Is it possible to learn a second language after the age of 35?

Question

If you did succeed, please can you tell me what your methods for learning were. Did you study at a college or did you manage with self-study? I would particularly be interested to hear about experiences studying so-called 'hard' languages for native English speakers to learn.
I am 35, and for the last 2 years have failed in my attempts to learn Korean. I have alot of exposure to this language in my daily life, and I would love to understand even a little bit.

Answer 1

I started learning Esperanto in 2000 just as an experiment to see if i could learn a second language at the age of 40. The experiment was successful, I'm now fluent in Esperanto.

Since then I've learned Spanish and German also (to a low conversational level, I can order food and get directions and other "touristy" things, but don't expect me to have a conversation about local politics). I've also studied Polish and Mandarin (but know only a few phrases in each).

I've studied mostly from audio and book based courses, although I have a video course for Esperanto.

Coming from English (I'm assuming) you certainly picked a difficult one to start with. You can't get much more foreign from English than an Asian language. I would expect it to take you a long time to master. If you really want it you can do it. Don't give up.

Don't think about how much you still have to learn, look at how much you've already learned. With English as your first language, and choosing Korean as your second, I would expect that after two years, you've really just started learning the language.

Learning a language will not happen overnight, there's no such thing as an easy language to learn. Esperanto is considered the easiest language on earth to learn, but it still took me 2 years to get through the beginner, and intermediate courses. I had many discouragements and wanted to give up several times, but I didn't give up, and experienced the thrill of the accomplishment of becoming fluent in a second language.

Think about it this way. With each language you learn, you learn a little more about learning languages. Your first language took 8-12 years to master. Depending on your ability, commitment and the similarity of your second language to your first, it could also take years to master a second language. Your third language would take a much shorter time, possibly only a year or two. Each successive language will take less time because you have more experience at learning languages, and there will be fewer "foreign" concepts when learning the new language.

Here are some tips that I give people who are learning languages:

1. Look at people's reviews on Amazon to determine what are some of the best courses. Go to the library and check out (audition) different types of courses, and see what works for you best. The correct answer for you may not be one course, but a combination.

3. Put aside 30 - 60 minutes per day and study some each day.

4. If you get discouraged, take a couple of days off, but set your next time to study and stick to it. If you go too long (say a week) between study sessions, you'll start forgetting.

5. Go into the experience realizing that you'll make lots of mistakes, everybody makes mistakes, don't worry about them and keep going. In other words, don't let your mistakes discourage you, everyone makes them, you're no different.

6. Try to find someone better than you in the language to speak with. You can't learn to speak a language without speaking it. If you're trying to learn with someone else who is also learning, you'll lead each other into learning errors.

And, Good Luck!

Answer 2

I reckon Korean must be dead easy 'cos if you go to seoul even 3 year olds can speak it.!

I'm not really convinced that it is any more difficult to learn a new language at a later age - what is difficult is having the motivation.

15 years ago I found myself in a Nepalese community for 3 years, I was 34 at the time. I failed French at school and had, I thought, absolutely no aptitude for languages. But I either spoke Nepali (a dialect of Hindi) or didn't communicate. It took about a year to become fluent to the point of broadcasting on the local radio as well as normal conversation.

!0 yeras ago I moved to Germany and found the same. Now I have a home in France and have picked up the language no problem.

The moral of this story is to immerse yourself as much as possible in the language, be prepared to make plenty of mistakes to learn from, and, above all, try not always to translate back into your mother tongue. Really, if a no-brain like me can do it anyone can.

My opinion would be that you cannot successfully learn a foreign language other than by being in a situation where you have no choice. This is probably not what you want to hear but I'm trying to be honest. You may be able to get a handle on some grammer and vocab from study but you have to converse with people who don't speak your language if it is to become second nature. And I repeat that the more mistakes you make, the quicker you learn - honest. Don't be bashful!

Good luck

Answer 3

I wouldn't want to make sweeping generalisations about age and learning ... I feel sure it varies enormously from individual to individual. A lot depends on how much time and how much motivation you have - those factors are certainly more important than age.

But speaking from my own experience, I think if I had left all serious attempts at second language acquisition until after I turned 35, I would have found it more difficult. I have no experience with Asiatic languages, but in any case my advice would be the same ... there is no such thing as an "easy" foreign language, learning a second language well is a tremendous challenge for any adult, so you should start as soon as you can.

Answer 4

I started learning french a year ago and it is surprising how much I have learnt during my evening classes. We have a good french teacher. The first few weeks were a bit daunting or should I say difficult to grasp at first, but gets better all the time.
We had 12 in our class but now left with 8. It's better than teaching yourself as you get motivated in this environment.

There is Rosetta Stone course of cd,s if you want to teach yourself. They may have a course that you want. The cost is approxiamately £150.

I had some free Daily Mail language cd's. These have been very helpful. Really all knowledge from other sources are good as various methods and different speakers help you.

A good plus I made a very good new friend. We do help each other. For me I was new to the area so a bonus.

My advice to you would be to seek other methods of learning Korean.

Good luck

Answer 5

Well, for starters, you are never too old to learn. It might be harder to absorb the material, but not impossible. If you failed with your self-study, I would suggest taking a class.

You can find a community college that offers basic korean language training. You could try the Berlitz way. They have a variety of learning methods. The best(but also the priciest) is the full emersion method. One week, 8 hours a day. Even during your lunch hour, you need to speak (or try) in the language your training. The last thing that comes to mind is Rosetta Stone. It's self help but supposed to be really good. Check out Rosettastone.com for info.

I myself am learning Romanian (I'm 27) at a small community college in Ottawa. Only 6 hours per week but I'm getting better.

Good luck.

Answer 6

There's no age limit to learn a language, even old folks of 80. All you need is enough interest, determination, dedication & regular hours you are prepared to put into the study. If you are already in the environment where that language is used all around you, so much the easier & quicker to pick it up.

Don't give up after a little set back. Look at results, however small, as a positive gain. If you learn just 2 new words & one single sentence a day, you should chuck that up as positive result.. They add up to hundreds in a month, a year. One-mindedness dedicated to the study is the only key to success.

Answer 7

I am in a job where I use languages a great deal and have a financial incentive to learn as many as possible. I hold a degree in modern languages and so have that grounding in language learning.

Having said that, however, I learned Turkish, Gujerati, Polish and Romanian whilst in my 30's (in the case of Gujerati, in my 40's).

In the case of Turkish and Gujerati, I learned by means of intensive courses organised by my employers, but learnt Romanian and Polish through self-study.

I learnt Polish "for fun" as much as anything and it has never really been put to the test. I managed, however, to obtain 100% in an examniation in Romanian - I am not totally convinced that the 100% was fully deserved and I suspect that the Romanian-born examiner may have just been overawed at an Englishman taking the trouble to learn her language; nevertheless, I have used Romanian on an almost weekly basis since then. This, perhaps, places me in a parallel position to yourself where you say you exposed to Korean on a daily basis, although I believe Korean to be harder than Romanian to learn for an English-speaker.

However, Turkish is a "hard" language and I succeeded in mastering that to a standard where I can use it for my work.

Answer 8

A women I know learned Spanish , then sign language, then Nederlands after the age of 50. She studied in a college in evening classes and spent some vacation time in schools in the countries where the languages were used.
She also uses home studies with computer and broad band internet access.

Answer 9

I know 3 persons who have crossed the age of 40 and are learning foreign languages. Two are my juniors in my college and are per suing a Bachelors of Arts degree a full time course in my university, and are learning Japanese language. And the third one is classmate of my younger in his University and is learning Korean language like you and is earning 55 years of age. One of the person who is learning Japanese language had two failed attempts before. But he reentered the university again to learn the language, such was his enthusiasm. And now he is in 2nd year of the degree course. When i asked him how did he managed to do it he said his motto is "Finish what you start, and try to do it like perfectly, so that you dont have any regret ts". Both of the persons who are learning Japanese language left their well paid jobs to learn the language because of their enthusiasm. The third person is in a part time course and is working also. So all the best for your language learning, and go ahead with the idea.

Answer 10

Yes. I began learning German at age of maybe 25 to 30.

I went to night classes. I then taught it to adults by night. I went to day classes. I read novels in German, and study afvanced grammar from books.

Later on I may learn some more French and begin to learn Italian.

For me the following things were useful:
1) Classes
2) Some excellent teachers
3) Tapes
4) German radio on the Internet
5) Mnemonic techniques as explained by Harry Lorayne

What will be interesting in the future for me will be CDs of German books given free with magazines.

The sound quality on a CD is excellent.