It sounds like he'd be able to learn to read and write in a decade, but he'd have a lot of trouble with learning. He'd still have trouble with it afterwords, I believe, just less than when he started. I can see him getting frustrated, though, if a text is too lengthy or full of really advanced vocabulary.
I have a character who, at the age of 17, never learned to read or write, despite having a very wealthy and powerful nobleman as a father - both because she is a social outcast from being a Half-Breed and because peasants weren't taught to read. She eventually learns to write her name and her daughter's, but her husband's attempts to teach her to read are frustrating for both (especially because living with her husband and his people require her being able to read their code of laws). Basically, she still dies functionally illiterate. However, she had more time away from the literate upper class, and thus learning to read and write, would be harder for her.
edited 3rd Mar '11 5:22:34 AM by punkreader
A decade? Learning to read doesn't take near that long, man. It takes little kids longer to learn to read because they're learning to talk (as in, increasing their vocabulary) at the same time. Teach an illiterate adult the basics of reading (the alphabet, sounding stuff out, weird spelling rules) and they'll be able to learn more-or-less on their own pretty easily. I mean, it doesn't come instantly, but someone putting some effort into it should be able to go from "completely illiterate" to "basic proficency" in a few months. It may take years for them to get really good at it, but not to get to a functional level.
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
Right, like learning a foreign language for a child versus for an older teenager (which, technically it would kind of be like in this case.) It's part of why my illiterate character doesn't really learn to read, in addition to the fact that she kind of doesn't see the point, and gets frustrated easily. She doesn't give up easily, but she does hate feeling stupid, and she feels stupid whenever she tries. She's basically the Obstinate Teenager taken up a few notches. And her daughter, who's five when she dies, can read and hold a brush better than her mother - she finds this extremely embarrassing, especially given her long-deceased father's resources and his access to things like libraries and teachers. She's really not pleased when she finds out that he had the means to teach her, and he just...didn't.
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[citation needed]? I've never heard that before. I know that learning a new language is more difficult past a certain point in a child's development (because the 'learn to talk' parts of the brain basically turn off), but I've never heard anything about learning to read a language you already speak taking longer for adults than children.
It'll also depend on the person.
A lot of illiterate adults around here would have a rough time learning to read, mainly because their illiteracy is related to something like dyslexia. In our society, with things like Sesame Street and the written word being pretty much everywhere, you almost have to have some kind of disability to miss out on learning to read.
I believe in some societies, those people who learnt to read would start at 9 or 10 or so rather than 6. And these would be the scholars of that group, so clearly they learnt successfully.
If I'm asking for advice on a story idea, don't tell me it can't be done.Citation... well you got me there. But considering how the adult illiterates apparently take such a long period of time to learn to read in a language they already speak seems to say that children simply learn faster. Immigrants usually take about a year to learn the local language and I find that the adult literacy courses are basically the same length.
How many hours are spent with the individual around a secondary language? How many hours around said individual's primary language?
Do the math, and I think you would have a good understanding of how children can learn languages faster than adults. *
Has ADD, plays World of Tanks, thinks up crazy ideas like children making spaceships for Hitler. Occasionally writes them down.My cousin was more or less functionally illiterate until he was ten or so, not for lack of trying, just that bit of his mind didn't seem to work. It took a specialist two or three years I think to get him reading. So if he can learn, I'd say that your character would be just able (well more so if they don't have the same disability). So Yeah, literacy before 19? Easy.
But I could see it being more of a conscious thing, as opposed to what I think most of us experience in not being able not read words.
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I have a character who is about nine years old and has never learned to read. I know that he's missed out on important stages of early childhood development, so I'm wondering whether he'd be able to learn literacy. Is it possible though training for him to become literate within a decade? Would he have trouble with writing and reading even after that?