How Every Generation Learns Languages FAST

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⏱ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Learning a language is tough for all ages
0:29 Boomers (1946–1964)
3:56 Gen X (1965–1980)
8:26 Millennials (1981–1996)
13:39 Gen Z (1997–2012)
18:28 Who’s the better language learner?
20:12 Gen Alpha (2010–2024)

🎬 Video Clips:

[BrunUgle]

I’m gen X and I feel like this is the golden age for learning languages. When I was young, we didn’t really get to hear the languages we were trying to learn. You might have a book and a couple of records or tapes, but beyond that, you never really got to hear it, especially more natural speech. I remember standing on my bed with my portable shortwave held up in one hand and stretching my other hand out, moving around, trying to get a good enough signal to maybe catch a little bit of news or something in other languages. Now, we have YouTube and can watch hours of videos in almost any language we want. It’s fantastic! I love it!

[jeffreybarker]

Millennial here! Staring down that 1, 500 hour mark on Dreaming Spanish. Passive listening, reading, plus a little Anki on the side has made this process extremely smooth and easy.

No matter what, the best language learning method ever is the one that keeps you interacting with the language. Period, the end, full stop.

Also American. Appreciate your correct pronunciation of Zee. 😆

[cemera]

OMG. Im brazilian and his accent is basically perfect.

[Nancy-sjyg]

Boomer here. I have been learning German for the last 8 years, on top of about 3 years of German a million years ago in high school. This time, I took some excellent classes at the Goethe Institute to start. They were fun, and I liked the social interaction. After completing these classes, I have been more or less an "everything" learner. I read a lot, watch series and films in German, have an italki teacher for speaking practice, use Deutsche Welle and YouTube, and occasionally still do grammar exercises. I also use Anki to help with vocabulary, typically mornings and evenings while brushing my teeth (I believe this is known as habit stacking). I love all the tools that are available now, and I'm having a blast with this.

[Suky_Laplante]

I’m gen Z and I prefer to read books and watching videos in my target language (german) because it is how I learnt english as my 2nd language when I was younger, even if the environment is apt for immersing myself in english because I live in Canada (in Québec) so I already speak french and english and I try to redo the same process for english to german 😊

In french:
Chu Gen Z pis j’préfère lire des livres pis regarder des vidéos en ma langue ciblé (l’allemand) car c’est comme ça que j’ai appris l’anglais qui est ma langue seconde. Même si mon environement est apte pour apprendre l’anglais à comparer de l’allemand à cause que chu au Canada (Québec) j’parle déjà 2 langues pis j’essaye de refaire ce que j’ai faite pour l’anglais pour l’allemand 😊

[Xianne]

Oh this is greeeat! I'm a language trainer, so these insights are really valuable.

I've been a bit frustrated lately with the GenZs who think they can just find an App to magically make language acquisition easy for them.

[alonzorumfelt]

I’m Gen X and I use methods from all of those categories, depending on what else I have going on in my life and the available resources—both study resources and financial resources. Currently studying Icelandic and Norwegian.

[thehapagirl]

It’s so good for old people to learn a new language. It keeps their brain sharp! I’m 32, a millenial, and I have a lot of hobbies. My boomer parents are retired and have no hobbies. I mean I sew and embroider, old people hobbies. My mom doesn’t want to learn. She also doesn’t want to learn French like I am. She prefers stupid Instagram and Real Housewives 🙄. I would rather not watch spoiled boomers on Real Housewives

I learn by reading French textbooks, listening to French music and watching French YouTube videos everyday. Everyday. Everyday. For 3 hours. I’ve been studying French for only 3 months and I’m doing well

[determineddi]

Gen X here...I learned Spanish from textbooks and boring grammar reviews our teachers assigned I really didn't like studying vocabulary and my grades in Spanish were "eh" because I didn't like all the memorizing. When I took my state regents here in NY, I got a 90/100 because I was good at applying what I learned. Languages have always fascinated me, and I wish I could have had some of these tools I used to teach my son Spanish (He's a Gen Z er). I home schooled him 6 years in middle school through high school and we used the internet A LOT. We would watch The Simpsons in Spanish, for example. I used Duolingo and Youtube to teach myself German and Italian a few years ago, as well as dabbling in Duolingo many times to learn a bit of other languages. I was doing well with German but I was obsessive about practicing and wound up having to give both Italian and German up (again, nag screens from media). I think I originally got into languages as a kid because I had a lot of worldwide penfriends and I wanted to try to write to them in a few phrases in their home languages.

[joannasliwa]

Hi ! I 'm originally from Poland . My first foreign language was Italian at high school in the 90's and we were learning it " by heart " way ( grammar + pronunciation ) . Then I moved to France ( I have been living here for 21 years ) . Now I speak French that automatically improved and
" solidified " my Italian. And there is another factor in my case : once I detached myself from my mother tongue, I can quickly assimilate another foreign language ( I'm easily learning Swedish, already advanced level ) . Love your vlogs, greetings from Paris

[raymondabella]

What I fnd interesting is the subtle differnces each ethnicities have especially as they are generations closest to the ones that settled here. For instance, first born Mexican Americans have distinct subtleties that get less pronounced as you go more generations forward. For example, many of my first generation Mexican American friends pronounce the word "Library" as "Liberry". My friends who are first gen Chinese have been known to pronounce the word, "cold" as "code". Filipino Americans tend to sometimes pronounce P with F and B with V from time to time dispite being born and raised here. As more generations are raised here this tend to disappear of coarse.

I also noticed the changes in distinct urban slang and accents. I remember the the East L.A. chicano accent and slang has changed over the decades. There is a distinct difference between the way Sothern California Chicanos talked in the 70s and 80s compared to the way they do now. Todays Chicano slang has borrowed many slang words fro.African American ebonics. One day I was watching a movie and they were trying to portray "Cholos" from the 70s but used slang terms from current times. I thought to myself, , FAKE!" 😂

[coolbrotherf]

I learned Japanese through the same method MattvsJapan did. I've watched anime and Japanese YouTubers like 4+ hours a day for the past 4 years and all while going to college full time and working a full time job as a software developer. Any time I didn't need to be using English I was listening to something in Japanese.

[ClaudiaEhrhardt]

I'm from Germany & Gen X. Sure, I learned some basic English in school, but way more in my early 20's through reading. With the technology we have now, I guess, I would speak a few more languages. Community college classes didn't work for me. Now I learn Russian using apps, podcast, etc and dabble with Dutch. And there are a few languages I would like to achieve "tourist fluency". But even for Russian I don't aim for C1/C2, but it might happen one day. I never was afraid of making mistakes, actually I learned a lot from mistakes.

My mom, born 1942, spoke English & French, she started learning Spanish in her late 40's. My granny, born 1917, spoke English & French, and when she retired she started learning Italian. So, I guess it's in my genes.

[williameddy]

I was born in 1961, so I'm a late baby boomer. I've been trying to learn Spanish from the book first in 2008, but I later was learning Spanish from Duolingo and Rosetta Stone later. I'm still not fluent in Spanish after all these years.

[shutterchick]

Late Gen X woman here. My prefered way of learning languages, when all the following is actually available, is this - For the first month, I use the mimic method's essential sound masterclasses to get a clue how to pronounce the language, along with just listening to anything in the language. Just listening and trying sounds, to get a grip on the "sound system" of the language. Then I'll use both pimsleur and rosetta stone to get basic understanding. Then on to the Harry Potter books...

[martypoll]

Boomer here (b. 1956) Studied French in high school and now I am learning Thai (living in Thailand)

I studied French from 1971-1974 the old fashioned way. The ONLY motivation I had was that we were under the impression that you had to know a foreign language to get into college . . . which turned out not to be true in 1974. There were obviously no resources or opportunities to speak French in Connecticut in the 1970’s so I quickly forgot it. One thing that has been seared into my brain is that French words are gendered and I was completely unable to remember the proper gender for just about any noun. That convinced me to never try to learn another language . . . except for my summer of intensive German a year later . . . which I have also forgotten.

Forty years later, at age 60, I moved to Thailand. I have taken group Thai lessons at an excellent school. I have paid for private one-on-one lessons. I have Thai language books. I was part of an online Zoom group during Covid. I follow several Thai language YouTube channels. I have a Thai wife. I LIVE IN THAILAND! (immersion anyone?). Seven years later I have a functional but not conversational grasp of Thai. I can get by on my own . . . mostly. Note that having a Thai wife, that speaks passable English, is not much help. Teaching is a skill which she doesn’t have. She will answer a specific question but she is not a teacher.

One comment about grammar. I studied physics and engineering and had a 30 year career in a national scientific laboratory. My brain has been wired for science thinking. Science is more like grammar than vocabulary. If I know a finite number of equations (the grammar) then I can work myself toward the answer (a fact or the vocabulary). In French, German, and Thai I struggled memorizing words but I became really excited when I studied grammar in Thai language school. I actually took the class 2x with different teachers. Maybe it is me, trapped into being a Boomer, but I love grammar as a way to make the language come alive and to be able to put the words together.

My goal is to be understood, not fluent. Reading is good but we don’t speak the way we write so reading has some limitations (Yes, I can read the Thai script . . . now). I don’t listen to music much and I don’t find Thai TV to be that interesting (they love their ghost stories and slapstick comedy). The problem for me with regard to listening to contemporary sources is that I very definitely don’t want to learn slang. As an older person in an Asian society that is a recipe for misunderstanding.

I am still plugging away at it and I have some ideas to move forward with my Thai.

[lisastroble]

I remember a TV show in the US set in Texas. A father asked his son, “What do you mean you made a D In English? It’s the only language you speak!”

[CouchPolyglot]

I am a millenial and also learn mostly by listening to podcast while doing other stuff :)

[Yarniac]

Just about the oldest X-er, here; native English and heritage German speaker; learned Russian in university and Mandarin by moving to Taipei for five years when I was young... but I've forgotten the Russian.😢I hope to get it back some day.
Now that I'm old, and working on Spanish, Kichwa (Quechua), and Lenape, I don't find the learning more difficult, but it's definitely harder to devote the time!

[RickNuthman]

I'm an Xer and I taught myself Spanish in the 90s. For me, the key was not caring how bad I sounded. The downside for me was that I focused too much on pronunciation. To the point that people thought I was from Mexico. The issue was that I didn't spend enough time improving my vocabulary so people were always surprised when I didn't know a word. This caused me to become somewhat proud and not continue to improve. Hard to explain the weird mindset.