How To Teach an Old Dog New Tricks – Language Learning Tips for the Older student

Learn English, Student Life–

Mature student Donato, who is currently studying English at LSI Brighton,  put together some amusing language learning tips for the LSI Brighton student publication ‘LSI Living’…

Are you in your thirties/forties/fifties/sixties? Does your English go slightly beyond “Nice to”meet you” and “How are you?” Do your children use English like a secret language, so that you are never aware of what they are getting up to? Trust me, it is never too late! Here is some good advice to improve your English based on my own experience:

  1. Attend an LSI Brighton course. Yes, your classmates will be teenagers looking at you as if you are a strange insect who’s fallen in their soup . One of them could, even tell you: “You know, my mother is much younger than you!” (true story]. The right reaction to that? Stop crying and go on studying!
  2. Watch English movies in the original language. It is going to be a weird experience, I know, but when you get Maggie Smith’s lines in “Downton Abbey”, oh, guys, you will be so excited!
  3. Try to read English books. Don’t start with the greatest masterpiece in UK literature: you will never get through it. Start with comic strips, instead, and then go on to something else . Also if you have a hobby, choose a publication dedicated to it: reading will be easier and pleasant.
  4. Study A LOT and do your homework. You have lost a good part of your neurons, ( sorry about that), and learning is not as easy as when you were in your 20S. BUT, you are older and more mature (I mean, you should be … ) so that when your classmates are leaving for a party on the beach, tell them “Enjoy the party!”, take your worksheets and review the lesson. (It sounds a little bit sad, right? Yeah, I agree with you).
  5. Driving your car to work, wear your earphones and start a conversation with your invisible teacher. Be careful, he/she is very strict !
  6. There are so many chat and discussion forums. Sign up and let’s start to write to someone in the UK. OK, your wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend probably wouldn’t be happy at all to know about that. But in a couple there are some secrets that have to be kept!