Wrong question

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Buondì.

Last week’s article “Got a question about your language-learning? Where to ask it” generated precisely zero response, but OK, I’ll assume that all twenty-two thousand club members know precisely what they’re doing so don’t need advice.

On the other hand, I need a topic to write about.

Two things come to mind: first, people often write to our Italian language school in Bologna wondering if they might be too old to learn Italian. And secondly, our rescue animal has been expanding his vocabulary in recent days, which is exciting!

OK then, Bug is a little over a year and a half old, and has made impressive progress from helpless newborn to today’s fifteen-kilo bundle of restless energy. He can walk, run, climb steps, cross rope bridges, reach up and grab knives from the kitchen table, and open doors. Unfortunately.

As regards human language, he understands a lot, and not only the obvious things (park, toys, TV, pappa (= ‘food’ in baby talk) but a wide range of words and structures to a greater or lesser degree (“Stop howling, Tom’s still asleep. Do you want to wake him up?”)

But his actual speech output is much more limited.

He ciaos everyone he meets, which charms people, and can say ‘grazie’ on occasions, especially when given a treat. ‘Mamma’ is frequent when he’s upset or wants something, as well as referring to the person currently fulfilling that role, and ‘nonno’ (grandpa) for more or less any man, including myself, Tom (voice of EasyItalianNews.com) and surprised neighbours and strangers.

Yesterday, though, he blew me away.

Collecting him from the petting zoo each day means dragging him a block or two to where we illegally park the car, past noisy trucks and vehicles, interesting stains on the sidewalk, things to climb up or jump on, and holes. Especially holes.

One of the buildings we pass has, at Bug’s level, a series of vents to cellars, blocked more or less effectively by metal grills.

At some point in the past, to distract him and keep him walking carwards, I explained that the first vent was the entrance to a bear’s den, the second one had a mouse living in it, the third one contained a dangerous snake, and so on.

Passing the first vent yesterday, there was a painful drag on my arm as Bug stopped dead to peer down the hole, to spot the bear. I pulled harder and we trotted on to the second vent, at which point a little voice said, quite distinctly, “topo” (= mouse).

I was delighted, proud, and couldn’t wait to tell ‘mamma’, who agreed that Bug is an exceptionally talented little animal. Smiles all round.

See where I’m going with this?

Bug’s gone from linguistic zero to ‘ciao’, ‘grazie’, ‘mamma’, ‘pappa’, ‘tee vu’, and now ‘topo’, but it’s taken NINETEEN MONTHS.

It’s not exactly rapid, is it? And yet I’ve heard people say – at least a thousand times – that the young learn language so quickly! Compared to us old crocks…

It’s categorically not true, of course.

The other day I was chatting to a little girl in the park (next swing along from Bug’s) and she was going on and on, told me her name, her sister’s name, that her dad had promised to buy her something but that he wasn’t working now so didn’t have the cash, and so on.

In ten minutes or so I probably found out most of what there was to know about her and her family. But then, as she told me, she was SIX (so at least 72 months), in her first year at elementary school, and learning to read and write, which she was very good at, of course.

A chatty child, true, but within a limited and very familiar range of topics. When I asked her where she stood on tariffs and Ukraine, she just blanked me.

Remember your first day at work? I bet you had little idea of what was going on, and didn’t understand everything your new colleagues were saying. I started my career in a British tax office, where it took months before I had even the vaguest idea of what was happening. The post-college world seemed so complicated…

But that’s normal, you’ll be thinking, and you’ll be right. As adults, we’re totally used to the linguistic challenges of new situations, and to figuring them out as best we can, assuming we can be bothered. So much so that we rarely admit to NOT understanding our own language (listened to any of the music that teenagers dig, recently?)

Adult language is vast and complex, because it reflects adult life, about which there are many, many things to say. But adults are great at dealing with that.

Kids, of any age from cubs upwards, are much, much more limited, and the time they take to mature (say from birth to first day of a proper job) is measured in DECADES, not weeks or months.

So then, are you too old to learn a language?

Wrong question, I’d say.

Compared to a child (any age from zero to puberty) you’ve got way more cognitive resources, way way more, a lifetime’s worth of accumulated talents and experience (if you’re a pre-pubescent club member and have read this far, I’ll eat my words.)

At the school we get plenty of adult students, of all ages, from late teens up to seventy or eighty years old. The average varies, but we’re an ‘older’ school than most, becuse of our marketing (such as this article…)

For that reason we can easily compare performance/age.

Sure, there are older people who don’t learn much, or learn less than they’d hoped, but there are others who do exceptionally well, just as there are weaker and stronger youngsters.

The kids, though, are used to being in a classroom, doing what the teacher asks them, and generally going with the educational flow. After many years in compulsory education, they’re likely quite relaxed about the whole process (the ones who weren’t already dropped out…)

Everyone had favourite subjects at school, but also things they disliked and perhaps were weak at. So goes it. An adult language class is just another day at school to the youngsters.

Older adults, on the other hand, might have a lifetime of successful professional achievements under their belts. They’re university professors, medics, business people, they’re citizens, home-owners, with retirement plans.

They will be, for the most part, successful and self-confident.

Wherein lies the problem.

If ‘am I too old to learn a language?’ is the wrong question, what might be better ones?

Start with the obvious one, the answer to which is likely to be ‘no’: do I have experience learning a foreign language?

If the answer were ‘yes’ then nothing further needs to be said. You did this before, so learn from that experience.

But it invariably isn’t ‘yes’, and it’s that lack of previous language-learning experience that potentially leads to all the other worries and stresses.

So, like most people in the USA, Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland etc. you have no experience learning a foreign language?

No problem, or at least, not necessarily a problem.

Do you have reasonable expectations? Or do you, for instance, expect to go from zero to full professional proficiency in a few weeks?

OK, you’re realistic about what can be achieved. Great!

Now, are you flexible in your approach to learning something you’ve never done before, in such a way you can overcome the inevitable setbacks and so persist for the necessary time?

A proportion of adults aren’t, though learning a foreign language can actually help with that!

There are lots of other questions I could ask, but one thing that really matters is never enquired about.

Are you good at keeping your mouth shut?

Obviously language schools don’t ask potential customers if they know how to behave in a learning situation, but go into any adult classroom and you’ll easily spot those who don’t.

In a beginner or very low-level class, taught only in Italian (most Italian schools in Italy use Italian as the sole medium of instruction), it’s easy to spot the impatient:

– I didn’t understand! (Did you expect to, like immediately, like really?)

– Can you explain that in English? (And so waste everyone’s time on something irrelevant in a language they might not know?)

– How come those (younger) students can do this and I can’t? (They’re native Spanish speakers, so it’s easier for them.)

– How can I translate (whatever irrelevant thing you insist on telling the class) into Italian?

Adult language learners can typically go from zero to ‘conversational’ in a few months, and reach ‘proficiency’ within a year of full-time study.

But should an adult learner be a confident professional person with ample life experience, it’s improbable that they’ll ever be nearly as good in their foreign language as they are in their native tongue.

I know I’m not. Not in any of the several languages I can interact in, certainly not in Italian.

If that’s something that the confident professional person struggles with, problems result.

Hence the ‘am I just too old to learn Italian’ enquiries.

Nope, not too old, but you could be too inexperienced, too impatient, too inflexible, or too insistent on communicating your every thought before you have the linguistic resources to manage that.

Bug doesn’t expect to be able to say whatever he thinks, I’m fairly sure.

If he wants to watch TV, he brings the remote.

If he’s hungry, he trots into the kitchen and wants to be picked up, so he can see what’s on the stove.

If he’s angry, or unhappy for any reason, he howls.

Teeenager humans – the ones that legend has it are so much better at language learning than elderly adults – are just used to classrooms, unused to adults caring what they have to say and, in any case, mostly focused on their own stuff.

They don’t therefore kick up a fuss when lessons aren’t going their way.

What about you?

Are you patient and flexible enough to learn a foreign language?

Do you have realistic expecations?

Do you enjoy listening to other people?

Would it bother you that those other people can communicate better than you can?

Are you able to keep mostly quiet for the few months it will take for your foreign language skills to develop?

Then you’re good.

Alla prossima settimana!

Half-Price Ebook of the Week ‘Roma città aperta’ (B1) £4.99

The current half-price Italian ‘easy reader’ ebook was chosen because it was April 25th, the eightieth anniversary of Italy’s liberation from Nazi occupation (in World War II, for those who slept through history lessons…)

This one is from our ‘easy reader of the classic Italian movie’ series, so it’s the simplified story of the movie. Read/listen to it first, then find the movie online and watch it in Italian! We don’t promise you’ll understand everything, but our ebook will certainly help, besides being valuable reading/listening practice material itself.

Love movies? We have plenty more ‘film easy readers’. Browse them all here (though the others are not half price, sorry!)

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• .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
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• Comprehension questions to check your understanding
• Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
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Remember, this week ‘Roma città aperta‘ is 50% discounted, so just £4.99 rather than the usual ‘easy reader’ ebook price of £9.99!

Buy ‘Roma città aperta‘ just £4.99! | Free Sample Chapter (.pdf) | Italian Movie Easy Readers | Catalog

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P.S.

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The regular text + audio bulletins are a fantastic, FREE way to consolidate the grammar and vocabulary you’ve studied, as well as being fun and motivating!

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