At 57, I Retired and Discovered I Didn’t Know Grammar at All

Last September, I turned 57, sold my business, and officially retired. I thought a part-time gig teaching English online would keep my mind sharp. So I signed up for a TEFL course.

Then came the shock.

I realized I had no idea what a past participle was. Transitive verbs? No clue. Formal grammar felt completely foreign to me.

For 30 years, I ran a brand strategy agency. I wrote every day—proposals, creative briefs, client emails. Words were my business. Yet I’d never once had to classify them.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Many TEFL students discover the same thing. You can be a fluent, professional writer and still struggle to name the parts of speech.

Why Grammar Feels So Hard

Most native speakers learn grammar intuitively. We know what sounds right, but we can’t explain why. When a TEFL course asks you to label a sentence’s structure, your brain hits a wall.

It’s not a sign of low intelligence. It’s a sign you learned language naturally—through listening, reading, and speaking—not through rules.

Think of it like driving a car. You can drive perfectly well without knowing how an engine works. But if someone asks you to teach driving, you suddenly need to know about pistons and fuel injection.

That’s what a TEFL course does. It asks you to open the hood of English and look at the engine.

Common Grammar Challenges for New TEFL Teachers

Many course participants struggle with the same things you are:

–Parts of speech – Nouns and verbs are easy. But adverbs of frequency, determiners, and subordinating conjunctions? Those take practice.
–Tenses – You use 12 tenses without thinking. But explaining the difference between “I have gone” and “I had gone” requires careful study.
–Sentence structure – Complex and compound sentences feel natural. Breaking them down into clauses? That’s a new skill.
–Transitive vs. Intransitive Verbs – A verb that needs an object (I eat an apple) vs. one that doesn’t (I sleep). Clear when you see it, but hard to recall under pressure.

The Good News: This Is Totally Normal

TEFL course materials assume you’ve never studied grammar. They guide you step by step. Most people find the first few weeks the hardest.

After that, patterns start clicking. Your intuitive knowledge of English becomes conscious. You’ll start hearing sentences like a detective noticing clues.

One veteran TEFL teacher told me, “The best teachers are the ones who had to learn grammar themselves. They understand their students’ confusion.”

What to Do If You Feel Overwhelmed

–Don’t panic. This feeling passes. Everyone in your course is struggling too.
–Use online resources. Websites like Grammarly, Purdue OWL, and British Council grammar guides break down complex topics.
–Practice labeling sentences. Take any paragraph from a book or news article. Identify each word’s part of speech. It’s like a crossword puzzle for your brain.
–Join study groups. Other TEFL students need help too. Explaining a concept to someone else is the fastest way to learn it yourself.

A Retiree’s Perspective on Learning

Retirement doesn’t mean your brain goes dormant. In fact, the best retirement activities challenge you. Learning grammar is like planting a new garden. The first few weeks are dirt and confusion. But soon, you’ll see sprouts of understanding.

You ran a business. You wrote for a living. You’re not a dunce—you’re a seasoned professional who happens to be new at something. That’s not failure. That’s growth.

Keep going. After the grammar hurdle, you’ll start planning lessons, connecting with students, and rediscovering the joy of the English language.

Teaching English online at 57 isn’t just possible. It’s a second act you’ll love.