# Acquiring a Second Language as an Adult



## koalaroo (Nov 25, 2011)

I'm going around seeing if there is any correlation between functions and acquiring a second language as an adult. Any insights from personal experience would be excellent!


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## kittychris07 (Jun 15, 2010)

Grammar and vocabulary were both very easy for me to learn. I took Latin in high school (does that qualify as an adult?). The grammar was logical, and I had a very good memory for the vocabulary (since each word is only a small piece of information, there's not much you can do to make memorizing it very difficult). There were four parts of every verb and two parts of every noun to memorize, but there were patterns to that too. 

The hard part of learning a foreign language (at least for me) would be the part where I have to speak the language and understand the language. I am not at all an auditory learner. Also, I do have a slight hearing disability, and that makes listening to and understanding the language all the more difficult. Reading would be very easy, however.


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## Owfin (Oct 15, 2011)

I too learned a foreign language through school. It's past the age where you learn your native language though, so it counts.

Grammar is great. Vocabulary is all right. Getting better at speaking (Ancient Romans are way more fun with thick southern accents, by the way).


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## LeelaWho (Nov 28, 2011)

It was ALL hard for me. :sad: My understanding of English grammar is really lame, it's only as good as it is because I've read so much and I copy the sentence structures that I've seen. So, getting exposed to a bunch of grammar rules for the first time really didn't help.

I would have failed French, but dropped out. I was fortunate that they offered German during the summer and I was able to pass that because my Dad tutored me.

I'm so jealous of my Dad in this regard. He speaks 3 languages and knows smatterings of a dozen or so. Right now he's teaching himself Afrikaans and he just seems to absorb it through osmosis.


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