39 years old - to old to learn English ?

As an English teacher, I think you have courage to learn English, so you can do it. Even though, people say the older of age, the slower of learning something, I think it is really true because it depends on the teaching methods of the teacher too.

I see a lot of working people about your age learning English, and they are doing very well. If you want to do it, you get to do it now whilst your courage of learning Enlish still there

i met a frence teacher on last Tuesday at cafe, he's probably over 60, but still learning english

There are many people older then you learning English, as you said you used English before so its a case of just picking it back up.

All it takes is

Passion and Dedication~~~~~~~~~~~to accomplish your goal (S)

Good Luck!

There is no age  restriction to learn language 
It's IELTS. Of course you will get more than 5.5 score if you work hard.

Stop thinking about anything else and start learning from now
Just have some dedication towards learning a language, you will find so many doors opened for you . At least , you have basic knowledge of English..  and age doesn't matter for learning anything.
Wish you good luck

Hello Maria,

You're never too old to learn any new language, you just have to want to do it.

I've been teaching English for 25 years now and seen many success stories. The only people who don't manage to learn English are the ones who really don't want to! Usually it's their boss who is making them take a course. They'll never learn because they just don't care to.

I learned Portuguese before I came to Brazil over 12 years ago now. I was determined to learn as much and as quickly as I could before I arrived. I was 52 years old at the time and in 7 months I was speaking the language at a very high conversational level because I immersed myself in the language, listened to Brazilian music, made Brazilian and Portuguese friends, went to Brazilian social functions, etc. It is an extremely complex language and now I read, write and speak the language better than most Brazilians do. If I could learn a new language at 52 and continue learning ever since YOU CAN TO.

Go for it!!!!   Good luck to you.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, EB Experts Team

Better late than nothing

I don't know how to say thanks to you all Kimmart, wjwoodward, ameet4luan, charmavietnam, LopezLloyd, sbonilla75, colinoscapee, cang_nduc , Allan Nguyen

Now, i am brave to start to study English. Because "There is no age  restriction to learn language  ". I will try my best to take EILTS 5.5 points, that time i will let all you know it.

Thanks again and good luck you all

That's a strong decision 

cang_nduc wrote:

i met a frence teacher on last Tuesday at cafe, he's probably over 60, but still learning english

Can you advise me where is good for study Frence?

It's never too late to learn, just you try, don't be discouraged!

never late

Do not listen to those who say you are too old to learn English.
i met my wife here in Vietnam because she was trying to improve her English and she was over 50!
If you really want to do something you should just put your mind to it and do it!

I lived in Korea at the age of 37, and started learning the Korean language from the beginning, and was able to reach an intermediate level of use.

I think anyone can learn new things, or improve, if they take the time, and it depends on the person's motivation and time and effort, too.  So your friends, I think, are being too negative and pessimistic, if this is something you really want to do, and if you take the time, little by little, day by day.

I recommend doing as much extensive reading as you can, at a level that is not too easy, or too hard.  Stories, I think are the best, but news reports, interviews, anything that has a written script you can read while you listen at the same time.  Reading is the best way to pick up vocabulary and sentence patterns that are used the most frequently (forget about learning all the 9 million or so words in English, just get as many useful ones as you can).  Careful 'listen and repeat' work can improve your pronunciation and listening skills.

A good website for short stories, with "dictation" exercises (listen and type missing words and phrases) is ESLFAST . COM.  There is also a new website by Voice of America which uses real interviews and news stories for English learning, which is designed especially for Vietnamese learners (just search in Google for "Vietnamese VOA English learn" and you should be able to find it.

So many websites online for English learning, and Youtube videos, etc.  Another fun, interactive one is Real-English . com .  They interview people in the street, answering everyday questions, for practice in this activity, useful vocabulary, and grammar and pronunciation.  If you can get a study group together, BreakingNewsEnglish, has pdf worksheets you can download for multi-skills lessons based on short reports of stories in the news, which you can listen to on the website, too, on mp3 files. Download a file to play back in your study group, after doing "pre-listening" vocabulary and grammar exercises, to do the "while listening" tasks, which can be general comprehension questions, or detailed listening for missing words and grammar elements, or phrases that are blanked out.

Your English is good enough to communicate here in written chat, so if you can't find others to practice speaking with, you can always practice conversation in writing, on sites like this.

You can do it if you really want, but you may have to ditch your old friends and find some new ones!  Good luck.

[Moderated: no free ad on the forum pls + register in the business directory > Education in Ho Chi Minh City]

A combination of self-study/practice and coaching from a trained professional would certainly help. Self investment in one's own learning is what counts more than anything.  As some famous writer wrote once, "People learn things IN SPITE OF SCHOOL, not because of it."  For some things though, it helps to have a good teacher, who will give you homework to do, depending on your needs.  Then, it is up to you.

Oh, and I have a lot of pronunciation teaching experience for Vietnamese learners myself, hehehe, if you have money to spare for a "coach."  I even wrote a phonology paper on the pronunciation performance of Vietnamese learners as part of my MA in TESOL. ^^

Get a price quote from "CoachJerry" up there, and get back to me by private msg here, if you would like to compare rates, lol