Welcome to part 2 of The Real Reason Children Are So Good At Learning Languages.

If you missed part 1, here it is.

In part 1, we looked at how children’s behaviour has a huge impact on their ability to learn languages.

Today, we’re looking at how they think.

There are two major differences in the way children think, compared to adults. These two differences – like their behaviour – give them the upper hand in language learning.

Now. Let’s talk sponges.

Do you remember the sponge analogy from part 1?

The sponge analogy – the idea that children’s brains absorb information easily, like a sponge – is a massive oversimplification of the way the brain works when it learns. It doesn’t accurately explain the process.

What it is good for, though, is showing the first big difference in how children think compared to adults.

We like to oversimplify when we explain things to adults. Adults don’t care about specifics.

They just want the general idea.

“Save me the details”, they may say.

So when an adult hears the sponge analogy, they understand what you’re talking about. They get the general idea. They don’t need any more details than that.

If you try to oversimplify something to a kid, how do they often respond?

Well, what’s the most common question that kids ask?

“Why?”

They ask lots of ‘why’ questions.

Asking ‘why’ is the single biggest reason children learn vast quantities of information. With every answer from a ‘why’ question, you get new information.

Children question everything.

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An example.

Why is the sea salty?

Do you know why?

Don’t worry. I’ll tell you.

It’s because it contains a lot of sodium chloride, and sodium chloride is the main constituent of salt. So it tastes salty.

Now because you’re an adult, you probably feel satisfied with that answer.

Although, if you look at my answer to the salty sea question, I don’t actually explain why the sea is salty at all. But it might be enough information for your adult brain to be satisfied.

Children are rarely satisfied with single answers. They keep asking for more and more information. And they keep asking ‘why’ until they get the full picture.

Let me show you how, by simply asking ‘why’ multiple times, you get the full picture.

“Why is the sea salty?”

“Because it contains sodium chloride, and sodium chloride tastes salty”

“Why does it contain sodium chloride?”

“Because rivers carry it to the sea”

“Why is there sodium chloride in rivers?”

“Well, when it rains, the water takes minerals like sodium chloride from the soil through erosion”

“But why doesn’t river water taste salty?”

“Because there isn’t much sodium chloride in it”

“Then why is there more sodium chloride in the sea?”

“Because rivers carry the sodium chloride to the sea, but then the water evaporates, leaving the dissolved mineral behind in the sea. Then it rains again and carries more sodium chloride to the sea. So the sea has lots of dissolved sodium chloride in it”

That’s the full answer.

As a result of asking many questions about one thing, they learn much more than adults do. Not because their brains are special. Simply because they are inquisitive, curious, and hungry for knowledge.

They ask questions, so they learn.

They ask dozens of questions every day, so they learn dozens of things every day.

Simple.

But as we become adults, we gradually stop doing things that we did before, like playing games, running around, or climbing trees.

And we ask fewer and fewer questions.

So we start to learn less and less.

What a shame.

Why is that?

I don’t know for sure.

Maybe it’s because we associate learning with childhood and not adulthood; maybe as we grow older, we think we know everything we need to know; maybe we simply lose our sense of curiosity.

Whatever it is, it affects our ability to learn as an adult.

Questions – particularly why questions – are the most powerful questions that you can ask. With each answer to a why question, you get knowledge.

I often say, if you ask why enough times, you find the answer to (almost) everything.

The fantastic news is, it’s easy to solve.

If you want to learn more, just ask why more.

Question everything.

“Why is this tense used and not that tense? Why is it this preposition and not that preposition? Why, why, why…?”

An inquisitive mind is a mind that learns.

The second difference is something much more subtle, something that the child does subconsciously.

A few posts ago, I explained how the brain only processes a small part of the information it receives when listening or reading.

It does this to save energy. By only processing essential information, it can save a lot of energy. This is a good thing to do for an energy-hungry organ like the brain.

But how does it discriminate relevant information from irrelevant information?

How does the brain decide if something is worth remembering or not?

How does it determine whether to process it or not?

The answer is memory and experience.

The brain can’t determine the relevance of new information if it has no memory of it, or has never experienced it before.

So, it will process it.

The brain prefers to process new information. It wants to know the unknown.

But if the brain recognises the information or has experienced something similar to it before, it will first determine if it is worth processing or not.

It’s as if there were a filter in your brain that accepts or discards information based on how relevant it thinks it is.

An adult ‘filter’ becomes more and more selective about what it processes and what it doesn’t process.

Children, however, don’t have this filter.

The result?

Their brains process everything.

Indiscriminately.

Their brains process both relevant and irrelevant things.

Because their brains don’t block anything from coming in, they process vast amounts of new information.

So they learn vast amounts of new information.

The same thing happens when you start learning something new.

This is the number one reason why learners’ progress starts to plateau around the B1/B2 level.

When you first start learning a language at A0/A1 level, you get tired after each class. Likewise, you make a lot of progress at this level.

Why?

Well, at this level, your brain doesn’t know what to process and what not to process. So it processes everything. The result is that you get tired and you make a lot of progress.

No memory. No experience. It can’t distinguish between relevant and irrelevant.

As you progress through the levels, your brain starts becoming more selective with new information.

A selective brain, when it is presented with new information, may say to itself something like, “We’ve seen something like this before. We haven’t used it. So I will choose not to process it this time”

And then you don’t process it. So you don’t learn.

All this is subconscious.

Your subconscious brain doesn’t know that you’re spending thousands every year on trying to improve your English.

It doesn’t care.

Your subconscious brain only cares about protecting you and saving energy.

It’s only your conscious brain that is worried about your English level.

So how can help your conscious brain communicate with your subconscious brain?

Well, I’ve got news for you. You aren’t a child anymore (hopefully, you already know this).

That means you no longer have a child’s brain.

If you allow yourself to learn in an automatic way, without controlling your progress and the things that you learn, then your subconscious brain will determine your progress. But you now know that your subconscious brain is not really interested in your English level. On top of this, you don’t have a child’s brain that will process all new information indiscriminately.

Learning in this way will end in progress stagnation and ‘conscious’ frustration.

But consciously knowing how your subconscious brain thinks and works allows you to prevent it from taking control of your learning.

And what do you also have that a child doesn’t have?

You have an adult brain. You have a bigger, more developed brain. You have an analytical brain. You’re more intelligent. You have more reason, more logic, and you are better at decision-making and prioritising.

Fantastic skills to help you learn. If you combine these skills with the techniques that children use, there’s no stopping you.

The most powerful thing is to combine the inquisitive, context-driven child brain with your analytical, intelligent, adult brain.

Think like a child, and you will learn like a child.

But if you think like a child, and do it with an adult brain, you can learn anything.[thrive_leads id=’1049′]