Quote:
Originally Posted by Sparda
Ill tell you something:
Thats one of the best things u can ever do to her. Look at me, im Brazilian, female, never ever knew not even how to say yes in english when i was 11-12 but i learned it to the fluent level in 4 months and i was just 12 back then....
Ofc i didnt know as much as a person my age now but i knew about 600 words already (more or less i believe). And i finished my course as the best student among ppl age 22-28... that were already doing uni (here in Brazil kids 12 learn what kids 8 learn in UK schools >_<....).
I learned it that fast because i always asked teacher to correct me as much as possible, i also do that with anything i learn that way i can speed up things. Ofc i dont know a lot still but people that hear me actually believe that i live in the uk or us sometimes...and since when i got a pc i use it to ask my foreign (uk, chinese, philipine, tons from us, greece, etc) ppl to always correct my English. Thats definately the best method ive found... :3
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To be fair, you most likely didn't learn so fast compared to the 22–28yos because you asked the teacher to correct your mistakes. You learned so fast because you were 12, which means you were not past the second critical period yet.
Once you pass the second critical period, learning languages for almost everyone becomes immeasurably more difficult.
The first critical period is while baby or toddler, and it marks the point where you start having trouble learning distinct sounds like the difference between aspirated and non-aspirated p as "different" sounds. To explain, the "p" in "pet" and the "p" in "happen" are the same sound to native English speakers, but to Spanish speakers, the "p" in "pet" does not exist, and to Hindi speakers, the two letters make words mean different things! English speakers don't even
hear the difference unless they're told to listen for it. This is one reason Hindi is difficult for native English speakers to learn past a certain age. Also, one of the telltale signs of a gringo Spanish speaker is their use of the "pet-p" instead of "happen-p" at the beginning of words like "pajaro" (parrot) and "pelota" (ball).
The second critical period is around puberty, and it marks when, for most of the population, it will become nearly impossible to learn a new language to fluency.
There are exceptions, of course—usually those who already know multiple languages and thus "know" how to learn another or those who are musically-inclined (i.e., have an "ear" for sound).
Granted, this is all half-remembered from my linguistics class nearly ten years ago. But the fact remains that children find it much, much, much, much, much easier to learn a second language.