38岁了，学汉语还来得及吗？ [美国媒体]

Is it realistic to learn Chinese after the age of 38?

38岁了，学汉语还来得及吗？



JAKE MORRISON
My father started learning Chinese when he was 40, and ended up being quite fluent.

我父亲40岁的时候开始学习中文，现在相当流利。

One thing that becomes more challenging as you get older is distinguishing different sounds from what you are expecting. When you are a small child, your brain is open to any sound, and it’s easy to learn to speak and hear a language. Around puberty your brain switches to “classifying” sounds. i.e. putting the sounds you hear into the right “bucket”, so you recognize what you hear in noisy environments.

年老后所面临的一个更大挑战是要区分不同的声音。在你还是孩子时，你的大脑对一切的声音都是开放的，很容易学习如何听和说一门语言。青春期后，你的大脑会对声音进行分类，这样你在嘈杂的环境里也能辨别自己所听到的话。



I'd like to share a story about my father (55 years old now).

我想和你分享一个有关我父亲的故事（他现在55岁了）。

About ten years ago, Home computer became popular in my hometown (a small city in middle area of China). It's hard for my father to learn how to use it, because he didn't have even a bit knowledge about it. He didn't even know how to boot and shutdown it. However, he said that he would spend time in learning how to use it. I still remember how I taught him to use keyboard and mouse hand over hand. About two years later, I found that he can use Excel and Word in his work and do online shopping. It shocked me a lot. Soon after that, Smart Phone and Mobile Internet bloomed. My father threw himself into studying with them and now he can use many apps, such as Tmall and JD (two shopping apps)、Alipay (the famous online payment platform in China) 、Amap (a map app like Google map)、WeChat (the famous social app in China) and so on. I even saw he helped others in his generation with mobile phone top-up by some app.

大约10年前，家庭电脑在我的家乡流行起来（中国中部的一个小城市）。对于我父亲来说学习电脑的使用是很难的，因为他根本不懂。他甚至不知道如何开机和关机。然而，他说他会花时间学习使用电脑。我依然记得自己如何教他使用键盘和鼠标。两年后，我发现他能在工作中使用word和excel了，而且会上网购物了。真是震惊到我了。之后，智能手机和移动互联网开始繁荣，于是我父亲又开始学习如何使用，现在他会使用很多APP，比如天猫和京东，支付宝，地图，微信等等。



LANCE WANG
Let’s see what you have to do:
3000 characters to remember
Two years speaking practice.
That is it.
It is never too later to learn.
朝闻夕死: Learn Tao in the morning even die afternoon.

你需要做的是：
记住3000个汉字，两年的口语练习，仅此而已。
活到老学到老。

EMILY MAI
Yes of course! People often say that the older you get, the longer it takes to learn a language. I don’t think that is a truly valid statement. And even if it is, it shouldn’t stop you from learning anything.

当然可以。人们常说年纪越大，学习语言的时间就会越长。我认为这不一定对。即使真的是这样，也不应该阻挡你去学习新事物。



My advice is just commit yourself to learning the language. Regardless of age, it is a huge time investment. And make sure to find the kinds of study materials and teachers that suit your learning style and goals. Don’t waste time, just do it. In the time it took you to read this, you could have learned a few new vocabulary words already!
Good Luck!

我的建议就是踏踏实实的投入学习吧。不论年纪，这是个巨大的时间投资。而且要寻找适合自己学习风格和目标的材料和老师。不要浪费时间，开始干吧。