STOP Making These EXCUSES Not to Learn a Language
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- čas přidán 5. 06. 2024
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I received a comment recently, saying that learning languages as an older person is almost an impossible task. As someone who has learned 10 languages after turning 60, here’s what I think about the topic.
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0:00 a comment I received recently
0:17 can older people still learn languages?
0:29 how neuroplasticity works
1:10 what REALLY matters in language learning
1:57 how to stay motivated?
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❓Have you felt like your age or lack of talent were holding you back from learning? Tell me in the comments!
Hi Steve, is there any discount on Linq sooner ?
I have asked your staff why after 12.5 years of grammar lessons and storytelling and now LingQ I am still failing to speak and talk. I am willing to pay someone to tell me what is wrong. I have sent emails and left messages on the phone number. I honestly think some secret is not bring revealed. I now stopped LingQ for a couple of weeks since all that effort seems to be failing.
-- George DeCarlo
I'm 58 years old and trying to learn Korean so I can communicate with the locals when I visit South Korea, I've been told by some people I'm too old but I'm still trying my best
Old is gold .Your experience is our heritage. Would you like to share your personal life experience? Till now ,I have seen your photos with your wife which you uploaded on your channel. during your tour .
@@melaniehart9347I’m learning Korean too. 😊
At 69 I am the oldest person in my Russian class. Whatever I may have lost in neuroplasticity. I make up with perseverance. and dedication
I will soon be turning 70, and for the past year I've been learning Spanish.
I couldn't agree more Steve! I am 62 and am smarter than ever. I exercise and eat a very careful diet. I am constantly challenging myself physically and intellectually. Too many people give up and succumb to unhealthy habits that are inflammatory to the body and mind. You're an inspiration to me and I thank you for your channel and for LingQ!
That's so cool to hear! I'm only 20 and sometimes I've got the feeling that I need to do everything right now (Traveling, learning new stuff, building my carreer) or else it would be to late! Whenever I see adults (and by that I mean 40 and older), it seems like they sometimes think it's too late to do anything new...that's sad ☹
Something deeply comedic about Steve saying he's learning to have patience for working with his hands, then immediately cutting to him with a bandage on his finger.
The real secrets of anti-aging are remaining curious and learning new stuff to keep you mentally fit, doing physical excercises and a healthy diet to keep your body fit and a piece of luck. Thats all.
also having a purposeful life and meaningful relationships
Expect luck, you are right.
“Healthy diet” is the confusing one to define. The other bits are clear.
I'm 75...that's why I'm learning Spanish...to keep my brain active!
Next year will be 20 years since I’ve discovered Mr. Kaufmann. Still helps me everyday. Thank you!
How did you find him back then ? no youtube yet i only found him in 2016. i know he has been on CZcams since 2007 but in 2007 and definitely in 2003 i only wanted to learn English and i didn't think i would ever need another one .
@@belstar1128 it was when I was learning Japanese in college, and I remember just searching through different sites, and I found this site where he was talking on like a podcast. It was before CZcams, and I didn’t bookmark the site. I was trying to find that site again for a while. He was speaking Japanese and I was so impressed at the time because I didn’t think it was possible.
Wow. What languages have you studied since then?
@@belstar1128he had a popular podcast
@@nendoakuma7451 I’ve dabbled in some Chinese and some Spanish. Definitely want to get back to Chinese, but I really enjoy Japanese. Lived in Japan for quite a while, so Japanese holds a special place in my heart.
I am 59 and have not stopped learning :) I love learning especially languages. This year it has been Irish gaelic
I think when people say "I can't do that" or "You can't do that", what they really means is "I think the idea is cool, but I don't want to put the work, effort, patience, and sacrifices necessary to do it." And you know what? That's fine. You can prioritize whatever you want in your life. It's okay to not want to do everything. I think people feel ashamed when they say they don't want to work for something so they find an excuse on why they can't. People prioritize different things.
I hold with you, true mind.
There was a comment on another resent video of yours, a 39 year old (at my age I would say "39 year young" ) person wrote that he had been told by his language professor that he was "too old" to learn Japanese, or even English, and because he had been reading "too much" in his native language his brain was stuck and it would be hard to learn new patterns.. (!)
Such sentiments are unfortunately still around. Everybody can learn, at any age (and I'm slowly but surely acquiring Japanese, at my age). Admittedly some things are affected by the fact that memory isn't as good as it used to be - my near-photographic memory from three decades ago is gone - but that just means that there's no point bothering with methods which are ineffective for language learning anyway, like memorizing word lists etc. That can be skipped. You *know* that you can't anyway. Instead, go directly to what still works as before, and is much better in this context: Learn by association! :-) Ingest and acquire input, associate what you see/hear with the context, get the meaning! That, and creativity etc - all of that is still working just as when you were younger.
I had the fortune to meet a bunch of "seniors" a short while ago, over several days, and there I saw enthusiasm, creativity, people eager and able to learn about highly technological and social issues, people who could (and did) easily run circles around younger colleagues. People who enjoyed learning, some of them past pension age but asked by their companies to continue working because of their knowledge and ability to quickly understand new things. Note the latter.
Steve is that a younger AI version of you in the thumbnail? You are lookin uncannily alike : D
One Love!
Always forward, never ever backward!!
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I have adhd symptoms and memory problems im only 25. 😔 ever since i was 25 I've always wanted to learn a 3rd language French. Im gonna try again
I’ve got similar struggles, but my advice is to ignore these problems and press on to the best of your ability.
@totesmagotes3688 I try. I've been interpreting all my life. As years went by I've lost confidence in my abilities. Next year I'll be graduating with my 2nd A.S degree. I'm a Spanish major so trying to get hired is so hard due to no professional experience although I've been doing this all my life. French is such a nice language so I want to learn it. Thanks
@@EmmysCoolVids123 I agree, I’ve been learning Spanish slowly for about 2 years and am on the threshold of A2. I still want to learn French to a B1 level anyway.
@@totesmagotes3688 I'm billingual fluent in English and Spanish. French is such an elegant language. Good luck with Spanish. Suerte!
@@EmmysCoolVids123 thank you! I want to be prepared the next time I travel to France. It’s embarrassing to not be able to communicate with the locals properly.
Perfect example of growth mindset.
عندما أرى كبار السن عادة،،أقول لنفسي لا أريد أن أصبح عجوزاً لأنهم جميعاً يكونوا مكتئبين و نادمين،،أنت الرجل الوحيد الذي يجعلني لا أخاف من تقدم السن،،شكرا لك يا معلم.
Now I need to see a real picture of Steve as a teenager to compare against the AI version in the thumbnail. It would be super interesting to see how close the likeness is because it looks really realistic! Unless that's just his actual grandson and his genes are incredibly strong.
He plays ice hockey, he learns languages, he is a seriously chill dude with a good lifestyle. And maybe good genes.
I just realized that old people have one thing in common: they don't work anymore. Maybe that gives less opportunity to learn and meet new people, especially if you get stuck in your daily routine and aren't a curious person with many hobbies.
Well.. I *love* to spend hours listening and reading my Japanese input exercises, but I can't.. because I still work. I can only spend half an hour in the morning, and in the evening after work there's other things to do. And I know from experience that I should listen at least 90 minutes, every day (of course that has to be enjoyable input, and I have access to that), but I don't have enough time because I'm working full time. If I had already retired I would gleefully jump into hours of immersion in the language.
@@tohaason I totally get that. I can spend hours with input wether is reading, podcasts or tv shows. Luckily I can combine some of it with work because I can listen while working (it helps me focus) depending on the task. But consider that we are the minorit, most retired people won´t do anthing like that and most people who decide to learn a language rather sign up for a course and go for the traditional path
Thanks for your great videos. I am watching them everyday. so helpful. I also live in Vancouver and my mother language is Persian (Farsi)that you are learning now. خیلی ممنون🙂
my daily motivation teacher
Hello, everyone! I am 61. Since 2012 that I discovered Steve, have learned 4 languages then. Learning next: italian. Thanks Mr Kaufman, you help a lot
Personally I don't think age makes any difference in learning. If you want to do it, just go ahead. My uncle's mother- in-law was in her late 70s and learnt to drive because she always wanted to. ❤
Well as a 61 year old learning Spanish, I have to say it's 1000 times harder to learn than it is for a child learning his first language or a child thrust into a new environment where he has to learn a second language. Fortunately for Steve (who is a great motivater and one of the reasons I'm continuing to learn), his job is learning and teaching languages, with having several under his belt before he learned the next 10 after 60. I could give many reasons why it's much harder for older adults, but that would be way too much to write. I would say though, motivation is the only factor necessary to learn a 2nd lanhuage, and being old like me is not a sufficient excuse.
Your words provide us with positive energy and a desire to learn. Thank you for the wonderful content .🌷🌷
You are so welcome. Thank you!
Brazil Here! ❤❤ thanks Stev!!
Thank you for your inspiration, keeping us enjoying language learning
Not my age, sometimes my feelings of lack of talent (which I’ve now discovered is more about how I learn vs how I’m taught) but the biggest barrier is the constant negative attitude from everyone around me telling me that older people can’t learn a language or that it’s going to be so much harder because of age and that memory goes as you get older. I get so tired of being told I’m doomed to fail because of how many times I’ve been around the sun.
Indifference to fellow humans opinion is a gift .
Hi Steve, there are a lot of polyglots and new methods out there and there are those, you will always appreciate listening to. Thank you for all your videos and the hard work you put into creating your videos. And I completely agree with you. I even think that with your experience you might be learning much faster than young people.
Hi Steve saw ur channel on CZcams about stop making excuses on language.learning any one can learn a language it just takes effect to find the time to get started on learning it's like.learning anything it will come just be patient thank you hope you keep making more u tube channel on language es it's good to learn a language be sides English I like japanese.so I keep.up with the language
THANK YOU! I can be discourage about learning Egyptian Arabic because I'm in my 40's - - but love the reminder that I STILL CAN learn it! 🤩🤩🤩
brilliant life advice for anything.. keep going everyone :)
Thank you Steve, I'm fine with this videos, every day I listen and read something!
You are the Best Teacher❤
I like the way you explain things, it motivates me to focus ,I m learning english and I would like to be able to speak at the end and of december, I hope that I will stick out !! Vocabulary are not a lot in my mind ,even which I learned I forget them often !!
Thanks for your tips !!
Well done!👍👏
I discovered Steve's channel 14 years ago. His videos opened me up to the online language learning community. Just wanna say thank you Steve. Literally been watching your stuff for over a decade.
Thank you for this channel, it's amazing, a very good content.
Congrats on your new studio sir
I am 60. 7 years ago I started learning to ice skate, and then to play ice hockey. I can now ice skate well, better than most young hockey players in England. 18 months ago I started to relearn French, which I knew to B1 level 30 years earlier. 10 months ago I started to learn German from zero. My French has improved far faster than it did when I was in my twenties, and I can now understand native level podcasts, and my German is progressing. Maybe I need to work 25% harder to get the same benefit, but I work smarter and more consistently. And we have so many fantastic resources available e.g. CZcams, Netflix, podcasts and LingQ. I recommend reading Mindset by Carol Dweck. Attitude is key.
Great video 👍
No excuses this is easy but it seems hard because it takes a very long time to get results .
Mr. Kaufmann....I get suprised to the number of your subscribers. When I began to watch your video, It was 100,000. Congratulation! And you're so hansome when you're young.
Thank you for your videos.
i am learning english at LingQ, b1 level for now
I was wondering if is a good idea just repeat all lessons that I've studied already, but I felt that need more words!! 6.5k words is not enough for me!! the Lingq they measure your know words by first meet, and one form of the word!! so 6.5k words are not 6.5k words in fact, for instance : Ran-Run is only one word!! but the app measured like two words, so i think that 10k words is good, but 10k is not 10k, so 12-14k words is like true 10k words and therefore after that, i will start to repeat all lessons( level b1-c2) for ever!! when i become bored, i think in the next step
I think measuring in that way is still a good metric. It may have less weight when learning English, because there are fewer forms of the root word in English.
However learning Spanish, there are dozens of different verb forms depending on the subject in relation to the speaker, past present and future, etc. It would be ludicrous to only count the root word in Spanish when there are so many cases it will be changed.
What about can’t speak?
The first thing to know before learning a language or any thing else, it´s your motivation. You need reasons to achieve these knowledges instead to look reasons to not do.
Thank you !
مثل همیشه عالی 🌷
Learning language makes our brain so active. It is also very good exercise to our brain~
Cheers Steve
Im 59 and learning my 3rd language 😊
I am 48 and I'm learning Swahili. It's awesome!
Thank you, I heard old dogs can learn new tricks. But we are not dogs. I have learn two languages now, i was inspired by you a year ago.
so now I can speak 5 languages. I can speak cantonese, Han chinese, Vietnamese, France, spanish, I will start with Germany or Russians. I do my study with a lot of shadow boxing.
Thank you. Sir.
Wow Steve! I continue to be inspired by you. I am a older learner, most likely near your age, as lived in Hong Kong when I was in my early 20s in 1968, which I heard you reference in a previous video. I refuse to give up learning Japanese, struggle a lot, but keep finding new pathways which is many thanks to you. Love Friday mornings and will watch those videos…thank you so very much 🎉
Como vc conseguiu aprender inglês e outras línguas sozinho, eu quero aprender inglês mas está muito difícil
I understand many CZcamsrs, someone is better, someone is worse. I don't understand Steve at all, absolutely.
I love the new setup! It looks really professional.
Alhamdullah for everything we have to thank god cause for creating and giving us a good health
Hi, Steve👍
Thank you
Hello Steve how's it going? I already wach your videos , see you next and great weekend Sir, bye bye.
Very true💙💚❤
Huge inspiration thanks! My mom thinks that she doesn’t have a “language gene”😂
I've been learning Brazilian Portuguese for around 2 years now and my writing and reading skills have greatly increased.. however I don't think my listening skills have really improved.. any suggestions?
(Oh and I don't know about speaking cause I don't get a chance)
Listen a lot without any subtitles
@@chancevicary1805 i have 😭 movies, series, CZcams, twitch, podcasts. But still.. My ability has gone up a little.. but BARELY.. even with words I already know proficiently I often can't understand while spoken.
@@gamingwithpurg3anarchy157 listening comprehension has always been the hardest for me too. Have you found any content at a lower level meant for learners?
@@gamingwithpurg3anarchy157 Maybe watch some videos with subtitles in you target language, once without and then record audio from those videos and listen on repeat when you are doing other tasks like shopping, cleaning etc. Or listen to an audiobook while reading at the same time and then listen to it without reading. You can do it chapter by chapter, listening to one chapter even a few times.
LingQ has videos and recordings with the transcripts. I spent months listening to podcasts in French and slowly improving. Then when I started with LingQ, I started listening while reading. That for me was the key. It trained my brain to understand the blah blah blah in the recording i.e. it told my brain what the sounds actually were, which built up the recognition patterns for future use. I still cannot understand French films, but my comprehension of podcasts has rocketed. You also need to listen without the transcript, so a 50 50 mix of with and without might make sense. This isn’t scientific, but it works for me. And of course you don’t have tomuse LingQ, CZcams videos have transcripts, but LingQ is convenient.
Bonjour Mr Kaufmann, vous pensez q'apprendre un nouveau langue nous mantendrá jeunes (J'apprends le français maintenant) mi lengua materna es el español, and I also love English. Greetings from Mexico!
Today in work i asked 3 of our new yoruba speaking nigerians how to say thank you, you're welcome. They were amazed that an english person showed an interest in their language. Curiosity and a wish to learn about history and culture sadly seems so lacking. I work with people who can teach me things for free. I am 51 and learning every day. And lingq has pushed my romanian to an almost understand everything, speak like a 6 year old. On wards and upwards.
buenas tardes usted es increible. por favor me podrias ayudar?como puedo empezar aprender ingles de una manera rapida pero efectiva por favor cual seria los mejores consejos?por favor gracias que tenga una noche excelente.
Wait that's young Steve or is did his granson take after his grandpa?
Why does the Ling q app consume a lot of data? When I listen to any downloaded clip, I notice that it consumes a lot of the internet package.
I made the comment about learning a language as an old person like learning something after a stroke. By ‘older person’ I meant ‘adult’.
Didn’t want todiscourage anyone or make it seem like people are too old to learn. That’s not true and I know that bc I AM a pretty old language learner.
I do believe the process, whatever the brain does, when learning a language as an adult is different then what it does as a child. I’m not a linguist or neuroscientist but this seems to be common sense.
The truth about learning a language is that it’s an enormous, often frustrating time commitment and you won’t make progress unless you are interested in learning the language in and of itself and not a means to an end. And even if you put in the 1000’s of hours, you still not be that good, and you definitely won’t pass for a native speaker. This is one major reason why probably less than 1% of adults in the USA learn a language to “fluency” yet the language learning business is a thriving 60 billion dollar industry.
Why does that matter? Bc it’s an enormous opportunity cost that is never talked about. If I could go back I would have picked up a hobby or a skill that doesnt require such a steep learning curve or effort to reward ratio. Like widdling.
Anyways great video as s usual. I watch and share them all!
I used to be of the opinion that of course we adults can't learn languages the way children can. But, after all this time I've revised my opinion. I now firmly believe that there's in fact much less difference - we're just fooled by an illusion: Because we have adult knowledge, we can apparently quickly learn about grammar and other structures of a language, by theoretical means, and therefore we believe that we have an edge over children, to compensate for (what we think is) the fact that we can't just acquire the language like children do.
However: The reality of the difference is just the following: Children can and do learn perfect pronunciation easily, if they're young, and they learn fairly quickly. At least the first *is* because they're young. The second is probably a combination of a better memory, but it's more that they're not inhibited the way adults are. Children of any age aren't usually as worried about this as we adults. That really helps. But that's an *attitude*, not a brain issue. And they're curious. I admit to finding a lot of input too boring, input I could theoretically use to get better in my target language. Children are better at this.
Children can also learn the nuances of a language, to 100% proficiency - but guess what, adults can too. The reason adults often don't manage as well is exactly because they don't try to learn as children do: Instead they try to learn rules, and they learn from textbooks, and by "traditional" study methods. Can't really learn nuances properly this way (I remember a German who'd learned English at university - his English was very good. But then he asked "What does 'big deal" mean?")
One reason I've come to the conclusion that yes, adults can in fact learn almost the same way, is that when I looked back at how I learned English I realized that I learned English exactly as children do, but I was in my thirties when I got the vast majority of my English. And that was 100% by not studying - it was just by absorbing input and using it, to my ability, when I could and needed to. No textbook and not a dictionary in sight. But then again I didn't consciously try to learn the language, I tried to understand input that happened to be in English.
In fact adults have it even better than children because we can *read*, and get access to much more input than children (though, as a Japanese learner I have to add that this option isn't easily available for _all_ languages...)
@@tohaason I disagree and so does everyone’s lived experience if they are being honest and not coping or selling you something. Infants dont only have the ability to eventually make every sound in any language, they can also hear every phoneme and distinguish between them. I don’t know what happens to this ability in adults, whether the brain loses the ability or the ability gets papered over with native language. All I know is it goes away.
I also don’t know a single immigrant parent who speaks better English than their grown child, even though many of the parents have been here longer and have spoken more than the child. Not a single ONE.
I don’t think self consciousness is the reason why this appears to be the case. Nor is it intelligence. Henry Kissinger isn’t dumb or bashful. As a diplomat he probably had more conversations in English than I have. Yet his accent is so heavy, it’s cartoonish. I bet his kids don’t have accents.
This happens across the animal kingdom as well. In the majority of songbird species, if a bird isn’t exposed to his native song in the first weeks of it’s development, it is never able to perfect its song. It can learn in past this period, but it’s invariably some garbled, off key version of what is actually a very complex and sophisticated call.
Does that sound familiar to you?
The language learning industry keeps telling us adults learn just as well or better than kids. Why would they do that?
Well bc kids don’t have any money and even if they did, they learn for free. Adults buy the products and 99% fail to even get to B1.
Gym memberships runs off of the same economic model.
@@RM-jb2bv I did in fact include that children (and usually only children) have the ability to get perfect pronunciation, and that is directly linked to what you state (and I totally agree with - this is a scientific fact), that children have audio abilities which you lose (fairly early) by age, though it can be and is re-acquired to some extent with practice - sometimes after months, sometimes years, but usually never perfectly.
However: That's about pronunciation. Most adults (though I have met perfect exceptions) can instantly be recognized as "foreign" by their accent, even if everything else is perfect.
But why would we focus on that? Why should we claim that because yes, children can and often do get perfection in another language, that the fact that adults usually don't get to that level - why on earth should we take *that* as an indication that adults can't learn languages the way children do? That is simply wrong. The method is still good. There are ways to get good at ski jumping. I can never be as good as someone starting at a young age, but that doesn't mean that the method is wrong!
What I'm saying is that because children can get better than adults it doesn't mean that the way children learn is wrong for adults! Tell me *ONE* method that adults can use which makes you better at the language than a child is, or equally good at least. What Steve's app is doing is a child's natural way of learning adapted as much as possible to adults.
Also remember that children need time too. A child can, if you look back, take *years* to get a full understanding of a wide range of nuances and expressions.
And, again, I learned English purely by acquisition. Not by studying by traditional means, or what was traditional when I was young (things are dramatically different in school these days, at least in some schools, something I recently learned by talking to a language teacher I know.) What this tells me is that what is essentially a child's way works fine for adults, and is better than the alternatives. But one must avoid the snake old sellers who try to sell you the idea that you can just listen in your sleep or listen to anything and everything and it will come. It will not, and that's not what children do either.
TL;DR: That children can get the sounds easily doesn't mean that adults can't learn a language more or less like a child can. An accent doesn't make or break a language. That's not what this is about.
hi
What teh fuck am I supposed to do at 30 then? Die? Ofc I will keep learning and making progress. I hate it when they say i ma too old to learn something new.
🙌🏻
💯
Ferst
They're just lame excuses to blame someone else for their lack of effort. "It's god's fsult for not giving me linguistic talent!", "It's society's fault for not giving me the opportunity/time to study the language earlier!", "It's the teacher's fault for not teaching me correctly / in an interesting way!" "It's the texbook author's fault for not explaining things clearly / not including the right things!". They're all meant to stroke fragile egos. They don't have any other meaningful value.
活到老学到老
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