It's never too late to learn a new language

When is it too late to learn a new language?

Many of my readers write that they are afraid being too old to learn a new language. And I can understand this fear, at some point everything has become routine and you do not have the habit of learning anything anymore.

The first good news: learning can be learned.

And here are some more things I've noticed over the years :

There is not the perfect age to learn a new language

Adults and language learning fits

At worst, language education at school looks like this:

Overcrowded classrooms, many written exercises, sometimes mechanical conversational drills, little or badly educated teacher with little to no experience, courses once a week, which is far too little to be efficient ...

Nevertheless, some students may still be able to pack their "language suitcases" full of grammar, important verbs and vocabulary under these circumstances.

The other students will often say that they have always been bad at languages anyway, until the end of their lives. What a pity!

Although there may be one or the other more appropriate time to learn languages, one thing is true:

There is no age limit to learn a new language! That means: It is never too late.

So if you're wondering you may be too old to learn Luxembourgish, German or French, the answer is: NO, you're never too old to learn Luxembourgish, German or French as your new language!

If you are ready to learn Luxembourgish, German or French, or any other new language then nothing stands in your way!

There is not THE perfect age to learn a new language.

It is very often wrongly believed that learning a foreign language has to be done at a young age so that you can speak fluently and without accentuation.

That is not quite true. Nothing prevents adults from learning new foreign languages - provided they use the right methods.

Practical tips to learn a language as an adult

When you learn a foreign language from early age, the brain distinguishes the mother tongue and the second language right from the beginning. Distinguishing languages one from the other does not change the fact that both languages can be spoken fluently!

Unfortunately, simply memorizing lists strengthen word power or conjugation tables will not take you one step further if you want to be ready to eventually speak fluent Luxembourgish, German or French as your new language.

To speak and to use a language it is absolutely indispensable to use it. Nothing works without language practice, as well as you may know by heart the irregular verbs or any other grammar rule.

Because otherwise it takes much longer to really speak Luxembourgish or French.

But it does not always have to be dry grammar. You can read books that are on your level of skills in that language, and you can watch TV-shows with the subtitles or where they speak the language you're learning. You definitely should assure that the Material fits your respective level. But really make sure that you do it on your level, you could otherwise get very fustrated or annoyed.

However, every once in a while a little "homework" has to be, in order to consolidate the corresponding automatism in grammar and conjugation.

Finally, you should work on your accent, so that more and more disappears.

In any case, it has nothing to do with your age, 
whether you speak successfully Luxembourgish or French, 
but rather with your motivation and your personal commitment.

A proven way to learn your new language withaout struggling!