A student asked me about factors for language-learning success. Here are ten things off the top of my head:
- Basic skills like listening and vocabulary are crucial.
- Daily practice effort is very important, too.
- Getting a lot of high-quality sleep is important to learn anything. If you drink 2+ alcoholic beverages, you will probably not get high-quality sleep.
- It's easier for bilingual people to learn a third language than it is for monolingual people to learn a second language.
- Some people are more observant than other people (they recognize patterns and nuance well).
- Younger people tend to do better than older people.
- Women tend to speak more clearly than men (pronunciation).
- Smokers often do better than non-smokers (I think it's because they're used to meeting people in the smoking area at work and making small-talk with strangers).
- People who play a musical instrument or sing are often more sensitive to intonation than people who don't.
- Lots of lawyers struggle because they are used to legalese.
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