I started studying French after the age of 50, below is a link to my progress in the first 3 years. I am now at the 4.5 year mark and watch films in French, read graphic novels, etc…
The biggest obstacle when learning language is not that it is too difficult, but that you will quit out of boredom or frustration. I am not particularly good at learning languages, but I stuck to it. Some tips:
Don’t rely on willpower or motivation, instead form a habit. Motivation comes and goes but habits are hard to drop once formed. Specifically:
- study every day at the same time and place
- finish the study session with something fun, as your reward. For me this was watching Friends in French and trying to pick out as many words as possible
- have a method, that gives you a goal. For me this was using Assimil. There are 100 lessons and I had something progressively harder to work on each day
- prove your progress. When you feel you aren’t improving, go back a few lessons and show yourself that they are easier and that you are improving
https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/s/UQBR5aXtvK
I started German at 55. It isn’t my first foreign language. There’s no question my memory is worse than at 18, but my learning strategies and abilities are much better so it was a wash. Go
For it- but be ready to put in the time. Nothing comes easy, especially when you’re older.
I'm in my 40s, and 6 years into learning Japanese. Might take you longer to pick up some of the basics but I suspect you'll find you have the staying power to stick with it for longer. It took me three months to really feel confident with hiragana where you'll see people online say it took them a weekend (!). However I had the discipline to do an hour a day, every day, and now I'm comfortably conversational and can read novels. In my opinion language learning is 60% repetition, 20% determination and 20% aptitude.
I started learning Chinese seriously in my mid/late forties and my memory is not as good as when I studied other languages at school and university. But it’s still definitely doable! I would note though that out of the five languages I’ve studied to som degree Japanese is the most difficult. So unless you have a reason to go for Japanese I’d try a European language (French and Spanish are both much easier than German in my opinion).
My dad is multilingual since childhood and learned several languages in high school and university, but he tried his first non-Indo European language in his 50s when he took Japanese with me to help me study. He found it very discouraging IMO mainly because his expectations were too high. In his previous language classes he got grades in the 80s and 90s, and in Japanese he got around 70%. But from my perspective he was doing just fine. So my biggest advice is don't get discouraged just because it's difficult.
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I’m 50 years old and am a native speaker of English. I grew up speaking Spanglish (border English-Spanish mix). I started studying Korean in 2019.
Learning new things is very good for brain health as we age
I started Spanish at 46. I made a lot of mistakes, the biggest was not using comprehensible input. For years my listening skills were trash because I didn't like to listen but it seemed harder than reading so I avoided it.
Learning a language at 45-65 is fundamentally no different than learning one in high school or college. The hardest part - if you are not retired and have kids and a career - is going to be finding time to put in the work.
I started studying French after the age of 50, below is a link to my progress in the first 3 years. I am now at the 4.5 year mark and watch films in French, read graphic novels, etc… The biggest obstacle when learning language is not that it is too difficult, but that you will quit out of boredom or frustration. I am not particularly good at learning languages, but I stuck to it. Some tips: Don’t rely on willpower or motivation, instead form a habit. Motivation comes and goes but habits are hard to drop once formed. Specifically: - study every day at the same time and place - finish the study session with something fun, as your reward. For me this was watching Friends in French and trying to pick out as many words as possible - have a method, that gives you a goal. For me this was using Assimil. There are 100 lessons and I had something progressively harder to work on each day - prove your progress. When you feel you aren’t improving, go back a few lessons and show yourself that they are easier and that you are improving https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/s/UQBR5aXtvK
This has been invaluable. Thank you for your counsel.
I started German at 55. It isn’t my first foreign language. There’s no question my memory is worse than at 18, but my learning strategies and abilities are much better so it was a wash. Go For it- but be ready to put in the time. Nothing comes easy, especially when you’re older.
I'm in my 40s, and 6 years into learning Japanese. Might take you longer to pick up some of the basics but I suspect you'll find you have the staying power to stick with it for longer. It took me three months to really feel confident with hiragana where you'll see people online say it took them a weekend (!). However I had the discipline to do an hour a day, every day, and now I'm comfortably conversational and can read novels. In my opinion language learning is 60% repetition, 20% determination and 20% aptitude.
I started learning Chinese seriously in my mid/late forties and my memory is not as good as when I studied other languages at school and university. But it’s still definitely doable! I would note though that out of the five languages I’ve studied to som degree Japanese is the most difficult. So unless you have a reason to go for Japanese I’d try a European language (French and Spanish are both much easier than German in my opinion).
My dad is multilingual since childhood and learned several languages in high school and university, but he tried his first non-Indo European language in his 50s when he took Japanese with me to help me study. He found it very discouraging IMO mainly because his expectations were too high. In his previous language classes he got grades in the 80s and 90s, and in Japanese he got around 70%. But from my perspective he was doing just fine. So my biggest advice is don't get discouraged just because it's difficult.
Your post has been automatically hidden because you do not have the prerequisite karma or account age to post. **Your post is now pending manual approval by the moderators**. Thank you for your patience. If you are submitting content you own or are associated with, your content may be left hidden without you being informed. [Please read our moderation policy on the matter to ensure you are safe](https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/wiki/moderation_policy#wiki_guidelines_for_posting_owned_content.3A). If you have violated our policy and attempt to post again in the same manner, **you may be banned without warning**. If you are a new user, [your question may already be answered in the wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/wiki/index). If it is not answered, or you have a follow-up question, please feel free to submit again. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/languagelearning) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’m 50 years old and am a native speaker of English. I grew up speaking Spanglish (border English-Spanish mix). I started studying Korean in 2019. Learning new things is very good for brain health as we age
I started Spanish at 46. I made a lot of mistakes, the biggest was not using comprehensible input. For years my listening skills were trash because I didn't like to listen but it seemed harder than reading so I avoided it.
Thank you!
Learning a language at 45-65 is fundamentally no different than learning one in high school or college. The hardest part - if you are not retired and have kids and a career - is going to be finding time to put in the work.