[originaltext]Learning a second language is never easy, and, generally speaking

Learning a second language is never easy, and, generally speaking, the older one is when one attempts a new language, the more difficult it becomes. This is partly due to what is known as language interference, meaning that the linguistic patterns of our first language interfere with those of the second, because no two languages have exactly the same sounds and grammatical structures. All languages have obligatory categories of grammar that may be lacking in other languages. Russian—unlike English—has an obligatory category for gender which demands that a noun, and often a pronoun, specify whether it is masculine or feminine. Likewise, when translating an English story into Chinese in which a character identified as cousin appears, a Chinese translator requires to know whether it refers to a male or a female, whether the character is older or younger than the speaker, and whether the character belongs to the family of the speaker’s father or mother. Therefore “biaomei” can be translated into English only by the awkward statement “a female cousin on my mother’s side and younger than I.” The Russian/English and Chinese/English examples illustrate the basic problem in any translation. No matter how skilled translators are, they cannot take the language out of the speech community that uses it. Translation obviously is not a simple two-way street between two languages. Rather, it is a busy intersection among at least two languages with all of their peculiar characteristics, the cultures of the two speech communities, and the speech situation in which the statement was uttered.
9. Why is it difficult for older people to learn a new language?
10. How is Russian different from English according to the passage?
11. Why is translation a difficult thing according to the passage?