Language, in a world so different in culture, traditions, and lifestyles, has always been the quickest and clearest window to bridge these differences. It is the cheat code to learn about a culture different from yours. But apart from learning a different language, the one native to you forms a bridge to human connections. It is what helps you be understood, and it is how you understand; after all, the famous saying goes, ‘communication is all we have, at the end of the day’.
Well, if all we have is communication, then language is our strongest asset-one with the remarkable power to create and destroy.
The question is what is the right time to start learning a new language, especially one that is not part of your native tongue. “At a young age, children don’t learn a language - they acquire it,” said the principal of a nursery school. This clearly states that there is no better time to learn a new language than when you are young when there are fewer concepts formed in that particular mind that is similar to a sponge that absorbs everything that it comes in contact with in order to learn information about that new world that it has been placed in. Young children have been known to be excellent at learning explicitly. That is to say that they have the skill of learning a new language by just listening to someone who speaks that language and imitating them.
As already mentioned, it has been proven that it is possible for babies to hear the 600 consonants and 200 vowels that form all the languages in the world.
"The point when we start specializing in the ones we learn, when we tune in to the sounds we hear most, we tend to start losing recognition in all the consonants and vowels. This indicates that through specializing, we tend to start eliminating some of the skills we don’t need. The older your age when you start learning a new language, the larger your skill set will be, as it already contains the memory of a sound."
“The early years are absolutely essential for the acquisition of a language,” says researcher in the field of language development, Anotnella Sorace. Moreover, it was found that if one fails to acquire the human language in the early years of life, it becomes quite difficult for them to make up for it in the latter years of life. Danijela Trenkic, a psycholinguist from the University of York, in support for her statements about language acquisition becoming easier if it occurred in the early years of one’s life instead of in youthful years or in the years of maturity. The researchers employed by Danijela show that if the family is required to move from one country to another, it has been found that the acquisition of the language occurs quicker in the children as opposed to the adults.
Apart from the fact that youth could be the best time to learn languages since one is younger and more capable of learning, there are other advantages too. Researches have uncovered that having a significant number of knowledge in languages and vocabulary is beneficial in terms of developing creativity and making innovative ideas. Indeed, studies and research have been done in the other aspect too. Research uncovered the other effects if one will not learn how to communicate. But let us not dwell too much on the glass full aspect and quench our thirst for now with what is available.