What is your motivation?
Nevertheless, there are factors that make certain people more suited to learning something. “Some people have a keen ear, which makes it easier for them to distinguish between sounds. Others have a good memory, which makes it easier for them to remember words. This can also help when learning a new language.” Furthermore, the more languages someone has learned in their life, the better they are at learning new languages. “You understand language as a system better and can recognise features from a new language in languages you learned earlier.”
Although such factors help to master a new language, there is one much more important factor: motivation. 'Why do you want to learn a language? Do you like the sound of a language, do you think it will help you achieve something, or is learning it necessary to make yourself understood where you live?
Quick pick-up
The latter motivation is closely related to a third factor: environment. “If you hear a certain language everywhere around you, you pick it up much faster. This means that young children, but also people who have fled to the Netherlands, learn the language very quickly. They hear the language constantly around them and they are motivated to learn it and make themselves understood.”
A suitable learning environment also includes less obvious things, such as how certain languages are viewed in your country. “Imagine you live in the Netherlands and want to learn Spanish, French or Italian. People will probably encourage you and there are plenty of places to learn with others. That's because these languages have traditionally had a certain prestige in the Netherlands. This is much less the case if you want to learn Swahili, for example. People are more likely to be curious and ask you why you want to learn that language. As a linguist, I believe that all languages are equal, and I encourage people to learn Swahili just as much as Spanish.”
Learning at a later age?
We often assume that learning languages becomes more difficult as you get older, but Knopp argues that this is not necessarily the case. “It's true that children pick up languages quickly and we also know that primary school pupils are generally motivated to learn new languages. On the other hand, they don't yet have the experience of learning multiple languages that older people do.”
Older people may also be less shy about speaking a language. “In secondary schools, many pupils, especially those going through puberty, are unsure about speaking a new language.” For adults who want to learn a language, this barrier may be lower because they realise that speaking helps them learn the language better, even if they make mistakes at first. “Of course, this is not exclusively related to age. Extroverts who find it easy to talk to people may also have an advantage over more introverted people.”
Back to that language talent. How was Knopp able to learn all those languages without a language talent? “My first grades in English were still unsatisfactory, but thanks to my motivation and interest in languages and the cultures behind them, I managed to learn several languages.” Knopp's personal history with languages illustrates what she also knows from her research: “You are not with a gift for learning languages, you develop it.”
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