l have read in English a lot of novels that have intrigued me. I notice that I, in my latter half of my sixties, can understand almost all that is described in them. However, I am still faced with difficulties in expressing my ideas in English clearly, and do not speak it fluently. I think that my vocabulary is unbalanced, or rather, different from that of young Japanese people who speak English fluently but do not know great writers such as W. Somerset Maugham, one of my favorite writers, even by name. I want to assume that learning a foreign language could have different meanings according to the age of learners. I cannot afford to spend too much part of my precious time trying to "balance" my English vocabulary.

As an English teacher for around 15 years now, your comments caught my attention. I agree young and older language learners have different priorities and experiences, but I believe an even bigger gap lies between those who genuinely love language learning and those that learn a language only out of necessity.