Learning skills decreasing with age

[Anonymous No.4506359]

So everywhere I get told "if you're young, you'll learn everything especially things like languages easier and when you're older it will be much harder or impossible".

I know that's true but where does the line go? You'll never be a virtuoso musician if you didn't pick up violing, piano whatever before turning 10 years old but if we're talking about language learning or the like, is it harder for me (20 years old) to learn a language than it's for 12 year old or 30 year old? My gut sense tell me that you'll pick up stuff really easily in the first 10 years of your life and when you're past your 30s or 40s it's much harder. But how 'bout people who are in high school or universities, are they still at a good learning age? Compared to little children or middle-aged people? Is it a steady declie in learning abilities or is there a magical drop?

I myself am always been good at languages (native finnish speaker, good english, moderate swedish, beginner japanese, russia a dream for now on) and I'm not lacking motivation or anything just curious.

[Bernkastel !!jIcPNMSVBL3 No.4506376]

>>4506359
most of why children learn easier is because they have motivation and soak up knowledge like sponges.

adults don't soak up knowledge nearly as much because they might have short as fuck attention span and simply just aren't as curious as children anymore.

i used to read and absorb a lot of books when i was a kid. now it's hard for me to keep reading something i don't really want to read for more than 10 minutes. not that a child would be less childish, but there are children that have insane amounts of attention span when they're willing (me when i was younger)

[Anonymous No.4506395]

Children are much better at learning the details of how to speak a new language - by which I mean the pronunciation and tone. They aren't much better at learning vocab, how to write, how to read, etc though. That said, they do grow up completely immersed in an environment where everyone speaks their language, and they have full time tutors (parents/day care) so they do have that advantage.

[Anonymous No.4506420]

>>4506376
OP here:

I learned my english mostly (exlcluding games and movies) from picking up John Grisham and Tom Clancy books in english and just started plowing through. But I've always read a lot (100 pages min. everyday) so it might just be personal preference but it's a great way to really get immersed with a language.

[Anonymous No.4506430]

>I know that's true

I don't buy that at all. I pick things up faster now than I ever did as a child. It's about motivation and flexibility (eg: you need to let go of assumptions when learning something new), neither of which are directly tied to age.

I think we just tend to get unmotivated and fucking arrogant as we get older.

[Bernkastel !!jIcPNMSVBL3 No.4506445]

>>4506430
>I think we just tend to get unmotivated and fucking arrogant as we get older.

this, really.
as a child, you were willing to go to school just for 'fuck why not i get pampered when i do and i'll get disowned if i don't'

[OP No.4506577]

One of the things I've always said to my friends is that if you weren't in school, would you still be studying this subject? If the answer is no then I'll ask them to gtfo.

I agree heavily on your point about motivation and laziness. I first realized this when I was doing shitty in school but played fighting games like a boss. It was my personal interest and passion that fueled me to throw 100 hadoukens everyday just for basic practice. I've come to apply that mindset to everything I study and do.

How much would you say the % are for just motivation and learning skills? There's of course the genetic factor also but let's leave that out. Maybe older (>30) people it comes to like 90 % for motivation and for high schoolers 60 %? I mean some guys can finish master's degree moderately even when they drink more then they study and some older guy like my dad is struggling with basic russian grammar and alphapets.

[Anonymous No.4506592]

wait a minute...