Take the bull by the horns.

Take the bull by the horns.
 
At the age of twenty-eight I decided to go back to school. Until then I had made a living as an electrician. Some of my friends were surprised at my decision. To give up my standard of living did not make any sense to them. To me the very idea of working as an electrician until the age of sixty-five was intolerable. This occupation was not the job I chose. When I was fourteen years old my father asked me to choose between three years of training either as a locksmith, a welder or an electrician. I choose to be an electrician. In 1975 I enrolled in a nearby school for adult education.
One day a guest lecturer visited our school. He claimed to be an “expert” on education. He called the whole concept of adult education into question. “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” he asserted. Without thinking twice I knew he was wrong. What can one learn from such experiences? Do not believe in experts who know “the truth”, who do not consider different scientific concepts. They are happily married to a theory.
 
Experts as well as teachers can influence your decisions in a positive or negative way. As an adult you yourself are responsible for your decisions (Of course, there are very complex issues where you depend on expert-knowledge).
 
What about language learning? How would it influence your wish to learn a language if a teacher told you when you were a child: “you don’t have any aptitude for languages”? If you believed that he was right then his “analysis” could become a so called self-fulfilling prophecy.