“Children’s brains are like sponges,” is practically a cliché when it comes to language learning.
Often I hear this kind of remark from adults who, struggling with trying to learn a new language, marvel at the ease with which young children seem to acquire them: “They just soak them up.”
The assumption seems to be that adults’ brains are no longer like sponges. They have hardened in some way and language must be drilled in to them with great difficulty.
What’s interesting to me is that when people talk about children’s brains soaking up languages like sponges, they seem to pay little attention to the other element that this metaphor implies.
How does a sponge get soaked?
It is immersed in water.
Continue reading “Learn languages like children? Adults aren’t even given the chance!”
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