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Learning English at 45

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Is it too late?

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A follower asked me on social media, "How did you learn English?

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Can you give me some advice?"

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It sounds like a simple question,

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but I thought about it for a long time.

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I realized the real answer isn't about English at all.

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It's about the way your brain is wired to learn.

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Hello,

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everyone,

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I'm Wang Lijie.

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Let me start with the facts.

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I took the IELTS once after graduating university.

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I got a 6.0.

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What level is a 6.0?

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It's right in the middle,

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the median for Chinese learners.

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From then on,

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for about twenty years,

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I never specifically studied English again.

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In October 2024,

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at the age of 45,

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I moved to the U.S.

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When I decided to get serious about mastering English,

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I did something many young people would find foolish.

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I started memorizing vocabulary.

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No short videos,

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no casual chats with foreigners,

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and no "immersive learning" gimmicks.

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Just the most basic, old-school way: opening a vocab app.

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Grinding through word by word.

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Six hours a day,

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one hundred new words.

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Six hours for a hundred words.

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Sounds inefficient, right?

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That's because I didn't just glance at them.

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For every word,

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I would read through every example sentence.

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I'd study how it's used in different contexts.

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If I saw a word I didn't know in an example,

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I’d click to look it up, too.

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Digging deeper and deeper,

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one word would lead to five or six more.

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Then I used the app's tests to prove I truly remembered them.

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Before starting new words the next day,

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I had to review everything from the day before.

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If you forget a word after three days,

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it pops back up to test you again.

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Is the process tedious?

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Of course it is.

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The first two weeks were the hardest.

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You feel like you're retaining nothing.

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Half of what you learn today is gone tomorrow.

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But after over a decade in investing,

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I know exactly what a compound interest curve looks like: flat at the start.

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So flat you'll doubt your life choices.

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But as long as you don't stop,

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it will eventually soar.

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Learning is also about compounding.

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The first thousand words are the most painful.

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But once you've built up three or four thousand,

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you find you don't need to try as hard to memorize new words.

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Because you've mastered the roots and prefixes.

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That feeling of acceleration

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is identical to the inflection point in investment compounding.

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I kept this up for three months.

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I memorized about 10,000 words.

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Then I signed up for an offline English class.

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I took four months of classes.

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Before the course even finished,

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I went to take the TOEFL.

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First attempt,

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a score of 97.

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The maximum TOEFL score is 120.

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97 is already a decent score.

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But I had set a goal of 100.

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100 is the minimum for international admissions at Ivy League schools.

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From 97 to 100,

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only three points away.

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Guess how many times I took the test?

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Five times.

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But throughout the process,

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I didn't panic at all.

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Because with each attempt,

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I knew my foundation was becoming more solid.

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The gap between 97 and 100

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isn't a lack of ability;

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it's the foundation still settling.

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And honestly,

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I'm proud of myself.

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Because if this were me twenty years ago,

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I wouldn't have been able to sit down and do this.

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When I was in college,

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like many young people,

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I was a typical "shortcut seeker."

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As long as I passed the exam,

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I wouldn't spend a single extra minute.

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I attended Xi'an University of Posts and Telecommunications.

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It wasn't a prestigious school,

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but its graduates found good jobs.

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After graduation, I joined Huawei.

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Throughout middle school and college,

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I mostly relied on talent—I didn't work particularly hard even before high school.

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I just put in normal effort

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and got into an average school.

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Mind you,

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by "talent," I don't mean I was exceptionally gifted.

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I mean I just coasted on whatever score I got

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without putting in extra work.

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There's one thing

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I remember very clearly.

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My roommate was memorizing an English dictionary.

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I was shocked—aren't dictionaries meant for looking things up?

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I couldn't believe someone was actually memorizing one.

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But they just ground through it, page by page.

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And me?

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I didn't even try.

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Back then,

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to put it bluntly, I was lazy.

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It wasn't that I couldn't learn;

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it was that I wasn't willing to put in the "stupid work."

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This state lasted until many years after I started working.

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I took my job seriously

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because I chose it,

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and I loved it.

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But when it came to "deliberate learning,"

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my attitude remained the same—take shortcuts whenever possible.

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Save effort whenever possible.

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Until I truly took a certain piece of advice to heart.

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When Zeng Guofan fought the Taiping Rebellion,

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he had a famous tactic

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called "Build solid camps

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and fight slow battles."

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What does that mean?

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It means no surprise attacks,

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and no fancy tricks.

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Everywhere he went,

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he would honestly dig trenches and build camps first,

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making his defense impenetrable.

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Then he would push forward, step by step.

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Others mocked him for being slow;

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he ignored them.

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In the end, the Taiping Army was ground down by his "slowest" method.

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Generations later, summarizing Zeng Guofan's philosophy,

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one sentence hits the mark: "Smart people must also put in the stupid work."

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I heard this when I was twenty,

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but back then, it went in one ear and out the other.

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I didn't take it to heart at all.

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Why?

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Because when you're young, you assume you're the smart one.

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You think "stupid work" is for stupid people.

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You believe there must be a faster way.

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Then you work for twenty years,

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spend a decade in investment,

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and witness the successes and failures of countless entrepreneurs.

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You have to admit one thing—you are not a genius.

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You are just an average person.

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Of those who actually achieve great things,

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not a single one relied on being "clever."

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So,

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If even smart people have to put in the hard work,

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then an ordinary person like me has no right to be lazy.

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You see,

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I've heard this saying from age 20 to 45.

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It took 25 years to truly sink in.

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We have a saying: "I've heard so many truths,

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yet I still can't live a good life."

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Actually, it's not that the truths are wrong;

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it's that your awareness isn't ready to receive them.

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When you have enough experience

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and enough life history,

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that saying suddenly pierces through your ears into your heart.

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But awareness alone isn't enough;

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you also need a successful experience to ground yourself.

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That experience for me

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happened during the Shanghai lockdown.

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I was stuck at home for three months,

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unable to go anywhere.

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Rather than scrolling through my phone in anxiety,

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I decided to do something.

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I decided to teach myself programming.

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For me, programming

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was much harder than learning English.

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Think about it.

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I'm an investor.

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For decades, I've dealt with people, business models, and market sentiment.

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Code is a language from an entirely different universe.

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The first day I opened a tutorial,

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I looked at those colorful characters on the screen

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and thought I'd never learn it in this lifetime.

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But I pushed through and typed away every day.

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In the first week, I could only write the simplest print statements.

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In the second week, I started learning logic and loops.

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A month later, I could write small tools.

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Two months later, I started making things with practical utility.

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After three months,

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not only had I learned it,

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but I actually used it to develop

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automation tools for my own work.

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This accomplishment gave me massive confidence.

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Not confidence in programming,

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but confidence in the act of "learning" itself.

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I was in my 40s,

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starting from scratch,

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learning something notoriously difficult,

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and I succeeded.

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In that moment, I realized: when it comes to learning,

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the biggest hurdle is never IQ;

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it's whether you dare to sit down and do it.

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As long as you clear your head of thoughts like "I can't,"

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"it's too hard," or "it's too late,"

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you can learn anything.

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If I could learn programming,

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then English would be no problem at all.

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So later, when I decided to memorize vocabulary in the US,

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I didn't hesitate for a second.

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Why not take the TOEFL cold first to test the waters?

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Because I knew a cold score would definitely look bad,

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and a bad score would crush my confidence.

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I did the opposite.

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I spent three months mastering 10,000 words,

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building a foundation to my own satisfaction,

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before taking the test.

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That way, no matter what my score was,

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I felt grounded.

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As expected,

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I got a 97.

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My confidence skyrocketed immediately.

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Even though it took five tries to pass 100,

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I stayed steady throughout.

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Because I knew,

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every attempt was adding another layer to my foundation.

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And don't underestimate those five attempts.

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The prep process for each one was learning in itself.

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My reading speed improved,

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my listening response sharpened,

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and my writing logic became smoother.

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The score is just a snapshot of your foundation's depth.

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The true gains were much greater than those three points.

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Many people might say

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You're starting to learn English at 45?

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Isn't it too late?

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Let me tell you,

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not only is it not too late,

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it's actually perfect timing.

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When you're young, you can't sit still.

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You're always looking for a faster way,

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a smarter path, or an effortless shortcut.

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You're eager for success,

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wishing seeds planted today would bear fruit tomorrow.

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But in middle age,

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you're no longer in a rush.

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Investors know this best—of failed startups,

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eight out of ten don't die from a wrong direction,

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but from being too impatient.

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Once you've seen the cost of rushing success,

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you won't make that mistake again.

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Middle-aged people have a severely underrated advantage:

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Patience.

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When I study vocabulary,

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I often sit for three or four hours straight.

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I used to be restless too,

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but at this age,

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those noisy voices in your head have quieted down.

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You stop wondering if there's a better way,

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or feeling anxious that others are learning faster.

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You just go through it word by word.

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Every one finished is one closer to the goal.

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You know things worth having take time to nurture,

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like planting a tree.

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You water it and wait every day.

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You can't rush it,

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but as long as you don't stop,

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it will eventually grow.

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So when I sit down at 45,

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spending six hours a day memorizing word by word,

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I feel a sense of peace.

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I know it's the slowest road,

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but it's also the most stable one.

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Quick fixes don't stick,

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but the words I've spent six hours grinding into,

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they are now part of my brain.

283
00:09:54,668 --> 00:09:57,191
My son scored 111 on the TOEFL,

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but he never formally memorized words.

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Because he went to international schools,

286
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he acquired English naturally.

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He advised me against this 'clumsy' method,

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but I didn't listen.

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Because our generation is different.

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Our entire way of thinking is already in Chinese.

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To rebuild a language system from middle age,

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the most familiar and solid method for us

293
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is to start with rote memorization.

294
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There's no shame in it.

295
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I don't mind if others think I'm slow.

296
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It's called respecting your starting point.

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Actually, I've always felt that

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much of what we do in life

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is essentially building foundations.

300
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Investing builds a foundation for cognition.

301
00:10:33,268 --> 00:10:35,591
Memorizing words builds a foundation for language.

302
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Coding builds a foundation for logic.

303
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Foundations are boring.

304
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No one sees them,

305
00:10:41,347 --> 00:10:42,870
and they aren't worth posting on social media.

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But when the day comes that you want to build a tower,

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you'll find that those with foundations can start anytime.

308
00:10:48,908 --> 00:10:51,671
Those without can only draw blueprints in the sand.

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00:10:52,028 --> 00:10:54,471
I've seen so many stories like this in investing.

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Companies that seem like overnight successes—

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00:10:56,788 --> 00:10:58,230
if you dig into their history,

312
00:10:58,268 --> 00:11:01,770
the founders often spent five to eight years

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00:11:02,107 --> 00:11:03,270
silently building the foundation in obscurity.

314
00:11:04,107 --> 00:11:06,390
Those masters who seem to appear out of nowhere—

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if you look into their past,

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there was always a period of unrecognized hard labor.

317
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No one's effort is ever wasted.

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00:11:13,587 --> 00:11:16,530
So back to that follower's question—how to learn English?

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My answer: The solution isn't in the English itself;

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it's in your attitude toward 'learning' itself.

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First is the cognitive preparation.

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Admit that you are not a genius.

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Accept that old-fashioned hard work is the most reliable method.

324
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You might be unwilling to accept this when you are young.

325
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That's okay.

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It's never too late to figure it out.

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Next is time preparation.

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Anything worth learning takes time.

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You can't sow seeds today and harvest tomorrow.

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Give yourself a reasonable expectation.

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Invest yourself single-mindedly during this period.

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Finally, calibrate your confidence.

333
00:11:48,908 --> 00:11:51,951
If you've never learned something from scratch,

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then start with something small.

335
00:11:54,028 --> 00:11:57,071
Learn to cook a dish, play a song, or some coding.

336
00:11:57,307 --> 00:11:58,866
What you learn isn't the point.

337
00:11:58,868 --> 00:12:01,870
The point is to experience the feeling of "I actually did it."

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This experience will become a confidence anchor for anything you learn later.

339
00:12:06,628 --> 00:12:09,591
Lastly, I want to say something many might not like to hear.

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When it comes to learning,

341
00:12:11,707 --> 00:12:14,750
middle-aged people actually have an advantage over the youth.

342
00:12:15,187 --> 00:12:16,691
Not because their memory is better;

343
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your memory is indeed not as good as it was at twenty.

344
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But you are more clear-headed.

345
00:12:21,988 --> 00:12:23,410
You know your own limitations.

346
00:12:23,707 --> 00:12:25,071
You don't deceive yourself.

347
00:12:25,508 --> 00:12:26,431
You can stay focused.

348
00:12:26,827 --> 00:12:28,350
You're no longer in a rush for success.

349
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You're finally willing to do the tedious, hard work.

350
00:12:31,307 --> 00:12:33,591
And the willingness to do that hard work itself,

351
00:12:33,748 --> 00:12:35,390
might be more important than talent.

352
00:12:35,908 --> 00:12:38,071
Looking back at my forty-some years,

353
00:12:38,268 --> 00:12:40,431
my biggest regret isn't a lack of intelligence,

354
00:12:40,508 --> 00:12:42,591
but that I figured this out too late.

355
00:12:43,067 --> 00:12:44,431
If back in college,

356
00:12:44,548 --> 00:12:46,667
I had been like my roommate who memorized the dictionary,

357
00:12:46,668 --> 00:12:48,390
patiently putting in the hard work,

358
00:12:48,467 --> 00:12:51,150
my English would have likely ceased to be an issue long ago.

359
00:12:51,307 --> 00:12:52,610
But there are no "ifs" in life.

360
00:12:53,067 --> 00:12:54,510
Whenever you start,

361
00:12:54,548 --> 00:12:56,591
that is the best time.

362
00:12:57,307 --> 00:12:59,910
When Zeng Guofan employed his slow and steady tactics,

363
00:13:00,187 --> 00:13:01,711
everyone laughed at him.

364
00:13:02,148 --> 00:13:03,250
But the one who won in the end

365
00:13:03,587 --> 00:13:05,030
was the person who seemed the "dumbest."

366
00:13:05,508 --> 00:13:06,791
Learning is the same.

367
00:13:07,187 --> 00:13:08,746
Others look for a hundred different methods;

368
00:13:08,748 --> 00:13:10,270
you just stick to one solid, simple method.

369
00:13:10,628 --> 00:13:12,591
Others switch learning apps every three days;

370
00:13:12,707 --> 00:13:14,230
you stick with just one.

371
00:13:14,707 --> 00:13:15,971
While others are searching for shortcuts,

372
00:13:16,347 --> 00:13:17,510
you are building the foundation.

373
00:13:17,827 --> 00:13:19,947
You can search for ten thousand efficient learning tips,

374
00:13:19,947 --> 00:13:21,586
but the one that truly works in the end

375
00:13:21,587 --> 00:13:24,990
is always the person who sits down and memorizes ten thousand words.

376
00:13:25,347 --> 00:13:26,730
Have you had a similar experience?

377
00:13:27,227 --> 00:13:28,386
Is there something

378
00:13:28,388 --> 00:13:29,947
you once thought it was too late to do,

379
00:13:29,947 --> 00:13:31,530
but later realized it was actually the perfect time?

380
00:13:32,107 --> 00:13:32,850
If there is,

381
00:13:33,148 --> 00:13:34,270
please let me know.

382
00:13:34,307 --> 00:13:36,071
I'd love to hear your story.

383
00:13:36,268 --> 00:13:37,010
I'm Wang Lijie.

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00:13:37,307 --> 00:13:38,091
See you next time.