Why are kids so much better at languages?

For a couple of reasons (based mostly on the fact my partner's family are all of Polish decent), my younger daughter and I are attempting to learn Polish. She's taken to it like a fish to water. I suck. Any suggestions as to how I can improve?

 

Send a letter to yourself when your my age telling you to learn Polish. I don't know, take a class, ask them to help you practise, or maybe set your computer to Polish and watch a bunch of polish movies and listen to polish music. You'll learn it eventully.

 

your brain paths have been mostly cemented. Hers are still developing, they're still moldable. You're doing a good thing - learning any secondary language as a child makes learning any other language much much easier for hte kid

 

I'm not sure why, but it's generally accepted that certain ages are prime for learning new languages. The only suggestion I have is pure repetition and practice bud.

 

i became fluent in french when i was in my late teens. alcohol consumption seemed to help. seriously, it lowers inhibitions, so i was willing to take more risks with the language and was less likely to let my self consciousness hold me back.

total immersion helps too

 

ihmurria is right, it's a brain development thing; the older you get, the more "unnecessary" abilities and information get deleted. How old is your daughter? The "prime" age to learn language, i believe, is any time before age 8. It is possible to become fluent at any age, but it takes years of hard work, as opposed to a four-year-old just casually picking it up (interesting as well is the fact that babies born to bilingual homes learn both languages equally, and NEVER confuse words or sentance structure between the two)

 

You hit the nail . but some adults do pick fast but this are far more rare as far complete master of another languages.

 

I've two daughters (one biological, one step). The eldest was brought up in a Polish speaking home. She's fluent. The plan was to try with our youngest, but I've only just started. The youngest is now 4. We started 7 months ago. I can pick up enough words to understand what people say. The verbs kill me though.

 

sounds dumb i know but for verbs in any languages i toy with (all latin based) all pretty much have set endings ... i make charts of the verbs ending the same n all the forms of saying them and study them the same way until i drill it into my thick skull on how they are are conjugated.... only way i can learn them at any rate of speed quicker than a slug in 2 inches of mud

 

Ihmurria's right, the younger you are, the easier it is to learn new languages. Not to mention, some people are just more apt to it than others. I picked up Spanish like it was English to me, even though I didn't start learning it until I was 15. I'm nowhere near fluent, but I know enough to get around in Spanish speaking places for a day. I also know enough that if someone thinks they're discreetly using profane language, I can understand the general idea of what they are saying. Hehe, it's great.

 

I read once that up until 10 years of age, it is easiest for children to learn a new language because brain cells are still developing. After that, the brain has begun to fulfill its growing capacity. Although we can still learn new languages, it requires more effort from then on.
I suggest much repetition to learn a new language. The average person needs at least 15 repetitions of the same thing to begin to store it into long-term memory.