Ask HN: How do I learn a new language in my thirties

2 points by sajithdilshan 8y ago ↗ HN

As someone who is learning a new language (German) in early thirties, I find it not as easy as when I was learning English as a little kid (Sinhala is my mother tongue)

Specially with the pronunciation. For the love of god, I cannot differentiate the pronunciation difference between letter u and ü. As an example musst and müsst both sounds the same to me. Maybe this is because I'm too old. Has anyone else experienced the same? If so how did you overcome it?

1 comment

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cjbprime 8y ago ↗

I know it used to be thought that kids have an easier time learning a new second language, but my understanding is that the effect disappears when you control for the amount of time spent studying, so there's no issue with learning new languages as an adult other than finding the time.