"Learning Lauguage"
I just read that young children are able to learn a language much easier than when they leave childhood. Then I thought to myself "why is this? It's obviously true seeing that I learned English, but why can I not learn another language now?" Then I though, "at 18 years old, studying Spanish for a year would only be one-nineteenth of my life studying. But learning a language at a young age can be a four-fifths lifetime of learning the language." Can't this be true? If so then it should, as it does, take a lot longer to learn a language than in a year. It would explain why children are able to learn language easier and why it becomes increasingly difficult after childhood.
On top of the learning-time percentages, the first language learned can not be put on hold momentarily in the way that a second language can. With a second language, the first is better known and things misunderstood in the second can be explained in the first, but while learning a first, things are also explained and corrected in the first, causing a quicker learning rate. Children learn language from the time they wake up, to the time they fall asleep and at my age, language can only be practiced in my free time.
Based On:
Wade and Travris, Psychology, 5th Edition, New York: Longman, 1998.
