×

We use cookies to help make LingQ better. By visiting the site, you agree to our cookie policy.


image

Steve's Language Learning Tips, Seniors Should Learn Languages

Seniors Should Learn Languages

You don't want to sit there and play solitaire. Uh, you can discover new things. Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here again, and today I want to talk about seniors. Seniors not only can learn languages, they should learn languages and I'm going to tell you why. So if you enjoy these videos, please subscribe, click on the bell for notification.

Uh, if you follow me on a podcast, please leave a review. I appreciate it. Please notice that I've changed my background here. I've now got this wood paneling and I've sort of slid my, my bookshelf off to the side. People ask me if it's a real bookshelf. No, it's not. It's just a curtain. I slid it out to the side and now I'm working off this wooden panelling.

So the reason I'm talking about seniors learning languages is because I had an email from a good friend of mine who plays hockey with me. He's one of our group of hockey players that have been playing old timer's hockey since we were, I don't know, over 40, so 30 years, 35 years. He's my age.

He's 76 or 77 or 75 one of the two. And he says, Steve, um, I want to learn Japanese. Can I get on your site? I said, sure, absolutely. Now some background, he has been involved with Japan. He coached hockey in Japan, in Sendai for a year, and he's very fond of Japan and so here he is, 76 years old, he's going to start learning Japanese.

He can say, you know, the usual konnichiwa, ohayo gozaimasu, but he can't really speak Japanese. And I thought to myself, good for him. And here I am 76 and I'm learning my Farsi and my Arabic, both Standard and Egyptian Arabic, and I I've got sort of Turkish waiting in the wings. And if I ever get to a proper level of those, then I might explore Indonesian or I might explore, uh, uh, you know, Urdu is sort of a transition from, from Persian.

Or I might go into Hindi and tackle one of their writing systems. Uh, or some other language, Swahili. I haven't learned an African language. I might tackle an African language. All of that I have in front of me. Uh, next year, the year after, the year after those languages aren't going anywhere. I'm under no pressure to learn those languages.

I don't need them for my job, but it's just so much fun to contemplate that I can go and learn these languages. And, you know, discover like I'm now discovering, especially with the Persian, because I've got these wonderful courses on Persian history that Sahra has, has prepared for, for LingQ, which I enjoy going over repeatedly.

And finally getting a sense of when the Sasanian Dynasty was and when the Safavid Dynasty was and the Mongols and the Turks and the uh, you know, the various, uh, influence of Rome and, and then fighting with the Parthian Empire, I guess they called it an English. Um, and so for this one, so as a senior, you know, here you are, uh, you could be saying, well, you know, I've, I've lived most of my life.

Uh, you know, I'm kind of, uh, I mean, you don't want to sit there and play solitaire. Uh, you can discover new things particularly now with COVID where it's not so easy to go traveling around you can travel through your language learning, uh, as a senior. And, and I don't think, you know, as a senior, certainly I don't sit down and learn this language and that language, but I know that there are a lot of languages there to learn.

And every language I have learned has brought me so much. It's like being at a feast where there's just this endless sort of table with dishes and you can eat as many as you want and just keep eating and enjoying. Of course, we know that for seniors it's very good for their brains. So even if say my friend who hasn't really been a language learner, like I've been a language learner, all his life.

Uh, so maybe it's like the capacity to learn languages is not as developed as it is in my brain because I've been doing it more. But, um, it's like, if you haven't used a muscle, you have to slowly start using it. Small steps, small steps, gradually build up, build up the strength. And I think the same is true with language learning regardless of your age. He might find it a little more difficult because he's not as confident, he hasn't done it before, but I know that anyone, if they, you know, gain that experience with the new language, listening and reading, they can learn.

And of course, especially today with the range of content that's available online. So if we take, for example, he could watch a Japanese series on Netflix and not understand a thing, except that there would be subtitles. And through the subtitles, he would have a sense of participating in an aspect of Japanese culture that is very stimulating.

That encourages you, entices you to do more. Now in order to get to the point where he could understand those movies or even some of them, and which would then improve his Japanese, he has to invest in the sort of beginner stuff like the mini stories. So there is a progression from repetitive listening to relatively simple material to get yourself to a point where you can derive more from these movies, but that's all there for you to.

Those are all activities that as a senior, you can commit one to three hours a day to doing, and it takes you on this sort of endless journey of discovery initially for one language. And that can be a few years I can tell you from experience with Arabic and Persian, and if you ever get tired of that journey, then you can embark on another journey.

So, uh, not only is it, you know, and I've, I've done videos before where I talk about age not being an obstacle, but it's more than that. I think for seniors particularly who are looking for meaningful things to do... Not... and many of them have their meaningful activities. And I'm not saying that language learning is the only meaningful activity.

And of course there there's physical activity and there's social activity and family activity, and there's all kinds of things that can give seniors a very full life, but I think in particular language learning is something that has a lot of benefits. I'm not going to get into whether it delays, you know, potential, you know, Alzheimer's, there's all these theories that it stimulates the brain and protects it from dementia and so on.

I don't know if that's true. Uh, it's an added benefit. Uh, but I think the bigger thing is that it's just such a rewarding thing to do, something that seniors not only can do but should do in my opinion. And, uh, I'll leave you with a couple of videos that I did on the whole issue of age and language learning.

But again, seniors not only can learn, but should learn languages. Thank you for listening. Bye for now.

Seniors Should Learn Languages Senioren sollten Sprachen lernen Los mayores deben aprender idiomas Les personnes âgées devraient apprendre des langues Gli anziani dovrebbero imparare le lingue 高齢者は言語を学ぶべきです Seniorzy powinni uczyć się języków Os idosos devem aprender línguas Пожилые люди должны изучать языки Yaşlılar Dil Öğrenmeli Люди похилого віку повинні вчити мови 老年人应该学习语言 老年人應該學習語言

You don't want to sit there and play solitaire. あなたはそこに座ってソリティアをしたくありません。 Uh, you can discover new things. ええと、あなたは新しいものを発見することができます。 Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here again, and today I want to talk about seniors. Seniors not only can learn languages, they should learn languages and I'm going to tell you why. 先輩は言語を学ぶことができるだけでなく、言語を学ぶべきであり、その理由をお話しします。 So if you enjoy these videos, please subscribe, click on the bell for notification. したがって、これらのビデオを楽しんでいる場合は、購読して、通知のためにベルをクリックしてください。

Uh, if you follow me on a podcast, please leave a review. ええと、ポッドキャストで私をフォローしているなら、レビューを残してください。 I appreciate it. それは有り難いです。 Please notice that I've changed my background here. ここで背景を変更したことに注意してください。 请注意,我在这里改变了我的背景。 I've now got this wood paneling and I've sort of slid my, my bookshelf off to the side. 私は今この木製の羽目板を手に入れました、そして私は私の本棚を横にスライドさせました。 Agora tenho esse painel de madeira e meio que deslizei minha estante de livros para o lado. People ask me if it's a real bookshelf. 本当の本棚なのかと聞かれます。 As pessoas me perguntam se é uma estante de livros de verdade. No, it's not. It's just a curtain. I slid it out to the side and now I'm working off this wooden panelling. 私はそれを横にスライドさせて、今私はこの木製のパネルを取り除いています。 Eu deslizei para o lado e agora estou trabalhando neste painel de madeira.

So the reason I'm talking about seniors learning languages is because I had an email from a good friend of mine who plays hockey with me. He's one of our group of hockey players that have been playing old timer's hockey since we were, I don't know, over 40, so 30 years, 35 years. 彼は私たちのホッケー選手のグループの1人で、私たちが40歳以上、つまり30年、35年の時から、古いタイマーのホッケーをプレーしてきました。 He's my age.

He's 76 or 77 or 75 one of the two. And he says, Steve, um, I want to learn Japanese. Can I get on your site? あなたのサイトにアクセスできますか? I said, sure, absolutely. 確かに、絶対に言った。 Now some background, he has been involved with Japan. 现在有了一些背景,他一直在与日本打交道。 He coached hockey in Japan, in Sendai for a year, and he's very fond of Japan and so here he is, 76 years old, he's going to start learning Japanese. Ele treinou hóquei no Japão, em Sendai por um ano, e ele gosta muito do Japão, então aqui está ele, com 76 anos, ele vai começar a aprender japonês.

He can say, you know, the usual konnichiwa, ohayo gozaimasu, but he can't really speak Japanese. And I thought to myself, good for him. And here I am 76 and I'm learning my Farsi and my Arabic, both Standard and Egyptian Arabic, and I I've got sort of Turkish waiting in the wings. そして、ここで私は76歳で、ペルシア語とアラビア語(標準アラビア語とエジプトアラビア語の両方)を学んでいます。私はある種のトルコ語を翼で待っています。 En hier ben ik 76 en ik leer mijn Farsi en mijn Arabisch, zowel Standaard als Egyptisch Arabisch, en ik heb een soort Turks wachten in de coulissen. E aqui estou eu com 76 anos e estou aprendendo meu persa e meu árabe, tanto o árabe padrão quanto o egípcio, e tenho uma espécie de turco esperando nos bastidores. 我今年 76 岁,正在学习波斯语和阿拉伯语,包括标准阿拉伯语和埃及阿拉伯语,还有土耳其语在等待。 And if I ever get to a proper level of those, then I might explore Indonesian or I might explore, uh, uh, you know, Urdu is sort of a transition from, from Persian.

Or I might go into Hindi and tackle one of their writing systems. Uh, or some other language, Swahili. I haven't learned an African language. I might tackle an African language. Eu posso lidar com uma língua africana. All of that I have in front of me. Tudo isso que tenho diante de mim. Uh, next year, the year after, the year after those languages aren't going anywhere. ええと、来年、翌年、翌年、それらの言語はどこにも行きません。 Uh, no próximo ano, no ano seguinte, no ano seguinte essas línguas não vão a lugar nenhum. I'm under no pressure to learn those languages. Não estou sob pressão para aprender essas línguas. 我没有学习这些语言的压力。

I don't need them for my job, but it's just so much fun to contemplate that I can go and learn these languages. And, you know, discover like I'm now discovering, especially with the Persian, because I've got these wonderful courses on Persian history that Sahra has, has prepared for, for LingQ, which I enjoy going over repeatedly.

And finally getting a sense of when the Sasanian Dynasty was and when the Safavid Dynasty was and the Mongols and the Turks and the uh, you know, the various, uh, influence of Rome and, and then fighting with the Parthian Empire, I guess they called it an English. E, finalmente, ter uma noção de quando foi a Dinastia Sassânida e quando foi a Dinastia Safávida e os Mongóis e os Turcos e, você sabe, as várias, uh, influências de Roma e, em seguida, lutando com o Império Parta, eu acho eles o chamavam de inglês. Um, and so for this one, so as a senior, you know, here you are, uh, you could be saying, well, you know, I've, I've lived most of my life. ええと、これについては、先輩として、あなたはここにいます、ええと、あなたは、ええと、あなたが知っている、私は私の人生のほとんどを生きてきたと言うことができます。 Hum, e então para este, então como um veterano, você sabe, aqui está você, uh, você poderia estar dizendo, bem, você sabe, eu, eu vivi a maior parte da minha vida.

Uh, you know, I'm kind of, uh, I mean, you don't want to sit there and play solitaire. ええと、あなたが知っている、私は一種の、ええと、つまり、あなたはそこに座ってソリティアをしたくないのです。 Uh, você sabe, eu meio que, uh, quero dizer, você não quer sentar aí e jogar paciência. Uh, you can discover new things particularly now with COVID where it's not so easy to go traveling around you can travel through your language learning, uh, as a senior. ええと、特に今、COVIDを使って新しいことを発見することができます。ここでは、旅行するのはそれほど簡単ではありません。シニアとして、語学学習を通して旅行することができます。 And, and I don't think, you know, as a senior, certainly I don't sit down and learn this language and that language, but I know that there are a lot of languages there to learn. そして、私は、シニアとして、確かに私が座ってこの言語とその言語を学ぶことはないと思いますが、学ぶべき言語がたくさんあることを知っています。

And every language I have learned has brought me so much. そして、私が学んだすべての言語は私に多くをもたらしました。 It's like being at a feast where there's just this endless sort of table with dishes and you can eat as many as you want and just keep eating and enjoying. まるでごちそうのように、この無限の種類の料理のテーブルがあり、好きなだけ食べて、食べ続けて楽しむことができます。 É como estar em um banquete onde há esse tipo de mesa infinita com pratos e você pode comer o quanto quiser e continuar comendo e saboreando. Of course, we know that for seniors it's very good for their brains. So even if say my friend who hasn't really been a language learner, like I've been a language learner, all his life. ですから、私が言語学習者であったように、実際には言語学習者ではなかった私の友人が、彼の生涯を通して言ったとしても。 Portanto, mesmo que digamos meu amigo que não foi realmente um aprendiz de línguas, como eu tenho aprendido línguas, toda a sua vida.

Uh, so maybe it's like the capacity to learn languages is not as developed as it is in my brain because I've been doing it more. ええと、多分それは私がそれをもっとやってきたので、言語を学ぶ能力が私の脳のように発達していないようです。 But, um, it's like, if you haven't used a muscle, you have to slowly start using it. しかし、ええと、それは、あなたが筋肉を使用していなければ、ゆっくりとそれを使い始めなければならないようなものです。 但是,嗯,这就像,如果你没有使用肌肉,你必须慢慢开始使用它。 Small steps, small steps, gradually build up, build up the strength. And I think the same is true with language learning regardless of your age. E acho que o mesmo acontece com o aprendizado de idiomas, independentemente da sua idade. He might find it a little more difficult because he's not as confident, he hasn't done it before, but I know that anyone, if they, you know, gain that experience with the new language, listening and reading, they can learn.

And of course, especially today with the range of content that's available online. So if we take, for example, he could watch a Japanese series on Netflix and not understand a thing, except that there would be subtitles. たとえば、たとえば、彼はNetflixで日本のシリーズを見て、字幕があることを除いて、何も理解できない可能性があります。 And through the subtitles, he would have a sense of participating in an aspect of Japanese culture that is very stimulating. そして字幕を通して、彼は非常に刺激的な日本文化の側面に参加しているという感覚を持っているでしょう。 E pelas legendas, ele teria a sensação de participar de um aspecto da cultura japonesa que é muito estimulante.

That encourages you, entices you to do more. それはあなたを励まし、あなたにもっとやる気を起こさせます。 Isso o encoraja, o incentiva a fazer mais. Now in order to get to the point where he could understand those movies or even some of them, and which would then improve his Japanese, he has to invest in the sort of beginner stuff like the mini stories. 今、彼がそれらの映画やそれらのいくつかを理解することができ、それが彼の日本語を上達させることができるようになるために、彼はミニストーリーのような初心者のものに投資しなければなりません。 Agora, para chegar ao ponto em que ele possa entender esses filmes, ou mesmo alguns deles, e que então melhore seu japonês, ele tem que investir em coisas para iniciantes como as mini-histórias. So there is a progression from repetitive listening to relatively simple material to get yourself to a point where you can derive more from these movies, but that's all there for you to. ですから、比較的単純な素材を繰り返し聞くことから、これらの映画からより多くを引き出すことができるようになるまでの進歩がありますが、それだけです。 Portanto, há uma progressão da audição repetitiva para um material relativamente simples para chegar a um ponto em que você possa extrair mais desses filmes, mas isso é tudo para você.

Those are all activities that as a senior, you can commit one to three hours a day to doing, and it takes you on this sort of endless journey of discovery initially for one language. これらはすべて、シニアとして1日1〜3時間の活動であり、最初は1つの言語でこの種の無限の発見の旅に出ます。 Todas essas são atividades que, como um idoso, você pode dedicar de uma a três horas por dia para fazer, e isso o leva a esse tipo de jornada interminável de descoberta inicialmente para um idioma. And that can be a few years I can tell you from experience with Arabic and Persian, and if you ever get tired of that journey, then you can embark on another journey. そして、それはアラビア語とペルシア語の経験からあなたに話すことができる数年かもしれません、そしてあなたがその旅に飽きたら、あなたは別の旅に乗り出すことができます。

So, uh, not only is it, you know, and I've, I've done videos before where I talk about age not being an obstacle, but it's more than that. だから、ええと、それだけでなく、あなたが知っている、そして私は以前にビデオを作って、年齢が障害ではないことについて話しましたが、それはそれ以上のものです。 I think for seniors particularly who are looking for meaningful things to do... Not... and many of them have their meaningful activities. 特に意味のあることを探している高齢者にとっては...そうではありません...そして彼らの多くは意味のある活動をしています。 Ik denk vooral voor senioren die op zoek zijn naar zinvolle dingen om te doen... Niet... en velen van hen hebben hun zinvolle activiteiten. Acho que principalmente para os idosos que procuram coisas significativas para fazer ... Não ... e muitos deles têm suas atividades significativas. And I'm not saying that language learning is the only meaningful activity.

And of course there there's physical activity and there's social activity and family activity, and there's all kinds of things that can give seniors a very full life, but I think in particular language learning is something that has a lot of benefits. もちろん、身体活動や社会活動、家族活動もあり、高齢者に充実した生活を送ることができるものはいろいろありますが、特に語学学習は大きなメリットがあると思います。 I'm not going to get into whether it delays, you know, potential, you know, Alzheimer's, there's all these theories that it stimulates the brain and protects it from dementia and so on. アルツハイマー病を遅らせるかどうかについては説明しません。アルツハイマー病は、脳を刺激し、認知症などから保護するというこれらすべての理論があります。 Não vou discutir se isso atrasa, sabe, potencial, sabe, Alzheimer, existem todas essas teorias de que estimula o cérebro e o protege da demência e assim por diante.

I don't know if that's true. Uh, it's an added benefit. Uh, but I think the bigger thing is that it's just such a rewarding thing to do, something that seniors not only can do but should do in my opinion. ええと、でももっと大きなことは、それはとてもやりがいのあることだと思います。私の意見では、高齢者ができることだけでなく、すべきことです。 Uh, mas acho que o maior é que é uma coisa muito gratificante de se fazer, algo que os idosos não apenas podem fazer, mas devem fazer na minha opinião. And, uh, I'll leave you with a couple of videos that I did on the whole issue of age and language learning. そして、ええと、私は年齢と言語学習の問題全体について私がしたいくつかのビデオをあなたに残しておきます。 E, uh, vou deixá-los com alguns vídeos que fiz sobre toda a questão da idade e aprendizagem de línguas.

But again, seniors not only can learn, but should learn languages. しかし、繰り返しになりますが、高齢者は学ぶことができるだけでなく、言語を学ぶ必要があります。 Thank you for listening. Bye for now.