Older Adults Learning English in Berlin

·35 min·3 clips

Why would older people in Berlin still bother to learn English, and can they even learn a foreign language at their age?

["Hannah Torsch, a linguistics lecturer, hosts Katerina Gench, a doctoral candidate at Hamburg University, on the Language on the Move podcast.", "Katerina's research focuses on older adults learning English in Berlin, stemming from her experience teaching English to seniors.", "She explains that public skepticism often questions whether older people can learn languages, prompting her investigation.", "The term 'older' is defined not chronologically but by self-identification, with classes explicitly for seniors attracting such learners.", "Katerina conducted 23 qualitative interviews with learners aged 55 to 87 from private providers and community centers.", "Participants appreciated classes marketed to seniors, expecting peers with similar learning backgrounds and avoiding stigma.", "Motivations for learning English included travel, enjoying English media, and participating in Berlin's multilingual environment.", "English has become pervasive in Berlin, appearing in signage and daily interactions, which can exclude non-speakers.", "Some learners, especially those from East Germany who studied Russian in school, encountered English later in life.", "Participants expressed mixed feelings: some embraced English as part of a multicultural city, while others saw it as ageist exclusion.", "Despite resistance, all learners chose to study English to overcome daily irritations and navigate their urban space.", "The discussion highlights English's unique status as a lingua franca, associated with cosmopolitanism rather than integration pressures.", "Katerina notes that learning English is about more than language; it's about retaining agency and shaping one's aging experience.", "Her methods involved problem-centered interviews, allowing space for personal stories, like one about a grandmother mocked for learning English.", "This anecdote revealed societal ageism and prompted self-reflection among participants.", "Katerina advises graduate researchers to leave room in interviews for spontaneous insights and keep recording devices on longer.", "Her next steps include completing her monograph thesis and joining a project on older female migrants' multilingual literacy in Hamburg.", "The episode underscores the importance of considering language access in creating age-inclusive societies.", "It connects to broader themes of linguistic landscape, ageism, and urban multilingualism.", "The conversation concludes with calls to subscribe and recommend the podcast."]

As heard by us

Berlin's growing English presence lands differently for older adults who learned Russian in GDR schools.

Older adults learning English in Berlin is framed as a story about language changing the texture of everyday life. The central point stays clear and concrete: many older adults in Berlin, especially those from the former East and the GDR, learned Russian at school rather than…

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For the days when English starts showing up everywhere in Berlin before you have even settled in.

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