After 60 - has anyone learned a new language? (vacations, move, conversation)

[Bette]

This is something I've been thinking of for a long time.

My husband even grew up in Miami and is trying to teach himself Spanish. Very slowly.

I'm still working but from time to time, I have clients whose first language is not English. In South Florida, that's usually Spanish.

Has anyone learned a language just starting out with no knowledge of it?

How has that worked out for you?

[brightdoglover]

Absolutely unable despite wonderful DuoLingo. I was never good at hearing or seeing another language and now it's not any better.

[Cabound1]

I’m lucky if I can remember English words.

[fluffythewondercat]

My spouse is not one to travel abroad, otherwise I would have done a French language refresher.

Unfortunately, our great neighbor Pierre and his lovely wife Dana were forced to move out of their rental home a few doors down from us to another one farther away. We haven't seen them since. Sigh.

[Mightyqueen801]

I am currently learning both French and Spanish on Duolingo. I do one in the morning and one at night. I was doing Dutch for a while also, since I am of Dutch descent, and it's fun, but I will likely never use it. The one time I was in Amsterdam, everyone spoke perfect English.

I was reading that to be fluent in a language, one usually needs to learn 20K to 40K words. To be conversational, however, you need about 3000 words. That seems feasible at our age. That enables one to travel, order food, take public transportation, shop, etc.

Today I am on my 278th day for Spanish. Started French a a couple of months later. I am astonished at how much I have picked up.

I am 64, barreling toward Medicare later this year.

[engineman]

In the 1980s I was going to Miami every other week on business from the Tampa bay area. I bought some Spanish lessons that I could listen to while driving, or listen to using a Walkman when flying. I never became really fluent, but it was useful when on vacation we traveled to Mexico, Spain and briefly to some other countries. I still remember a little of it.

[Coney]

During the pandemic, there were free classes in Mandarin. Although I grew up exposed to several different languages, I just couldn't "get it" with Mandarin. I had no point of reference and could not figure out the linguistic patterns. I gave up.

[davebarnes]

I like Memrise.com as a learning tool.

My problem with learning another language is lack of an incentive. Most people around the world learn English because it means more money. Also, there are so many English-language TV shows.

I have “learned” the following languages in preparation for vacations. I suck at all of them.
Português - European
Euskara
Español
Italiano
Français
Slovene
Català

[SunGrins]

Hearing impairment makes it very difficult to master a new spoken language. Our helpful brains try to fill in the blanks of misheard words with familiar English words that sound similar. About 5% of the population has some degree of this problem at an early age -- grade school performance sometimes is an indicator for kids. If an all-A student in high school can't master a foreign language, they should have hearing checked. Among older folks it is more common as our hearing diminishes.

I learned Spanish in college but didn't use it enough. Now I can speak it a bit on vacations but at my own slow pace. Understanding fast speakers is impossible for me. I can read some of it. I have hearing aids now, but they are not much help with Spanish.

[recycled]

I have spoken Spanish as a second language since I was in my school years, and German since I ages 19-22 when I spent 4 years in Germany in the US Army and attended many language classes during that time. However, I did not keep up my knowledge of German very well during my almost 40 year working career in the US after I got out of the Army.

As I neared retirement at age 63, I decided a retirement goal would be to spend some time in Germany again. I started off with a summer visit in 2018, and prepared by doing some refresher German language training in advance. I took some online classes via Deutsche Welle website, and also reviewed my German language textbook from the 1970s. Everything came back to me pretty quick, and it was funny reading the conversations in the textbook after 40+ years. I could often recite what the next line was in the conversations!

In 2019 & 2020 I returned to Germany for longer visits, and my fluency improved as I rarely spoke English. I've been here for most of the time since September 2020 and have no issues with speaking fluently now. I often help as a translator for Venezuelan friends who need help with German to Spanish translation when visiting government offices or sometimes doctors.