Learn, Improve, Explore…

It’s a question everybody seems to ask. I asked the same thing before and after I got here, it always went something like this:

“how long before I can have conversations?”,

“well…”,

“how long before I can understand the news?”,

“It-”,

“Oh just get to the point will you! How long before I can chat up an olive skinned Italian girl?”

I remember my first day in class, it was the beginning of October, the sun was shining (as it always does in Rome), it was 27C, I was wearing shorts and a Hawaiian style T-shirt, with my pale English skin from another wet and heat-less summer. Apart from the large number of girls in the room, something else peaked my interest: Across from me sat a tall, curly haired, dark skinned guy, reading a newspaper………… in ITALIAN!

What? How could this be?

This is the first day of class of level one, don’t forget.

I later learned that this guy was Mexican, and therefore speaks Spanish, a mongrel version of the other Latino language, Italian. Italian and Spanish speakers understand each other, they just can’t speak each other’s language.

Having been at the school for a while now (JH: that’s coming up to three months now Duncs, eh?) I was surprised by the difference in how quickly people are able to speak Italian. Spanish speakers learn the quickest because the words are very similar, or the same. Then comes Portuguese and French speakers, because they are Latin languages and also share much of the same vocabulary and grammar.

Then, unfortunately, comes the pain.

It generally goes like this: English speakers have the least difficult time, then comes German speakers who find it slightly more difficult. Any languages similar or descendant from these are similar.

Lastly, infamously, comes Japanese and other Asian languages. English speakers who want to learn Japanese have been called masochists; and based on this I can only guess how it must be for the Japanese. The cultures of Italy and Japan couldn’t be more diverse. A friend at school told me a story of when he was was a tourist in Japan and asked for directions. In their respectful and polite custom the Japanese gave the directions, and my friend went off only to be followed quickly and secretly by a small Japanese man. Upon turning a corner and being out of sight, the Japanese man jumped in front of my friend and bowed.

“Escusse me, Sir, but he have given you the wrong direction.”

It turns out that he did not want to offend the first one, as it would be a large blow to his honour, and a sign of disrespect. The man bowed again, and left.

Now contrast with the Italian culture, on a busy street, mopeds darting here and there, bad tempered exchanges between drivers. Or, consider how the Italians speak their mind. Italy is a culture where talking is central to life. As more than one teacher has told me, in Italy, “if you don’t speak, you don’t exist.” And, if you don’t say anything interesting, you don’t exist either. It’s not like other countries, such as England, where you can quite easily go through a whole day without speaking to anyone. Not in Italy – people are constantly talking to you, to ask for directions, for an ‘accendino’ (girls keep asking me for one), people you don’t know stopping to tell you everything about their day, and their life. In Japan they never say ‘no’, as it is too impolite, but find some other way, however in Italy they will tell you about every problem and perhaps they even enjoy a good argument. On the contrary, I once knew a Japanese who had perfected the art of never answering a question wrongly in Italian, by making answers inaudible or a mix of all possible alternatives, then happily nodding his head in agreement after the correct answer was given. You can see how a Japanese person would have trouble, or could even suffer from a nervous breakdown.

It’s the opposite in my native England, where famously, people are too embarrassed to ask each other to close the window, and will just sit and get cold. A view on your own culture and other cultures is something you gain from studying and socialising with people from different countries.

The point is, nobody will tell you the answer to ‘how long will it take me to learn Italian?’. As important as it is to know how long you need to stay for, especially if you are doing CILS or need to get to a certain level for University or something, you will never know how long it will take beforehand. There are too many variables involved, including, age, having learnt another language already, your own language, whether you have practised the sorts of things that help in learning languages, or not. In my case I studied engineering, and all the neurons in my brain are on the side that deals with understanding, rather than memory. Memory of course is important for learning languages.

With all things being equal, there are things which I’ve been told by teachers, and have actually seen, which separates students who come here and learn quickly, from those who don’t. Firstly: willingness to speak Italian outside of class at all times. Secondly: taking advantage of the Tandem service at the school, wherein you meet to speak with an Italian in Italian. Thirdly: speaking up in class and asking questions when you don’t understand. People who have done these things I have seen make surprisingly fast progress, to the point you could say “this person speaks Italian”.