Has anyone managed to learn a language as an (older) adult?

[StillMedusa]

I really want to learn Italian.
However I'm in my 50's and the last language I attempted was french during my O levels a LONG time ago!

My sister in law is Italian and she and my brother are going to bring up their 1 year old to be bilingual, which is fab. They want our whole family to go and stay with hers and I'd love to have at least a tiny grasp of the basics.
Currently I'm doing duolingo and also Coffee Break Italian and I AM learning, but I know spoken Italian is so fast I can't imagine being able to listen and respond!

I'm going to watch peppa pig etc in Italian on youtube :D

Obviously I can't immerse myself in the language but I wonder if it is worth trying to get formal lessons soon? Is it possible to get to a 'can manage' level or am I just too old?

I speak French conversation and German very well and am now learning Spanish with Duolingo. The reason I’m finding it ok is because I have the basics from my other languages.

I’d really recommend having lessons for a while to help with those basics. It’ll give you much more confidence than just with duolingo.

Good luck and well done for embarking on this new learning.

Not too old , I started Spanish at 50.
Quite passable now at 55.

i studied Ukrainian using duolingo last year. By the time our guests arrived I had ‘conversation Ukrainian’ level. When they arrived they spoke Russian! I now still have conv Ukrainian and excellent Russian (apparently I have a Ukrainian accent though!)

And I am late 50s……

Not too late! My DM took up Spanish aged 60 and did it for ten years. She made lots of friends in her language classes and they still socialise quite a lot. I definitely plan to go to language classes again and won’t have the time til I am 50.

One of my 30's adult children has learnt Chinese Mandarin and Spanish over the last 8 years. They had to learn it for work. It's likely they'll have to learn another one if they get a new posing next year

I've done various different language evening classes over the years, and you're definitely not too old. It's a good time of year to look, as lots of classes will be signing up now for a September start - though ad.ed provision us far less than it was a decade or so ago.

I’m 49 & I’ve been learning Italian via Duolingo & Coffee Break for about 4 years. They’re good, but I started going to a class this year and it’s making a huge difference - you get the practice in speaking and conversation, and have someone there to explain things. I’d really recommend it.

Go for it! It is never too late to learn anything if you put your mind and heart to it. Languages are always a good thing to know, you can make so many friends, and it opens doors to another culture. Italian is a rather straightforward and easy language to learn, and there are plenty of resources out there, and people to talk to.

I agree with the people who say to try and find a class, so you can learn the basics and practice with other people. Once you have the basics, you can continue on your own. There are plenty of resources, other than the language learning apps that will give you a lot of knowledge on both the language and the culture.

In case this is helpful, I’m doing an online class with https://www.ihlondon.com/foreign-languages/ - one of the reasons I picked them was that they had an online assessment test which told me what level to start at.

I learnt a lot of my German through with Paul Noble and Michel Thomas. I do a lot of driving so it was a good use of my time. I’m by no means fluent, but I’m confident when I’m out in Germany to get by. Taught myself a lot of vocabulary, that’s fairly straightforward (post-it’s throughout the house etc!), but both methods were good for diving straight into a language and speaking sentences quickly.

I m 55 and have been learning Finnish with duolingo and other sources since December.
I love it, even 15 to 30 minutes a day really helps.
My son is 35, he has been learning for a year as he has a Finnish fiancee and goes over regularly. I m going too.
His fiancee actually speaks really good English as do many Finns but we want to be reasonably fluent especially as he will be living and working there.
Go for it!

I think it helps keep your brain active in your middle and older years too to learn something new.

Oh and it's good to practice with someone. My son and I sometimes speak Finnish at home.

Have a look to see what other podcasts you can find. I’ve found some nice once for intermediate French where people talk about interesting topics. You can slow down or increase your listening speed depending on the difficulty!

I speak Italian (learnt it in my twenties though and then married an Italian)! My experience of learning a language later (I'm learning French which I seem to have forgotten!) though is that it's possible but needs a lot more effort now. Luckily it is really easy to immerse yourself in a language nowadays - watch Italian movies with subtitles, listen to podcasts, use duolingo or similar, read short stories or kids' books, find someone to talk to. I also use the Quizlet app to revise vocab. The more vocsb you acquire the quicker you will be able to understand people - although if they are telling a long story in Italian and then deliver the punchline in dialect you may still be stumped...looking at you Zia Albertina! Buona fortuna!

I do find it much harder to remember vocabulary than when I was a school. Harder, but not impossible.

I managed some very basic German. But would be like a rabbit in the headlights if the response were different to what I was expecting. That said, I learned more German in a few weeks, than I learned of french in 5 years at school.

Thank you for all your replies... it gives me hope :)
At the very least it will help keep my brain active, and if I can plod along at it maybe I'll get to a basic level eventually:)
I will look into formal classes for Spetember.. thank you for suggesting that, Ebearhug as I want to talk with others asap, and unfortunately I don't live enar enough to my sister in law to inflict my attempts on her regularly .

Grazie mille!