Learning the language later in life — is it too late?

Started in my sixties too. Slower than a younger learner for sure, but I got to a genuinely comfortable conversational level over time. It’s possible, just don’t expect the speed of a twenty-year-old.

Age is a much smaller barrier than people assume, based on watching my own parents do exactly this.

Found a slower-paced class specifically designed for older learners, far less discouraging than being grouped in with much younger students.

Did anyone find a specific method worked better for an older brain, or is it really just the same methods, only slower?

Repetition and routine mattered more to me than any particular clever method — consistency over intensity was the real lever.

OP here — genuinely encouraged reading all of this, thank you.

Chris, I posted about my first Portuguese dream in the language section, and it took fourteen months of lessons at sixty-four, so keep going.

I've started Spanish lessons online before we move, twice a week, with a teacher who works mainly with older learners. She told me at the first lesson that her oldest student started at seventy-nine and now argues with her about politics in Spanish. I've decided to believe that will be me.

My mother started English at sixty-two so she could talk to her granddaughter's teachers, and she now sends me voice messages with new words every day.

Ben and Linda, thank you, and Olena, please tell your mother she has a fan in Portugal.