Post AkznPI6zY9xcYjPXBA by aiju@chaos.social
(DIR) More posts by aiju@chaos.social
(DIR) Post #AkznPHSDzjLoWIKydU by aiju@chaos.social
2024-08-15T12:14:09Z
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hot take but i dont believe in “development windows”, adults not being able to learn languages as well as children seems entirely explainable by other factors without speculating some magic “your brain just cant learn anymore” factor
(DIR) Post #AkznPI6zY9xcYjPXBA by aiju@chaos.social
2024-08-15T12:15:50Z
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adults mostly use suboptimal (non-immersive) learning methods, dont get the same kind of attention and immediate feedback that children get, etc. and like, some of that is not within their control obviously, but thats all social, not biology.
(DIR) Post #AkznPMrvrZsxJTP4ts by aiju@chaos.social
2024-08-15T12:17:35Z
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also…it takes children years to get proficient? all that attention and feedback and their language skills dont really fully develop until 8 years in. imagine putting 8 years not just full time but literally all the time 100% immersion into learning a second language.
(DIR) Post #AkznPOZvVUfecCzj72 by aiju@chaos.social
2024-08-15T12:19:40Z
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(8 years is just a rough ballpark i picked up somewhere, but some seemingly basic language feature take *ages* to be fully understand, e.g. passive tense in english)
(DIR) Post #AkznPQQmcSXsMQjS8e by aiju@chaos.social
2024-08-15T12:23:58Z
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one bit that’s considered “classic” evidence in the field of linguistics for development windows is that children who are not exposed to language at all never learn it well but also… those are usually children who were *severely* abused and neglected, like one of the classic cases that gets cited a lot is *insanely* horrifying to read about. feels weird to draw broader conclusions other than “yea trauma is bad man” here.
(DIR) Post #AkznPSILgmzG8qnkGm by aiju@chaos.social
2024-08-15T12:50:11Z
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“L1 interference” is definitely real tho btw, like if your first language is english then learning chinese is going to be tricky because the language works in very different ways and there might be some confusion to work through.. i think a lot of people get ‘stuck’ bc of those confusions
(DIR) Post #AkznPU9ul7QdvGs2Ou by aiju@chaos.social
2024-08-15T12:51:28Z
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like you’re used to thinking about present tense vs past tense but chinese has 了 instead, which is an aspect marker and has nothing to do with tense, and you might spent some time confused thinking it’s a past tense
(DIR) Post #AkznPVrCRfeBBo87VY by aiju@chaos.social
2024-08-15T12:59:16Z
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this isnt fundamentally distinct imo from how people who’ve only ever done computer code find learning, say, law or continental philosophy difficult and confusing bc it requires very different ways of thinking that they might not even realise exist
(DIR) Post #AkznPXjpS2wJ1WhGIS by aiju@chaos.social
2024-08-15T13:01:22Z
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there is definitely a metaskill here of “not letting yourself be confused by previous knowledge” that comes a lot easier to children than it comes to adults
(DIR) Post #AkznS89D3MJKWZnn4S by ainmosni@berlin.social
2024-08-15T12:24:41Z
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@aiju I don't know... I live in a different country with a different language than I grew up with, and I picked up a second language just from reading subtitles when I was 3, while acquiring this other language while super immersed for over 8 years is a lot harder.That said, I don't think you can't learn stuff as an adult, but I do think it's easier for kids.
(DIR) Post #AkznXt9ZiJj5l5ichk by Hyolobrika@social.fbxl.net
2024-08-15T15:51:58.351382Z
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@aiju What about for subjects other than language?With, say, maths or physics, adults and children learn in pretty much the same style.