So you are over 40 and want to learn Mandarin as a second language, that is a good thought.
Learning the Mandarin language is an amazing process, and passing every stage of learning the language can be very fulfilling. But due to our personal and professional life, only a little time is allotted to learn a language. Many elder people will also have commitments in their life and they think to improve their language skills. Age is not a problem, as long as you approach through the correct source and allot time in learning.
So how long would it take if you are over 40 to learn Mandarin?
Age is not a factor
Age is just a number, without considering the age factor, the time taken to learn Mandarin depends on many factors like your attitude of learning the language, the time spent by you with the language, the involvement in the language, your motivation in the learning process, and the attention to the Mandarin language.
Language Acquisition
So with a great acquisition and attentiveness to the language, you can learn the Mandarin language easily. But it is a common fact that young people will learn the language easier and faster than the elder ones.
FSI report
Research indicates an estimated time that is required to learn Mandarin languages with lots of learners who are over 40. Based on the FSI findings, Mandarin is considered as the Language Group V in terms of difficulty and it will take you around 2,200 hours or 88 weeks to learn it.
Hours on learning
Mandarin is considered to be one of the most difficult languages for native English speakers to learn. At any age group if you spend at least 5 hours a day learning a Mandarin language, then reaching basic fluency will be sooner. But if you spend only a few hours a day then it takes up to years. To reach Mandarin professional fluency, it would take a quite long time if you are over 40 years old.
Learning activities
Many will do the learning process through some activities and that will be an easier process in the Mandarin learning process. So it is important to do these activities that are easy to organize, and that may reading a Mandarin newspaper, making use of Mandarin books, apps, websites, podcasts, etc. Moreover, for older people through these activities, they might learn the Mandarin language faster than expected, and then it might be easier for them to understand.
Achieve proficiency soon
If the Mandarin learning process is done along with the combination of other works such as at the time when you are doing other jobs, watching TV, when driving your vehicle, exercising when you are doing in your free time, etc. will make you learn the Mandarin language faster even if you are over 40 years old.
Learning Mandarin to some extent needs time to reach your destination.
In spite of the age, immersive learning, or something similar, focused only on studying would help you to achieve basic conversational fluency in a year for the Mandarin language. It is also important to get a knowledge of some basic vocabulary and see how the language works before starting your learning journey. If you want to learn Mandarin online with experts, then join your classes with Multibashi to learn the language easily in no time. All the best!!!
