Eloosive asked:


I think most people who attempt to learn a language at this age are actually learning their third language and not their second. For me, it would really be a second language. I took Latin in high school (big mistake) so even though I studied a language, the emphasis was on reading and not acquisition. I have never studied a language with the intent to speak it, and I haven’t studied a language at all for 7 years. But now I really want to learn Spanish and I’m working with a tutor but it doesn’t feel like it’s coming easy, and I can’t imagine ever achieving fluency. I’ve done some reading about adult second language acquisition and experts seem pretty divided over the issue, but if you buy theories like various versions of the critical period hypothesis, any attempt to start at this age seems doomed.

I’m really just asking for encouragement. If you have any personal stories about this, or know of any research that supports my goals, please let me know. Thanks.

The Verbarrator