Each age group of students may experience one or more types of difficulties when studying English. In this blog, I will discuss briefly the specific problems involving the factors of attitude, time, and money. The obstacles noted below know no international boundry.

Students in their youth do not generally attach great importance about learning English. Soccer, girlfriends, internet games, listening to music, and hanging around friends seem to be some of the most important things on their minds. At this age, a life of work and family seem to be years away and learning English is not generally seen to be attached to admission to a quality college or university which can lead to a satisfying career and above average lifelong income. To sum up here, everything else in the world is more important than learning English. In South Korea and Thailand, according to my survey of students, this age groups favorite hobby was ¨SLEEP¨.

Students whose career has just begun, those who have the equivalent of a bachelor´s degree, are now realizing the income potential if they move on to get a master´s degree. Many of these young people are now married with one or more children and realizing they will not reach their economic goals without an advanced educational degree. So, they begin taking English lessons once again in order to increase their chances of passing the TOEFL or the GRE to gain admission to a United States college or university. The problems I am seeing and hearing from these students is that their employment and family require so much of their energy and time they have little time and energy to spend studying English. I am seeing a large population of these students never completing the amount of study of English required to pass the TOEFL or the GRE with a high enough score for admission to college or university in the USA. Cost of English lessons is another grueling concern. Family budgets are so tight that many students withdraw from classes because food for the baby and payment of house rent are the top priorities. The dream of entering a university in the United States and coming home with a Master´s Degree in hand slowly fades from the future, to the present, and into the past as the years swiftly pass. In South Korea, the favorite hobby of this age group of students was sleep, followed by the close second, drinking Soju (a high alcohol content rice wine) while playing snooker.

The next population of students who have difficulty improving their English language skills are accountants, export-import managers, middle managers, vice presidents, and presidents of domestic and international companies, all of whom I have taught English to. This group of students have been on the job ten to fifteen years or more and are now finding it very important to communicate effectively in English- primarily a result of Globalization and the expansion of international business. In many of these cases, as in the two examples above, other factors interfere with the students´ performance and their goals. Many domestic and international company professionals are burned out by the time English lessons begin, usually at five or six o´clock in the evening. Eyes red from overwork and subtle complaints of nervous ticks in muscles, high blood pressure, weak immune systems, and other maladies associated with overwork and stress impede these students progress in improving their English language skills. This age group of students considers time with family and sleep as their primary off the job interest. With middle age and deteriorating health the days of playing snooker and drinking Soju after work with co-workers have long past.

So, to sum up, every age group has its own barriers that prevent the acquisition or improvement of skills involving the English language. Of course there is the exceptional group of students, those of every age that persevere and succeed in their studies.