Topic Talk | Five reasons why you're never too old to learn a new language The A to Z English Podcast

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In this episode of The A to Z English Podcast, Xochitl and Jack talk about why it's still important for adults to learn a new language.
Transcript:
00:00:00
Jack
Hey A-Z listeners, this is Jack here.
00:00:03
Jack
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00:00:23
Jack
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00:00:42
Jack
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00:00:44
Jack
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00:00:52
Jack
Now let's get on with the show.
00:00:56
Jack
Welcome to the A-Z English podcast. My name is Jack and I'm here with my co-host social. And today we are doing a topic talk and the topic of today's conversation is why you are never too old to learn a language and such a I just went online and did a little bit of research.
00:01:18
Jack
And I found five pretty interesting reasons why you're never too old to learn a language, and the first one is about near neuroplasticity.
00:01:29
Xochitl
Oh, interesting.
00:01:30
Jack
And so yeah, and it's it's it says here while it's true that children often have an easier time picking up languages due to their brains, high level of neuroplasticity, which means ability to adapt and change, adults can still learn new languages.
00:01:50
Jack
Effectively, research has shown that the adult brain remains capable of forming new neural connections.
00:01:58
Jack
Actions and adapting to new linguistic challenges, albeit at a different pace than children, so it's not like we have zero ability to learn a language and and build new neural pathways, but it's not the same as when we're like in the the critical age when you know.
00:02:18
Jack
Whatever that might be, five to three years old.
00:02:21
Jack
You know, I don't know. Thirteen years old or whatever, so yeah.
00:02:25
발표자
Right, right.
00:02:26
Xochitl
Yeah. OK. I think that's very interesting. I've heard before on theories that if you learn two or more languages as a balanced bilingual from childhood that you're also more able to pick up new languages. But even if you hadn't, even if you are monolingual.
00:02:44
Xochitl
And you never learned more than one language growing up. I think research shows that adults, it's it's beginning to show at an increasing weight that adults still retain quite a bit of neuroplasticity. Right, so I think.
00:03:02
Xochitl
Yeah, that just gives you every more reason to have faith that you can learn another language and a lot of the world has light up on us because they have learned two or more languages.
00:03:15
Xochitl
From a young age so.
00:03:17
Jack
Yeah. And this one kind of dovetails nicely. It connects with the one later, which is cognitive benefits. You know, like the like, holding off dementia and stuff like that is creating new neural pathways in your brain, you know, so neurons are making new connections.
00:03:28
발표자
Yep.
00:03:36
Jack
This is a good thing, like it's a it's a good practice. It's like exercise for your brain, you know, it's like working out your brain. So yeah, definitely a good thing. And I also I wanted to say one more thing about what you said about bilingual children.
00:03:44
Xochitl
Right.
00:03:56
Jack
Cause my daughter is a a balanced bilingual just like you.
00:04:00
Jack
Bar and I think there's something that children learn early that that we don't, that I didn't learn till I was older and that is that language