Solveig Werner

“But I am too old to learn a new language!” How often have I heard that sentence? Or: “Oh, it’s too complicated for me, my generation cannot learn that.” Or: “My school-days are long behind me.”Way too often. 

Why should age be an excuse not to continue learning? Isn’t learning new things one of the beautiful aspects of life? 

Maybe you don’t want to learn, but that doesn’t mean your age, generation, or whatnot should be used as an excuse. 

Age has always been thrown around as a pretext after all: “You are too young to understand!” – “You most likely want to have kids soon, and what will we do then?” – “You are too old and will soon leave the workforce”, don’t use those cheap excuses as weapons against yourself when it comes to your own development. 

As a German teacher mostly working with adults, I am fortunate that there are quite a lot of people out there who think that they CAN learn something new, a new language, even though they don’t have the brain of a 15-year-old anymore. 

My oldest student (who already had a good level of German, I give you that) was over 90 years old at the time of her last class! We worked together for years. What pushed her to take on language lessons more than 30 years after retiring from the workforce? She was scared that she’d lose her head during the lockdown, and we just continued afterwards. The best moment to learn might be when your brain is in full development and soaking up everything like a sponge, but if you want to keep it in good condition and flexible, you need to have it do the stretching.

I have observed that being young is not a guarantee for learning, nor is being “old” a major obstacle to learning. Sometimes adults behave like sulking teenagers; instead of parents forcing them to learn, it can be their bosses, and the results are the same. 

When people move abroad with kids, they are almost always astonished by the speed at which the youngsters learn the language and make it their own. But those kids are in SURVIVAL mode!  As an adult, you can use your card to pay, pull out some cash, and just manage a lot of everyday life without speaking the local language. Learning the language seems like a lot of hard work; after all, you have to learn adult things in the language.

Kids start off learning simple phrases like: “Do you want to play with me?”, “Do you like chocolate?”, “I have a pet hamster.”, “Where do I have to go for the next class?”, “Can I try those chips?”, “I forgot my lunch money.”, “May I go to the bathroom?”. “I have a Barbie with pink hair”, “My little brother is called Jack.” These help them navigate through the first weeks of living with a new language and make it seem like they are masters of learning. If they find enough friends who are able to speak their language(s) and who can play interpreter for them, then they probably won’t learn as quickly (I might share more on that at a later point). 

While adults moving to a foreign country have to deal with piles of paperwork, taxes, car insurance, finding a place to live, calling a plumber, attending parent-teacher conferences, helping their kids with homework, and finding their footing in a new work environment. Of course, it  would be easier to say that you like going to the playground, and that you have a huge Pokémon card collection, and that your favourite food is Pizza, sadly in an adult setting, that doesn’t help very much. Yes, it is difficult to learn a language as an adult, but it isn’t impossible. 

So, how do I best learn a new language? 

Either you need to learn it to function correctly in your everyday environment, or you are really motivated. In both cases, age is not part of the equation. 

I just posted this on LinkedIn and as I have been more than absent on my blog, why not post it here too?