In America, we have an immense amount of monolingual speakers – as we grow, we become a country that is unsympathetic to other cultures and languages that we miss out on an entire new perspective when you learn another language. In addition, we make high school students take a minimum of two foreign language credits to be able to graduate – which I find hopeless for English speakers not being exposed to a whole new world outside of their monolingual society. I, a native English speaker, started learning Spanish when I was only 15 years old in high school; forging my note cards for the upcoming vocabulary quiz for Spanish, and I began to wonder why do we start learning a second language so late than other countries.
It is much more common for a student to be studying more than one language in school in Europe than America which is starling in facts. Children begin learning a second language between the ages of 6 and 9 in other countries! However in America it isn’t so common for children to start learning another language other than their own in elementary school. The truth, is not many native English speakers are learning a new language. Indeed, we are forced to learn another language when we get to high school, but do we actually learn anything and apply the things we learned in the real world? No, many Americans often forget almost everything they learned when they graduate high school. For instance, my mother studied French in high school for two years and when she graduated from high school, she forgot everything she learned.
In reality, we are not learning languages out of enjoyment but rather forced to learn one to satisfy the education system. Forcing students to learn a language will only bring no results and leave them hating the language. In my experience, I didn’t learn anything in my Spanish classes but when I went to Puerto Rico, where Spanish is mostly spoken, I learned a lot of vocabulary and grammar by just going there. Spanish class or any language class makes you memorize long vocab lists and do grammar exercises while expecting you to be fluent.
Despite the flawed education system in terms of foreign language, doesn’t mean you should not learn a language. Learning a language, in fact, expands your mind and keeps your brain looking young and healthy. Not only it will help your brain but you will gain a greater perspective in the world we live in by just learning another language! Just by learning Spanish I can analyze things much more clear and sympathize with others how difficult it is to learn a language.
Every time I talk about languages with someone, I always hear the common excuses:
1). “Well, I’m too old to learn a language!”
An excuse I hear all the time that just annoys me, it’s never too late to learn one regardless of age. There are people who start learning another language when they are 40! So, you don’t have to a kid to learn one.
2). “I don’t time to learn one.”
This is a excuse I used a lot actually. I would say it all the time when I did had time, I just didn’t realize how much time I was wasting every day. I learned that you don’t have to spend three hours or more to study the language you want to learn. You only need at least five minutes of your time dedicating to the language. Whenever I’m doing homework or something I need to get done, I would listen to Spanish music or listen to a telenovela while doing it because I know I won’t have time after. There are hundreds of ways to make time for a language.
3). “I’m not talented enough!”
I believe this excuse is 100%, undoubtedly false you don’t have to have a certain “gift” to learn one, all you need is patience and motivation not a gift to learn one.
In short, you don’t have to a talent or the specific age to learn one. If you simply put in the time and effort into one, you will learn it!
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