The Best Age to Learn English

You may have heard people say ‘oh, I’m too old to do that’ when talking about a new activity, and that includes learning a language. It’s true that younger people have some advantages, they are good at copying, which makes grammar and pronunciation easier and, in my opinion most important, they are not afraid of making mistakes.

However, adults have other advantages. For one thing, they can organize their own time. An adult’s brain is more flexible and can make comparisons with other experiences, including their native language. They are also capable of concentrating for longer.  A further benefit for an older adult is that learning a language is good for the brain; my elder brother [no, this is not a typing error; ‘elder’ is the same as ‘older’, but it’s only used when talking about a member of the family] speaks English and Spanish, is learning Italian, and is thinking of learning Hindi. He’s doing it for fun, and also because he finds it good mental exercise.

So, different ages have different advantages, but this is academic; we can’t choose to be younger or older, simply because we have decided to learn or improve a language. Perhaps it is more important to ask ‘why?’ and ‘how?’ we want to learn.

Most of our clients come here to improve their English for one of three reasons. They come because it’s a part of their education, because it’s necessary for their work or because they want to use it when travelling.  This answers the ‘why?’ and gives them the motivation which helps them make the necessary effort, and that makes it much easier for us to help them.
Studying here is unlike a class at school, where some like the subject, others are not interested, but the teacher has a target to finish by the end of the lesson, whether you have understood it or not.  

Now we come to ‘how?’  Think about your first years of learning English; sitting in a classroom, where did you sit? How much attention did you have from the teacher? How much opportunity did you have to speak? Did the teacher speak English or French? How many hours of English did you have?  How much did you learn?  

Do you want to repeat that experience? If not, consider spending a weekend or a week of total immersion in English with us in Lauragais, no matter what your age.