Why not? The web is full of blogs about self-learning languages like mandarin or japanese and as for english, you'll find plenty of free material to enhance you

Why not? The web is full of blogs about self-learning languages like mandarin or japanese and as for english, you'll find plenty of free material to enhance your learning experience. Also the average quality of today self-learning material seems to me to have improved a lot. I see the age thing as something that should ease the process of learning a new language, a well educated adult should have the right mindset needed to try to optimize his learning experience leveraging available material and new techniques. I don't see why someone younger should have a easiest way while studying a new language... AFAIK the myth of languages being learned faster by kids has been debunked a decade ago. And btw, if you are into mandarin, take a look into Michel Thomas audio-only course.