Learn English – What do you call a person who starts learning something before you do

single-word-requests

For example, someone who started learning and playing badminton five years before you do, under the same instructor. Another example, like a senior person in the same school.

Thanks.

Best Answer

Words like forerunner, precursor, and predecessor may serve:
forerunner, “a runner at the front or ahead”, also “a forebear, an ancestor, a predecessor” • precursor, “That which precurses, a forerunner, a predecessor, an indicator of approaching events”
predecessor, “One who precedes; one who has preceded another in any state, position, office, etc.; one whom another follows or comes after, in any office or position”