Then there are all the really intensive courses/immersion programs where failure is basically forbidden (FSI, DLI, French Foreign Legion) and people reach B2-C1 very quickly, even for 'hard' languages (like Japanese or Arabic for a native English speaker, or French for a native Chinese speaker).
- melvinroest 6y ago
  Well, the constraint is that you're not allowed to follow a course right? Moreover, my argument is to convince naysayers. I wonder what Japanese course you're talking about.
saeranv 6y ago
There's one more factor/advantage that should be accounted for: children and their parents/grandparents engage in a natural feedback loop. Parents try and teach the children words, once the child starts repeating the words the parents get excited and repeat it back, and so on and so forth. It's like having extremely dedicated, enthusiastic tutors for those five years.

throwaway5778 6y ago

Your 2 years estimate is way too conservative, I've seen people do it in a year, sometimes a few months if the languages are close enough (French-Italian-Spanish-Portuguese etc.) Then there are all the really intensive courses/immersion programs where failure is basically forbidden (FSI, DLI, French Foreign Legion) and people reach B2-C1 very quickly, even for 'hard' languages (like Japanese or Arabic for a native English speaker, or French for a native Chinese speaker).

melvinroest 6y ago
Well, the constraint is that you're not allowed to follow a course right? Moreover, my argument is to convince naysayers. I wonder what Japanese course you're talking about.

saeranv 6y ago

There's one more factor/advantage that should be accounted for: children and their parents/grandparents engage in a natural feedback loop. Parents try and teach the children words, once the child starts repeating the words the parents get excited and repeat it back, and so on and so forth. It's like having extremely dedicated, enthusiastic tutors for those five years.