Iversen wrote:By the way: It will be interesting to see whether the mobile phone generation will be able to remember anything at all when it reaches my age. FOr instance I still remember town plans rather well. Will that skill die out when the GPS generation gets old? Do people with GPS on their phone actually remember maps at all when their small screens only show the next kilometer or so and where to turn the next time?
The important thing is that you are always learning not just about languages but about multiple topics (you also share your knowledge with others in this forum). By the way, your history of music is fantastic and a great introduction. It can direct self-study using your music history as a little guide.
Going back on topic, yes, I am on the same boat with you. In my childhood and teenage years, we did not have the internet. In El Salvador, it was hard to learn a language. Imagine the Spanish language everywhere in neighboring countries, the learning was in the classroom, with very little exposure to original content. Most teachers were local teachers who had never traveled abroad. All textbooks had been translated into Spanish, even medical books.
About learning languages with the iPhone generation. I was surprised to see that my daughter, who is 11-yo, was born with an iPhone on her hands!
Well, it seems like that, anyway. I have a hard time motivating my daughter to learn French. Here in Arizona, there are no bilingual schools for French (only two, and they don't go all the way to high school). In a nonimmersion environment, we adults have the tools and motivation to learn new languages that children lack. My daughter is fixed to the iPhone, watching content in English. Making her study French twice a week is a real struggle, even more, now thas she is in her teenage years. She is not motivated at all. I am not a French speaker, so I cannot talk to her in French. I am also learning French, so I am making way more progress in French than her, due to her lack of motivation and willingness to learn.
So how do you motivate children to learn a foreign language when they are not immersed in the target language? This is another topic on its own. But this forum is for language learners who are motivated to learn new languages.
On my daughter, I think my solution will be to send her to France for a year on a student exchange program. Just like we hosted the Chinese girl in our family for a few years. I want her to learn the language before she turns into a young adult. As the above journal article explains, children have an advantage over adults in a target language natural environment in an immerse environment provided that the exposure is massive and long enough.
As we age, we continue to have the capacity to learn new things, language included. We may enjoy the benefits of more time to follow our passions. I can tell you that during my 20's and 30's I was too busy with medical school and residency training to worry about learning languages.
Thank god, my father sent me to the USA on my teen years to learn English by immersion. That contributed to having a good enough English to pass my medical certification exams in the US and to do good enough in my interviews, which helped me secure a postgraduate residency training in the USA. Now, I have medical students, and I ask them about their interest in learning languages. They have no time to learn a new language as much as they would like; they may be motivated but do not have the time to dedicate to their passion other than medicine. They will probably have to postpone learning a new language for later years.