Learn a Language as an Adult

Contrary to conventional thinking, it isn't too late

- Emily Goodman

FOR MORE THAN two years, Dulcie Shoener of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has done daily German lessons on her smartphone.

To some, that might sound like selfimposed homework, but Shoener, a language lover and the copy chief for Reader's Digest and other publications, doesn't see it that way.

"I enjoy it so much," she says. "It's a delight to be able to read a short story in German." To be able to read, write, or carry on a conversation in another language is a feat few Americans attempt, let alone achieve. Just 7 percent of our university students study a language other than English, and less than 1 percent of American adults are proficient in a foreign language they studied in school.

Of her college German, Shoener says, "I remembered very little." Yet the rewards for those who do learn a second (or third, or fourth...) language are profound: increased travel opportunities, of course, but also improved memory, focus, and ability to multitask. Bilingual brains are better shielded against cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.

And, according to a poll conducted by the language app Babbel, knowing multiple languages can make you seem more attractive.

So, why aren't more of us multilingual-or trying to be? There are dozens of decent answers to that question, but one common retort doesn't have much merit at all: the idea that adults, especially older ones, just can't learn languages as easily as children can.