Am I too old to become bilingual?

Question

I have a lot of vocabulary but need help on grammar and sentence structure. I try to practice 1 hour daily. I want to become a Spanish/English translator/tutor. I am 34 is it too late for me to realize this dream?

Answer 1

no it is not. the most effective thing for you to do is to find a community of people who speak spanish and that way you'll start speaking like a native even if you have an accent.

Answer 2

Nobody is too old to learn something new. Where there's a will there's a way! Since you want to become a tutor, first learn from another tutor. Hiring a private tutor for one-on-one tutoring is the best way to go. But a private tutor is pricey and may not fit into your budget. So you gotta think about that too. You should explore more options. Try online tutoring, for example. Not only is it cheaper, you'll also have a worldwide choice of potential tutors to choose from! Try some online tutoring services like:

1) http://www.tuitionplaza.com/tutoring/ - tutoring by retired teachers and volunteers (free)

2) http://www.tutor.com - tutoring by professional tutors (not free)

3) ... and many more (use search engine).

Think ouside the box and you'll have more options! Good luck!

Answer 3

It depends what you mean by bilingual....

Personally I believe that if you have not been immersed in a language/ languages before the age of 8 it is too late to be truely bi- or multilingual.

Of course you will learn to speak a language to an advanced level where you will have no trouble being understood and understanding others but with each year it becomes harder and you will never make that language your own, like you made the language you were immersed in first your own.

Also there has been reserch done that indicates that in old age it is possible you will loose any language you learned as a foreign language no matter how good you were at it before and how long you had been learning it, it just fades away and you revert back to your mother tongue(s).

So back to your question, go out and immerse yourself in the language. Use it as much as you can and you will become pretty proficient if you work hard at it. But you will never truely become bilingual.

Answer 4

Don't fart around. Start immediately. Immerse yourself.

There's one thing few people know about learning a language: our jaws, teeth and voice box literally grow to accommodate the language(s) we speak. That is why, for example, most Chinese speak English with a significant accent: English is polysyllabic, Chinese is monosyllabic and tonal and the "twain shall never meet."

Spanish is simple grammatically and beautiful to the ear. However, one rolls the "r" in Spanish in a way it's never done in English, and this ability has a lot to do with what you've spoken all your life.

So get crackin.' Remember, the older you are, the more you resist things. If you wait too long, you may have to settle for only reading and writing Spanish, which is still no small thing.

Answer 5

Depends on what you want.
A translator works from the foreign language to his own, and needs a very good understanding of the written language, in as many details as possible.
That you can learn at any age, also learning the 'rules' of translating.
If you want to be a certified translator you may need to study at an university too.

For becoming an interpreter you need to be fluent in both languages, as well as having the talent.
Rather unlikely, but it also depends on the talents you are born with, so if it is your deepest wish, go for it.

Teacher or tutor in the foreign language, only if you can master the pronunciation, you do not need to be fluent, but your teaching should be as near to perfect as possible.
Might be hard, but my father only started to learn languages at the age of 30, and he speaks his English and French well enough that he could teach in them, (first language Dutch.)

As a teacher or tutor in your home language for people who speak your foreign language as home language, no problems at all.
Tutor immediately, teacher as soon as you have a teaching certificate, from University, I assume, but that is different in each country.
But if you have a teacher certificate from your own country, you can often use it worldwide.

Answer 6

It isn't too hard. If you perserve you can do anything.

Yes it is hard to become bilingual once your in your teens but just work at it and you will achieve.
Maybe hire a tutor and get them to teach you or if you can afford it go to spain or a country where spanish is a strong language. You can learn more if people around you speak it.

- alisha.

Answer 7

Not at all. And Spanish isn't hard for English speakers anyway (although English is more difficult for most Spanish speakers, oddly enough.)

Answer 8

When I was 27 I started learning Chinese. I was able to learn the language over a period of time living in the environment. I have taught myself Cherokee, and studied Mongolian in University after 30. You need to get into the best environment you can create to learn and have a bottle of aspirin handy! You can do it if you want to! Just don't give in to your little voice telling you that you can't do it. No, it's not easy but if you set your mind to it you will succeed.

Buena suerte!

Answer 9

I don't think it's too late,just work hard,read a lot,

Answer 10

can you still think and talk? if your answer is yes to both then what in the world would stop you from living your dream?