By Meghan Streit
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE
Foreign language classes aren’t just for teens in high school anymore. Whether it’s a crash course for travel abroad, to improve skills for career advancement or volunteer work, or simply for personal enrichment, an increasing number of older adults are learning to speak a second language.
Anxiety about tackling a new language and the popular notion that early childhood is the best time to master a foreign tongue may have kept some adults away from language classes in the past—but much less so today.
“We’re hearing about adults just flocking to language classes, especially baby boomers, who may have had very few foreign language classes or a negative experience with a language class when they were younger,” says Marty Abbott, director of education for the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
Dispelling a myth
Abbott says children do tend to adopt foreign languages quickly because they have the ability to easily make the sounds of any language, which becomes more difficult by puberty once they have mastered their native tongue.
“But what adults have that young children don’t is the understanding of grammar of a native language,” she says. “So they can understand the grammar of a new language more quickly, which makes them more efficient learners.”
Monarch Landing resident
Marilyn Erwin is taking a Romance language class in preparation for a Mediterranean cruise she’s taking with the community’s travel club in September. The on-site course, offered to both residents and the public through Monarch Landing’s Center for Continuous Learning, includes six classes each in Spanish, French, and Italian.