B2 First (FCE) Reading and Use of English – Practice Test 1 — Part 7 – Multiple matching

Five people talk about learning a language as an adult

A – Priya
I started learning Japanese at forty, mostly out of stubbornness — everyone kept telling me adults couldn't do it. The hardest part wasn't the grammar; it was accepting that I would sound like a child for a long time. Once I stopped being embarrassed by my mistakes, I improved much faster. I practise for twenty minutes every single morning before work, and I've never missed a day in three years. I'm not fluent, but I can now read a whole novel, slowly, and that still amazes me.

B – Daniel
I had studied French at school and hated it, so I was surprised to fall in love with Italian in my thirties. For me, the secret was films. I watched the same three films so many times that I knew them by heart, and gradually the words started to make sense. I barely opened a grammar book. My teacher says my grammar is a mess, and she's right, but people understand me and that's what I care about. I'd rather speak badly and be understood than say nothing at all.

C – Sofia
Learning German while working full-time was exhausting, and I nearly gave up twice. What saved me was finding a study partner online. We met every Sunday evening on a video call, and knowing that someone was waiting for me made me keep going on the days I felt lazy. I honestly don't think I would have continued alone. The grammar was difficult, yes, but the loneliness was the real enemy, and having a partner defeated it.

D – Marcus
People assume I learned Spanish because I moved to Madrid, but actually I could already speak it quite well before I arrived — that's precisely why I chose to move there. I'd spent two years using a phone app on my daily train journey. Some people look down on those apps, but for a busy person with no time for classes, mine was perfect. It turned wasted commuting time into something useful, and by the time I landed in Spain, I could hold a real conversation.

E – Aisha
I'm a scientist, so I approached learning Portuguese like an experiment: I measured everything. I recorded how many new words I learned each week and tested myself constantly. It sounds cold, but seeing my progress on a chart kept me motivated when things felt slow. My advice to other adults is simple: don't trust your feelings about whether you're improving, because they lie. Trust the data. The numbers showed me I was getting better even on the days I felt hopeless.