what our presumed talent is.

We're constantly learning.

And the reason I raise this subject is because someone commented here on my

YouTube channel, as an older person, you have to learn like a stroke victim.

You have to use different parts of the brain, et cetera.

Okay.

Older people, we now know they retain their neuroplasticity.

Anytime you're learning something, you are creating new pathways in the brain.

You are renewing your brain.

Today, for example, I've been trying to set up my studio here.

It was a lot of work.

I had to learn a lot of new things.

And I'm not naturally patient when it comes to doing things with my hands.

But I realize I have to be patient if I'm going to set all these things up.

Three different sets of acoustic panels.

These sconces you see behind me.

Lots of work, but all the while I'm conscious of forging

new habits in my brain.

That's what learning is all about.

And languages are the same way.

So it doesn't matter if as an older person, it's harder for me, or maybe

it isn't, or maybe it is, or because I have a lot of practice at learning.

I'm used to doing it.

It doesn't matter in learning a language, we are enabling our brain

to form a model of another language.

We form that model through repetitive exposure to the language.

Eventually we start to be able to predict what's going to come at us,

which helps us in our comprehension.

It also helps us when we want to express ourselves, we want to produce

an utterance based on the accumulated experience that we have with the language.

But anything you're learning is constantly forging new connections

in your brain, new synapses.

And so the idea that...

Some people don't have the ability that their brains won't learn new things.

If I want to do it, if I stay with it, if I continue, I will learn.

So the issue becomes more, how do you encourage people to stay with it?

Well, one of the things is to make sure people understand that they can learn.

The other is anything that can nudge people forward.

So in my case, I went and bought a, a little hand drill.

Well, now I got to use the hand drill because I've got to drill the holes

to mount my acoustic pads on the wall.

So that kind of nudges me.

I can't give up on the project.

I've got to stay with it.

Or even, you know, something like in the morning, I think there's a certain

discipline in doing my seven minute exercise muscle booster, but sometimes I

don't really feel like doing it, but then I'm nudged forward by saying I will go.

To, uh, Radio Fardo, download some Farsi, the news of the day, and, and then I

import it into LingQ, the sound file.

So I get a transcript and the fact that I'm going to be grabbing this

sound file from Radio Fardo nudges me to do my morning exercises.

So there's a lot of little things like that.

A person you met, a class, for example, but we have to remember that

the way we're going to progress in the language is if we can continue

to expose ourself to the language.

It almost doesn't matter what you're able to produce.

It almost doesn't matter what you're able to say and how many mistakes you make.

What matters is that you continue.

Forging these new pathways in your brain, as I did today, putting all

these acoustic panels up on the wall.

It's not that I can hire myself out as a handyman, but I feel that I

created some tolerance for frustration.

And so consistency, perseverance, a few things that not just forward.

As long as we keep going, anyone can learn, regardless

of age or presumed aptitude.

Before I leave you, I want to leave a couple of videos for you to look at.

One on whether there is a talent for language learning, and another on

whether age matters, or to what extent age affects our ability to learn.

I think both of these videos are relevant, so please have a look.

Bye for now.