Stating the obvious, for those who haven’t heard it already

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Buondì.

We get quite a lot of new club members signing up each week. Most don’t stick around, which is fine, though some do. This is for them.

Also, it’s a reminder (and perhaps a reason to feel smug) for long-time club members, some of whom have been reading articles like this, with more or less attention and interest, for many years.

While not all our newer members are inexperienced foreign language learners, I guess that most are. And while not all of those who’ve been reading my articles for years have made much (or any) progress with Italian, I suppose most have.

So there’s a sort of typical ‘language learning arc of experience’ going on here. We start knowing little or nothing about learning a foreign language, how to, I mean. And by definition we know little or nothing about the language we’ve decided to attempt learning.

IF we get beyond the first steps, and many don’t, as the first part of the ‘arc’ is steep, then sooner or later we reach the top (like sitting on a rainbow!), after which it’s all downhill.

Again, that’s IF people make the right learning decisions, IF they avoid stupid traps that suck up their time in return for a false sense of progress, and, above all, IF they learn about learning itself, in particular what works well for them.

I wrote down most of what I know about language learning in this article: How to learn Italian (or any language).

So, we have the ‘arc’, the learning curve, the challenges, and the pitfalls. Many are called, but few are chosen. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Eventual glory is reserved for the gritty and persistent few (and those who avoid pissing off biblical kings.)

This morning, before starting work on the computer, I took a walk in the fresh air and sunshine. Not a long way, just down to one of the local gas stations, which has a PUDO (pick up, drop off) locker, used by our favourite app for the ‘spedizione’ and ‘consegna’ of the many secondhand garments, shoes, and assorted baby crap that Stefi and I spend our pocket money on these days.

I always select that particular PUDO to hand in/collect our parcels because getting there and back makes a nice thirty-minute walk along quiet streets and through greenery. The first blossoms are out here in Bologna and, after the recent rain, everything seems fresh and bright.

Anyway, as I walked I had my bluetooth earbuds in and listened to the news highlights in Swedish. And when I was done with explosions in apartment buildings and general worrying about the way the world is going, I switched to a French radio app for the final ten minutes of my walk, and listened to Parisians arguing about who lost the security plans for the forthcoming Olympics.

And the obvious that you were waiting for me to state?

Language-learning can be something you start, work hard at, then ‘finish’ – but it mostly isn’t.

Firstly, because learning a language never really ‘finishes’. You might ‘learn’ it up to a certain point, but what you have acquired will degrade or become inaccessible if not regularly accessed.

Also there will always be things you can’t do, or can do but would like to do better, or know you’re weak at but don’t care. As much time passes, your priorities sort themselves out.

Secondly, language itself is constantly changing: new topics come along, words and structures mutate in meaning and use, your kids and grandkids talk in a way, and about things, that are increasingly less-recognisable.

Insomma, a foreign language is like the proverbial puppy: not just for Christmas. You have to love it past the cute stage and the puddles of pee, though the years when it eats you out of house and home while demanding vigorous exercise more often than you have energy and time to provide it, and into the doddery twilight of fading vigour and absurd veterinarian bills.

Sure, you can ‘learn’ something of Italian, or any language, before a trip, for an exam, as a passatempo, to make new friends, and so on.

But you don’t really start learning until you realise that the race has no fixed duration, so no finish line. If you want to compete, you have to just keep running. Forever.

That sounds like hard work, I know. But it’s doesn’t have to be IF you can manage to keep the concepts of ‘studying’ and ‘learning’ separate in your head.

For instance, you might study for an exam, perhaps because you enjoy it, want something for your resume, or need to prove you reached a certain level for a citizenship application. Studying is learning activity directed at a specific goal, not learning itself.

Learning, on the other hand, is more like a friendship, a career, or a family – things that at first don’t exist, then the do, but change their form and meaning over time.

Think of Italian as a friend you don’t know yet.

You keep meeting up, perhaps you’ll fall out and not see each other for a while. The years pass, your other friends drift away, or die, and suddenly, when you come to think about it, Italian is your best mate!

Così.

But the obvious, Daniel???

The learning is in the contact, the exposure, the experience over time. No friendship, career, or family develops as you hope it will without sustained CONTACT.

Don’t study, I don’t care, I never do.

But if you want to ‘learn’ Italian (or any language) you need to be getting plenty of it through your eyes and ears and into your skull.

Ideally, though not necessarily, some of it will also flow out, around your tongue, past your teeth and lips.

Get input – I use radio apps on my smartphone, at least one for each language.

And I read sometimes. I have newspaper apps for Swedish, Spanish, French, Turkish, and of course Italian. But these days I can hardly get to them at all, this since Bug came to us in September.

He likes things to be dark and quiet around his cage in the evenings, or will raise hell, clattering and chewing at the bars. So we go to bed very early, not long after eating dinner and cleaning up, in preparation for a sure-to be-interrupted night.

Also, you should interact whenever you can – if you don’t have better opportunities, pay someone. I do a one-to-one in Swedish on Wednesdays, have been for years, so have probably notched up thousands of hours of chat by now.

Conclusion: if your foreign language isn’t a much-loved yet sometimes demanding pooch, then consider rethinking your approach.

See? It’s obvious.

Alla prossima settimana.

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P.S.

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Personally, I’m all up to date, so ready for Thursday’s and Saturday’s FREE bulletins!

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