Language Study and Age

In my sabbatical proposal, I said I would explore the experience of the older language learner - so I thought I'd better put something in here about that.

It is different being an older learner. The biggest difference: it's harder to meet peers my age. For young people, there are parties and gatherings and lots of chances to meet Koreans and people from other countries, but I don't fit into that now. So for language practice I mostly rely on my weekly encounters with young Korean students and my conversations with shopkeepers, people who work at the apartment building etc. It's not as much fun, and not nearly as constant as having that daily interaction and practice with social peers.

In my sabbatical proposal I anticipated some other differences:

I have spoken to many older learners and observed them in class. I have learned that these students may have accomplished a great deal in their lives but they may feel that due to age, they cannot remember as well or make the same progress as their younger classmates; they may tend to stay in the background so as not to expose their weakness to the younger students; they may feel lost because they cannot make the emotional adjustment to the new culture and language as younger students can; they may feel they have lost the honor and prestige that should come with age; they may feel that they have been left behind. I expect to have similar feelings and experiences..."

I have had some similar feelings, to be sure. As far as memory - it's hard to tell. It's definitely harder to memorize vocabulary now than it was when I learned French and Spanish in my teens and twenties, but then it's one thing to learn that, say, the French word for "to begin" is "commencer" and something quite different to learn that the Korean word is something like "shi jaek ha da." Every new word is just sounds that have to be memorized. And I clearly can't memorize as well as my younger Japanese and Chinese classmates, but lots of Korean words have Chinese or Japanese roots, which helps them out. Yes, I struggle with memory, but is it due to age???

As far as staying in the background, feeling bad about lost prestige, etc. in the classroom - I'm glad to say not so much. In the classroom I feel pretty much like any other student, I think. None of us can maintain the positions we have in our own environments, and we all feel self-conscious about our fledgling efforts. Equally!

And I AM learning and making progress, even if it's slow. Conclusion: we older learners should not give up! (Duh - of course, I had already made that conclusion before I started this project - just wanted to prove it, for myself and my students back home.) And I'm sure the mental activities I'm doing - memorizing, practicing new language patterns, opening my ears to new sounds, etc. are really good for my aging brain. How did Kato Lomb learn a new language at age 86? Probably because she had kept her brain nimble through years of learning new languages - always striving to learn something new.

It was fun to read this passage in Shakespeare's Richard II, in the scene where Thomas Mowbray is banished from England for life. Does he lament the loss of family and friends, his lands, his wealth, his position, English food, English music, customs, activities.... no! He only complains of missing - his native English language:

"The language I have learnt these forty years,

My native English, now I must forgo,

And now my tongue's use is to me no more

Than an unstringed viol or a harp,

Or like a cunning instrument cased up,

Or being open, put into his hands

That knows no touch to tune the harmony.

Within my mouth you have enjailed my tongue,

Doubly portcullised with my teeth and lips,

And dull unfeeling barren ignorance

Is made my jailer to attend on me.

And then this aged 40-year old (!) dismisses his chance to remedy the loss:

I am too old to fawn upon a nurse,

Too far in years to be a pupil now;

What is thy sentence then but speechless death

Which robs my tongue from breathing native breath?

Well, it IS hard to be a pupil at an older age - to have to "obey" a young teacher, to perform at her command, to make my mouth move in uncomfortable ways whenever she decides it's time to do so... the loss of command, of control, of competence, of confidence.... being reduced to self-conscious giggles and apologies and fretful nervousness. Many times I long to be back in the teacher's role and forget this uncomfortable learning. But... it's better than "speechless death!"