Which aspects do you think make a person unique?

Learning Languages as an Adult

Each person is unique, especially in how they learn languages as an adult.

Kids start from scratch, like a blank document. Adults already have plenty of files stored in their brain. By the time you’re learning a new language as an adult, you might have been exposed to it in random ways—through family, movies, music, or just hearing it while growing up. So it’s not like you’re a true beginner. You already know something, even if it’s in disorganized pieces. Here’s my experience, using learning Chinese as a second language.

First example: you might mix up the grammar of your first and second languages, and speak a Chinese sentence with English grammar. Oops. You sound like a weirdo. But you know how to swear perfectly because you hear the words in movies and spoken by friends who are fluent.

Second example: you’re a polyglot. You’ve learned a bunch of languages at the beginner level. So you walk into a store in Montreal and all you can think of is how to say, “How much is this?” in Japanese. Or you’re in Tokyo, and you can only remember how to say a sentence in French. Or, more frustratingly still, you’re in Tokyo, and you can read the kanji, and you need help because you’re lost. But you can only remember the Chinese pronunciation (not the Japanese) of the kanji on the street signs, making you both literate but unable to communicate.

Pronunciation is another funny thing if you’re trying to learn a language that you’ve heard for years but don’t speak it often. You’re not native, but you’re also not a beginner. For example, in English, you go from “I want to learn it” to “I wanna learn it” when you’re speaking more fluently. But as a non-native speaker who’s been exposed to Chinese for years, I will say the Chinese equivalent to “I wanna learn it so bad.” I’ll say a sentence that they don’t teach you in classes – something you learn from native speakers – but my pronunciation is a tad off… not quite native, and not a beginner either. 😂

So what makes people unique isn’t just what they learn—it’s all the random, imperfect stuff they bring with them while learning.

Daily writing prompt

Which aspects do you think makes a person unique?