I hear this question a lot between LTL students. It’s actually one of the most commonly asked questions by students.
Oddly enough I didn’t start learning languages until I was 28. I had zero interest in French or German during my school years and most native English speakers have the same attitude - which I’ve learnt is a great shame.
Fast forward to my 36th year and I now speak Mandarin, Italian, Japanese and Korean to differing levels (advanced to very basic).
You are never too old to learn a language and I hope this short post gives people the motivation to keep going.
We recently had some students at LTL Seoul in their 70’s and I remember a student in Singapore last year who was 82.
I also only started learning Chinese in my mid 20s, but at our Taipei and Shanghai schools, I’ve met several students studying Mandarin for the first time well into their retirement!
Also a lot of people assume they can’t pick up languages when they’re older, but that is such a misconception.
There are so many factors involved, one of the biggest being just the sheer amount of time you can put into language learning - most older adults with jobs/kids/pets/responsibilities don’t have a lot of spare hours. But the ones that throw themselves back into a proper study routine really can and do see results
The answer for me is a clear no!! Although that’s what I thought before working in a language school.
I’ve heard so much that “it’s too late now”, “I’m too old” that I started believing in it, but then I see older students of 50+, 60+ all the way to 75 come learn at LTL.
They all say that it takes them more time to learn, but they have more interest and dedication compared to when they were younger so truly enjoy the process and make steady progress.
A student I spent lots of time with is Jeff, we celebrated his 50th birthday together
No such thing as too old to study a language! I’ve met plenty of people in their 40s, 50s and even 60s taking on a new language, even Japanese and Mandarin.
It might feel like more of a challenge if you’ve been out of education for a while, but after all- nothing worth having comes easy
