Did I pick a bad age to start learning languages?

[Max Ernst]

I am 22, and will turn 23 next month. Be honest, would it have been better to teach myself a language at an earlier age? Did I choose a late age?

[Marcus1]

It's never too late to learn anything. You should be thankful that you are given the opportunity to learn a new language, there are not many who dare venture or have the opportunity to pick up another language.

[JBI]

Depends. The best language learners seem to be retired elder people as they have the most free time.

[DieterM]

There's no age limit where learning is concerned. Now, it is well known that the best age to learn a language is between 0 and approx. 16-18 yrs, because you learn many things automatically, without being aware that you're learning something. German is my mother language, so I never have to actively THINK when I speak in German. I started learning English at 6 and dare say I'm rather fluent. Started French at 14, and have been living in France for more than 20 yrs (THAT counts a lot, too – how much & often you actually USE the language), so I'm very fluent. But I started learning Spanish at 18, for only 4 years when I was at university, and have never been to a Spanish-speaking country, so I'm not very proud of the few words and bits of grammar I still seem to have in my mind.
The most important thing is maybe a certain LOVE for languages. I've started to learn so many languages (without going very far) ever since I've started to work… visited a new country, came back home, wanted to learn the language. Hence bits and pieces of Arab, Turkish, Greek and Italian. Allows me to buy myself a coffee without anyone mistaking me for an American, lol.
Anyway, if you have the willpower and are not afraid of the effort, do not hesitate! Languages and music, there's nothing more enriching in my opinion.

[abnormalalien]

I agree with everyone else here. It mostly depends on your dedication and usage. I certainly remember more from my high school Spanish classes than I do from my college Arabic classes. However, I took Spanish for more than four years versus the one year of Arabic. Regardless, If you have the motivation, it shouldn't be too difficult.

[ennison]

It gets harder with age. Partly because adults ask "why?" Children under seven can learn several languages easily. The best you can do is swallow your adult pride and learn like a child. Use children's books to start and find yourself a good immersion course.

[Clopin]

Do kids even learn languages faster? I mean I think I could speak and understand German at the level of a three year old German child in probably a few months. I spend all day wih toddlers and they have extremely limited vocabularies.

[Aylinn]

Do kids even learn languages faster?
If they move to the country where the language is spoken or they hear this language all the time, they learn much faster than adults do. It is as if they were learning through osmosis. If all they have is a class once a week, they usually learn little.

[Clopin]

Yeh maybe they do... I really think if I moved to Germany and studied German I could outstrip the progress of a native German speaking six year old pretty quickly.

[Bryan25]

There's no age limit for learning. But the best time is 10 to 18. The good part with this age is that they have more free time that can be devoted to practice than many adults. If they move to the country where the language is spoken They will get more benefit.

For more information visit here.

ulearn.ae/

[kiki1982]

Meh, I think as an adult, it'll have to do with talent mostly and daring. And TIME.

We went to Norway two months ago, for 10 days. By the end, my hubby ordered things in Norwegian. Never seen the language before... Though I need to mention that he is a native UK English speaker with 10 languages, in varying grades of fluency, from all three major groups (Romance, Germanic and Slavic).
Though my language is Dutch and I speak 4 (in varying grades of fluency with French being the worst because I'm not able to practise as I live in Germany), and notions of Russian and Spanish, I couldn't string a sentence together, despite the fact that Norwegian is closer to my language than my hubby's.

The difference between my hubby and me is that he'll just throw it out there and if it isn't right, well then, tough titty. I just wait until I'll know it's reasonably OK. Which slows down my progress tremendously.

There is also something in the time thing. I started learning Russian, but I've had to abandon it because I had no time for the hard graft after the basics: the reading texts and learning vocab. That's the biggest problem IMO, as it goes the most slowly.

For the rest, Joseph Conrad only came from Poland to England when he was 21 and he didn't speak a word of English, yet he is one of the great writers of that language, so why couldn't you learn another language at the age of 23?
The main thing is that you get to practise and that's usually the trickiest thing, in my mind.

[tonywalt]

My Great-Grandmother learned Arabic in her 80's - and spoke it fluently when she arrived in Cairo to begin another phase of her life.

[kiki1982]

Good on her!

[Scheherazade]

Considering that I am starting to Italian classes tonight, I do not even want to think that it might be too late for me. Not to mention that, having already -somewhat- mastered three other languages, I am a little hopeful that learning a fourth one might be a little easier.

Admittedly, I have the advantage of not having to learn Italian academically but simply for "leisure" purposes so I am quite relaxed about it. Anything I learn is a bonus, I feel.

Ciao! :p

[Sancho]

Somewhere along the line, we humans seem to lose something where language-learning is concerned. So, as an adult, even if you learn by total immersion and move to new country, and try really hard, you'll probably still speak the language with an accent. The locals will know you're not from there.

What age is it? Donno. Eight?

[Diem My Bui]

it's better late than never ^^

[Margerma]

As I know officially (from my courses of teachers of Russian as foreign language) - 27 years old is when it starts to get hard. If the student is younger - he is relatively easy, after 27 years old it gets harder for both - teacher and student due to mental/memory capacity. However nothing teaches us better than experience. If you live in the country of this language - I will give it a year;-)