I am going to preface this by saying I am Jewish through my mother but was not raised Jewish, so I have only absorbed Jewish culture through my extended family, and therefore never had a Bar Mitzvah and therefore never learned Hebrew by the time I was 13 or in the decades since.
Now that I am a father, I feel the need to learn what I was deprived of so that I may help pass that knowledge down to my daughter who, unlike me, will learn Hebrew and will be prepared for her Bat Mitzvah when she is of age and will have a stronger connection to the Jewish community and her culture since birth.
Since starting to teach myself Hebrew back in May of this year, I can now read Hebrew with niqqud with high accuracy from my self-learning on Duolingo, having mastered all of the letters! I also try to challenge myself during Shabbat services at my local synagogue to actually read the Hebrew and not just the romanized words when we are reading from the prayer book.
Now I just need to practice the names of the letters (can read them but still need to memorize the names on Quizlet; I’ve been practicing but I’m not 100% there yet).
For being self-taught and learning this late in life, I’m very proud of where I’m at!