Personality and Foreign Languages, ilazed, italian language, ita tips

Translated by Alanna Quintyne

This article called “Personality and Foreign Languages” talks about how much our personality traits can affect our ability to speak a foreign language and how much time we need to feel comfortable and ready to speak. I think this is an interesting topic because to me, it is stimulating seeing how different people start learning and speaking a new language, in particular Italian!

If you are curious to know more, keep reading!

Have you ever thought that the ability to learn foreign languages can be influenced by personality? Have you ever met people who without much effort begin to speak languages that are not their own?

I decided to write this article as a result of observing my students struggling with Italian. In it, however, I will not focus on the most frequent errors or techniques for improving a language, but only on personality and how much it can affect speaking ability.

There is no point in denying it. In the Western world, strong, independent personalities who are not afraid to take on new challenges have an advantage, and although I am sorry to admit it, the same principle applies to speaking ability. Speaking a foreign language benefits from being loose and uninhibited, from not being afraid to jump into a conversation or make mistakes.

Personality: the two extremes

If I were to describe my students to you, I would tell you to imagine a straight line at the ends of which are people with clearly recognizable characteristics:

- The reserved ones: people who are shyer but also more precise, who need encouragement and reassurance, and who want to master as many rules of grammar as possible before speaking.

The talkative ones: boisterous people who burst with energy from every pore, who are eager to talk from the very first lesson. Often, however, it is necessary to contain and restrain them, giving them the right directions and corrections.

As we move away from these extremities the characteristics become less and less defined, and it is increasingly difficult to be able to find such distinctive traits.

I know it is pointless to point this out, but if the purpose of all language learners is to communicate, the second group, the talkative ones, will have an advantage even if their first sentences are not error-free.

But what does all this mean? Does it mean that it is impossible for less spontaneous and more reserved people to learn a foreign language?

Absolutely not. I’m just saying that reaction times between the two groups are different. The more taciturn students can be compared to cars that need more time to get started. They, in fact, study all the grammar rules thoroughly, acquire a great deal of vocabulary, do exercises and read a lot, until they reach the point where they put together everything they have learned and finally speak. And they often do it even better than talkers.

Personality influences our ability to speak

Surely you have noticed that in this text I have not talked about how much personality affects language learning, because if you study and try hard everyone, and I repeat everyone, gets results. Instead, here I focused on communication and the time it takes for students to speak.

To recap: those who are more talkative, exuberant, and extemporaneous will speak almost immediately, resorting to trial-and-error learning that will eventually lead them to learn the language “on the field,” that is, by speaking it from the start.

The more taciturn will also master the language by following a different path and timeline: storing as much information as possible before they are ready to speak.

Conclusion

Whether you are part of one extreme or the other, don’t worry. Virtually anyone can learn a new language. In fact, if you are passionate and apply yourself, whatever your character, the results will come.

Be wary, however, of those who claim that in order to learn a language you have to be gifted. This is absolutely not the case. In fact, as I have written before, there is no talent or miraculous recipes that magically make us understand everything and speak fluently. But the things we really need to succeed are time, perseverance and motivation!

How about you? Are you talkative or taciturn, do you agree with what I wrote or not? Write it down in the comments!