too old?

I am wondering that at 58 if I'm too old to learn a new language? People a lot younger than me probably retain more information than I.

Hi Ray, I don't think you are too old., I am 60- and taking the course, but I'll tell you it is not easy, I try to do some everyday, I want to go to France one day. I've been before but could not communicate. I think it is harder for us older students to learn anything, I should know as I teach piano and my older students lag behind the young ones, the older beginners give every excuse for not having practiced. Lets hope we both can learn French at our ages, thanks, that was a good question. sincerely, gary wages

[quo]*Quote from * GaryWages Hi Ray, I don't think you are too old., I am 60- and taking the course, but I'll tell you it is not easy, I try to do some everyday, I want to go to France one day. I've been before but could not communicate. I think it is harder for us older students to learn anything, I should know as I teach piano and my older students lag behind the young ones, the older beginners give every excuse for not having practiced. Lets hope we both can learn French at our ages, thanks, that was a good question. sincerely, gary wages[/quo] Thanks for the advice, Gary. I would like to live in France for a year or so.

Hi Ray - never too old :shock: I am 60 ++++++ and learning french. Ok, it may take a bit longer, but good exercise for the grey matter just keep plugging away and you may surprise yourself! And if you go to live in France and hear it everyday you will surely learn more than living outside France. Regards Sandie

Salut, being an adult learner also has great advantages. The older you are the more you know about the world and the more concepts you know. If you come across a concept in another language you will already have an idea of what it is in your first language. For example children need to learn what the difference between a rock, a pebble and a stone is. You already know that so if someone tells you the French word for it you already have a concept saved in your brain and you can simply add the new word to it. As a child you would have to learn about the category of "hard things" and then learn the different concepts behind stone, pebble and rock. So there is more brain power involved. As an adult this might take slightly longer and you might have to repeat words more frequently to keep them in mind, but you can never do enough practice. It keeps you young and the more you do it the easier it will get. All the very best to you

I am 50 & I think it's great for testing your mind. Hubby & I went to France this year & I fell in love with it! I can't wait to go back next year, but next time I want to be able to communicate. We had such a wonderful time, everyone was so friendly & helpful. So, I am really motivated, I think that is the key, if you have more motivation & really want to learn, you can! You are never too old!!!

That is very true. Everyone can learn anything if they just really want to. For some it might take longer, but in the end you will get their and it will be a very satisfying experiment. You can never be too old for learning a language :P

Bonjour Ray, I hope you're not too old because if you are, I'm in real trouble! I'm 79 years old and recently started the course. I am confident that I WILL be speaking French bientöt. I was assigned to NATO in Fontainbleau, France for about a year back in the mid 1950's. I spent many weekends in Paris and with the French people. I loved them both! Bon Chance.... Herm

Congratulation à tous! I'm sure that all of you will be fluent in French very soon. In my experience patience and keep practicing is the key of learning a language. All the best for your French learning! Bonne chance!

Sometimes when You are motivated, age not even coming to your mine: keep working and don't look back. I'm 52 years .

Salut tout le monde! I'm really happy that I'm having friends around my age band learning French i.e. 50 + above. I'm 54 this year. Been working with a French company for 10 years before I resigned. Did some French lessons then but never got beyond the basic intros. Now that I've quit working and am on my own consulting practice, I really want to pick up this language. I've told myself that this is one language that I will learn till I get it right coz I've kind of always been good with languages (self-taught) except with French :-( After all the knocks and bums and good guidance from Rocket French, I think my ability to read French is improving but I still have problem with listening and speaking skills. Is this something that Rocket French have plans for to help its members and students? At the end of the day, mastering a language is not just about knowing it but being able to converse and write as well. Please advise. I live in Malaysia and currently learning French alone as it's difficult to find learners in my same age group over here. joyce

I am 61 and I am taking the cource. I found it difficult in the beginning but it gets better. I am not sure I can ever speak French properly but I think I will at least be able to enjoy my travel to French more than I have done, understand some, read some and even speak some. As you can see english is not my first language so learning french through english is also valuable for my english. I am also listening to rocket German but that is much easier for me because I learned German in school. Nice to commuicate with you. ATB Baldur Islande

Salut Roy, I am 58 years old and am learning French for the first time. This is such a beautiful language that I refuse to let age stop me. We are never too old to learn. This is a true indulgence for me, as I have no reason to learn the language; yet, It is a dream to visit France one day. When I hear french words come forth from my mouth, it is like breath of fresh air. Rita Moore

I am in my 60's and purchased Rocket French some time ago. Still struggling with the first few lessons, I'm afraid - no matter how hard I try. In the fourth lesson (being thirsty) they switch from 'vous' to 'tu.' I was having a difficult enough time with 'vous,' without them switching to 'tu.' This, in my opinion, does not help a beginner. Only a few days ago, I made contact for the first time with a native French speaker (by email) and used the words 'salut' and 'comment ca va.' In his email reply, he gave me the rules about using vous/tu. Also, that strangers don't say, 'Comment ca va?' The say, 'Comment allez vous? And 'salut' is not used; it is 'bonjour.' Bearing in mind that I have no French relatives or friends, (and won't be using tu/salut/comment ca va/etc, for a while), I do wish that the lessons would stick to formal French - and leave the informal stuff until much later in the course. As a result, I find myself switchin off from the lesson and having to look elsewhere for the formal substitutes.

I am still looking/listening to lesson 4 (being thirsty) and having extreme difficulty. Take for example, 'Désolé d'être en retard.' Etre means 'to be.' But what does the 'd' at the beginning of etre signify? Oh dear, I'm just not getting this. It's so confusing. It would appear that I am merely learning parrot fashion, when I should be learning to construct sentences.

Still on lesson 4 (being thirsty) - 'Désolé d'être en retard.' What does 'retard' on its own mean? What does 'en retard' mean? Je ne comprends pas.

Hi Strathmore, Thanks for your post! I'm sorry to hear you're having difficulty with the course. We tend to switch between the formal and informal because many native speakers do the same and we'd like to get our learners accustomed to both styles. I will pass your feedback on to our Product Development team to see what they think. As for 'retard' and 'en retard', 'retard' translates best as 'delay' and 'en retard' signifies 'be late/tardy'. If you'd like to send an email to our Customer Support team, they'd be happy to help you out with anything! So if you're needing guidance on how best to approach the course, they can help. Merci, Marie-Claire

Hi everyone that thinks they are old after 50!!!! I am but I don't consider myself old mentally. I do agree that it is a little more difficult to remember things at this age, but hey, everything at this age is a challenge but a nice one. I also believe that we should never stop learning, whether it be a language or something else new as it helps keep us young. I am Australian, but have lived in Italy and China and now I am living in France and I find it the most difficult of the languages for me to learn. In all of these countries English is spoken so it is more difficult to pick up that language as you tend to gravitate to English speaking people to get you around. I have done other courses in French and I have also attended the Eurocentre. I am now trying Rocket French and finding it great because you can do it in your own time and play over anything you are having difficulties in pronouncing or remembering. It is hard in another country when you don't speak the language expecially when you communicate so well in your own language, but I will keep trying and I am determined to 'parlez francais tres bien a'bientot'!! Everyone keep trying. Bon chance Lyn

Hi Lyn Good to see that I'm not just the only one feeling that French seems to be the most difficult language to master. I've learnt Mandarin and Thai on my own and though I would not say that I'm good I still can survive using whatever basic grammar I have in those 2 languages. On the other hand, I have spent so much money and time trying to learn French and ..... I'm still learning to read, pronounce it correctly and most important of all listen and comprehend what is said. This last 2 stuff is really my toughest challenge. Then again, like you, I am determined to get on to mastering this language even if it means learning and getting it at 80!!! (lol)

Hi Everybody, I am nearing 50 yrs and trying to learn French. I am presently staying in Paris. In 2008 I was in Zurich and had great difficulty in communicating since German is a more popular communicative language there and I had to carry a dictionary wherever I went. So this time I am determined to learn French. Frankly speaking I think, it is important to unlearn before learning any new language. Most of the time we try to align a new language with the one that we already know for example English in my case. I have discovered that in order to learn French, it is important to unlearn English and then and only then we will be able to pick up the language in its native form. I first tried to learn by heart what Paul and Claire used to say but now I notice that I am using their words to form my own small sentences and only yesterday I fluently spoke three small sentences in french with one of my neighbour spontaneously. As for age, it is well said by Claire that with age we earn more experience and pick up more quickly because age enables us to learn new things by using logic and not just intuition. Rocket French Course is really a better course than many other which I had tried before coming to Paris from India. I am confident that we will all finally succeed. Warm Regards.

@ Strathmore - you remind me a little of my girlfriend, and the way she approaches the course. She wants to understand every last thing in a lesson before she moves on - luckily for her at this stage I can answer most of her questions. I didn't really have that advantage when I was going through the course, and it's not really necessary when learning a language - it's not the way our minds normally assimilate new languages. Some questions are filed away for later retrieval and resolution. Bungle on through the lessons, find books to read through alongside a dictionary (there are many French fables done as readers for beginner which are fantastic - Monsieur le Vent et Madame la Pluie, and Les Deux Frères are two great examples), find French movies, pick out three words and watch it again till you grasp a whole sentence. Chat to people. Ask them questions. I'm on the third course now (Platinum) and I still don't grasp everything from the first course, but lots falls into place as you go. Then you listen to an earlier lesson again, and you're very glad you didn't dwell on something that was at that stage a little beyond your grasp. It's just a waste of time to dwell too long. Move on - it'll come. If you can already speak a second language, you will understand how different grammar can be from English, which makes it easier to settle phrases like your example. ("Sorry of to be in delay" would be a more literal translation - except that as you know, "en" doesn't literally mean in, but it comes close in some contexts like en conversation - just like the word "que" can mean what, that and than, depending on the context). You just need to accept that and move on till you get used to it, and get away from the mindset that you'll be able to relate all sentences word-by-word to English. You won't. Another one that's weird is "Il y a" - "there is". Literally this means "It there has", which of course doesn't make any sense in English, but once you have that breakdown - you can sort of relate it to "there is", and then you just accept it. My second language is Afrikaans, which I grew up with in SA, and thanks to the French Hugenots, it relates to French a lot better than English in a lot of ways, but the most important thing is that you understand how different grammatical structure and idiomatic phrase can be, so your mind makes the required paradigm shifts more happily. My advice: Understand what you can for now, then carry on regardless. Don't bust a gut trying to get to the bottom of everything - it will definitely come in time. Salutations et bonne chance!

Hello Richard, Thank you for the reply, however, I have not looked at the course for some time. Had I not been alerted via email, I wouldn't have known about your post. To be honest, I have more or less given up on learning French. I found that asking questions on the forum (and also to the support staff) resulted in a very slow response. The support staff took anything from 2 - 7 days to reply by email. One department would tell me to contact someone else, who in turn, would tell me to contact the original department. Perhaps one of these days, I may return but it is doubtful. Regarding your own efforts, I wish you the very best - and I sincerely mean that.

Salut Strathmore, I'm sorry to hear you've given up on the course! Please don't! We try and respond to all customer emails within 2 working days. Even if it might take a little longer, we will always reply. And I'm not sure what departments you were referred to as we really only have one support team with a few members. I'll get in touch with them. The forums can take a bit longer to get a reply on. As I said, we have a small team, but try to get to everything as often as possible. If you ever do want to start again, we're here to help. :) Marie-Claire

I noticed my post has been removed regarding that I also 50+ years and learning French. I also mention that Creole was the language spoken in my household when I was a child. Rocket French is helping me to learn the proper way to speak French. If I knew you people were bias towards people who speak Creole, I would never have purchased this product from your company! Shame on you!

Bonjour Larry! I am sorry to hear that your post has been removed but I can assure you that it was not on our behalf. There may have been a glitch in the system somewhere or you may have pressed the wrong button. Whatever the case may be, we do apologize and we are advocates for all languages and would never be bias towards one or another. J'éspère que cela vous mette à l'aise. - I hope this puts you at ease. - Marie-Claire