How to Learn a Foreign Language

We all learned our first language, so the theory goes, we can all learn a second language. I've heard this logic repeated a few times by internet bloggers. They are trying to dispel the common sense notion that only some people are gifted in foreign languages.

A counter argument to the idea that we can all learn a second language, as we did our first, is that children learn languages differently from adults. There is some evidence to suggest that we learn our first language during an early childhood phase known as the 'critical period.'

Still, in my experience, I can say that, given the right circumstances, that almost every adult learner could learn a second language. The notion that we can learn as a child would learn, deserves examination.

When you are a child, you have to learn a language in order to communicate with the world around you. To talk to your parents, (let alone, talk back to your parents), you must speak to them in the language they understand. Similarly if everyone at your kindergarden speaks English, and all your classmates speak English, fairly soon a child is speaking English.

This same phenomena, in theory, can be replicated with adults too. While adults will have somewhat more difficult time learning a language, if they are immersed, they tend to learn. If you were dropped in the middle of Russia, in a remote area, where no one spoke English, and you had to learn Russian to survive, in a year or two, you would speak conversational Russian.

However, this line of thought, really doesn't dispel the notion that only some people are gifted in foreign languages. As with most common knowledge, the statement is grounded in some truths.