Learning Italian for Adults: Pros and Cons of Being a Parent

In my lessons I regularly hear: 'I just can't get the words in!', 'One night I study them and the next evening I forget them!' A source of frustration, that stamping of words. I understand. When I was still a student in Italy, I was jealous of Italian children I heard speak and who were already much better than me. But children learn a language differently than adults.

100 years

Years later, when I lived in Utrecht and was already a teacher, a lady approached me at an open day at the Volksuniversiteit where I worked and wanted to introduce me to Miep Schilt. Miep was 100 years old and still wanted to improve her Italian. A few times I visited her at home and we read Manual of the Guerriero della Luce by Paulo Coelho. She thought it was a beautiful book and we read it together.

Sometimes we interrupted the reading and I explained something to her about grammar. It only lasted half an hour and then we went for a walk. She must have been on level B2. She had started learning Italian at an advanced age, but had persevered.

Learning at a higher age has advantages and disadvantages, which I would like to discuss for you in this article.

Older Brain

Adults have a different brain function. In the brain, information transfer takes place via synapses, connections between cells. The elderly no longer make new connections in the brain as easily as children or young people.

'Great people' will therefore have to learn in a different way. They can also learn a language but they need different qualities than children. There are already more connections, paths that have already been laid in the past. These are also subject to what they mean in Italian milinizazzione to mention.

They become stronger when re-travelling existing connections. Older people have it prune also more difficulty remembering new things. Bee prune connections in the brain that are not used become useless.

Motor skills of habituation

Adults have developed their own motor skills. Motor skills, I hear you think? I then think of the movements of your mouth that you make to make certain sounds. Many children in Italy grow up on a rolling r, know the The- or gn-sound from home.

When a Dutch person comes into contact with those sounds, it takes some getting used to. People stumble over words and have trouble pronouncing them. I still have trouble with the word association because it contains 3 different s/z sounds.

We adults will then have to master the relevant mouth, tongue and lip movements. This is possible, but it will not happen automatically. See, for example, the article I wrote about practicing your Italian pronunciation.

The disadvantages of learning in old age

Nowadays, much attention is paid in education to the process of learning to learn. How do you learn effectively and efficiently? Older people are often accustomed to different teaching methods, based on different insights from another time. That's okay, but you can choose to move with the times. Perhaps it is much more fun to do it in a different way and you also learn something from it.

1. Stamp, translate and copy

If you're old-fashioned, you may be used to stamping everything in the old-fashioned way: words, grammatical sequences, sentences, and so on. That's a way of learning that appeals to many adults, but it's not the most effective. Words and sequences alone are nearly impossible to remember. Your brain wants them in a context, they have to be linked to something.

Nowadays, the theory of language teaching places much more importance on learning through play, with more attention to speaking and more practical skills.

If you are not concerned with the goal, but the language is a means to achieve another goal, you learn while playing. You are less afraid of making mistakes and you acquire knowledge in a natural and spontaneous way. However, adults often see 'playing' as a waste of time and fear losing face when speaking to others in another language. So try to let that go.

Contemporary linguistics also stands for deliberate practice. A concept from didactics that is about purposeful and effective learning. Choose your exercises yourself, be aware of your strengths and weaknesses and evaluate and learn from your own mistakes.

2. Old-fashioned keys

Older people sometimes have a different view of testing. It can be a source of fear: appearing in front of the teacher, the failure of fellow students if you did not know something and the reprimand from the teacher.

Today, fear is no longer seen as an effective tool in the learning process. However, some students still swear by quizzing words in public. Today, tests are used formatively, that is to say: for the student himself to gain insight into his progress.

It has now become an individual process that no longer focuses on comparing with others. You can take those CILS or PLIDA exams officially, but also unofficially, in order to gain insight into your progress. There are plenty of syllabi with old exams from previous years.

3. Everything in Dutch

Adults are also sometimes used to receiving language education in their own language (Dutch). They panic when I start talking in Italian because they don't understand everything. However, maximizing the target language is essential for learning a new language, which is why many teachers promote target language = language of instruction in the educational world.

Opinions differ about the effectiveness of grammar explanations in Italian for beginners, I do this in Dutch according to the principle that what should be offered to a student should be in his zone of proximal development.

The benefits of learning in old age

If you read the above information, it is easy to get discouraged. There are certainly hurdles. But there are also advantages of being a little older. I'll list them for you.

1. A larger frame of reference

Adults have a larger frame of reference and therefore learn associatively. The brain already contains all kinds of knowledge to which new knowledge can be linked. Take advantage of that.

Because there are already many connections in the brain, the elderly can link new words that they have to learn to existing knowledge of French or English. Or hang words on a coat rack: making groups of words from words that belong together can also be very helpful. You then make optimal use of the knowledge you already have to acquire new knowledge.

2. Intrinsic motivation

Your motivation is intrinsic. You start with Italian because you want to and not because you have to. Of course it will sometimes be difficult to persevere, I have for that some tips. A genuine motivation is always beneficial and has a very good influence on the learning process.

3. Better at abstract thinking

As an adult you are better able to think abstractly and are therefore better able to understand language phenomena and grammar than a child.

4. Reflecting on your own learning process

If they want to, adults can reflect much better than young people on their own learning process. And that benefits the speed and effectiveness of the learning process. You realize that you will not speak fluent Italian in a year.

In short: use what is to your advantage

Of course you can choose to keep learning by stamping, translating everything and doing the same kind of exercises endlessly. You can also choose to be guided by the teacher and jump in at the deep end and adjust your knowledge about the world.

In short, you will be slower than a child in acquiring the Italian language. But adults can also achieve it if they are self-critical, learn and persevere.