Learning a New Language

My cousin had a formal engagement on the 28th February at 3.30pm. I am told that after class, I was to head to her place via train. All dressed up, I went to la mia corso d'italiano (my Italian course) at 1 in the afternoon. It is situated adjacent to Raffles Hotel. The class was rather exciting as always. During break, we had a thoughtful discussion con la mia insegnante (with my teacher). We discussed about the personalities people who wants to learn a new language have. A handful of those in my class have also learnt francese (French) which was of an advantage but that's besides the point.

I realize that for someone to learn a new language, he has to first have the interest in the language. Of course not only of what I have mentioned, but also the country of origin, its culture, tradition, people, etc. This truly makes the learning process of the language colourful. Better if it is 3 hours straight with an interval at an hour and a half.

Then, he has to be committed to learning it. It is only right to pay for something you will want to pursue in or to add on a necessary skill or perhaps to kill probable time. It is more like a motivation he has to have that keeps him wanting to learn everytime.

Thereafter, he needs to be patient. Learning a new language, especially at a certain age, is hard to absorb.

As it is scientifically proven, a younger mind is able to absorb knowledge faster than of someone who is older. I don't believe in the proven fact because young kids have more motivation to learn about things. They do not have a purpose as to why they are learning it and they tend to pick up anything they are taught. It seems rather fascinating and of awe to them. But to someone who is older and is able to divide the purposeful things and the unnecessary ones will probably not be able to 'want' to absorb as much. As to what I think, they narrow things down in their mind and start pushing away unwanted knowledge that they think would not benefit them. To make things simple, what I mean is that 'they don't care'.

That was simply a side tracked subject but more towards elaborating it in a more detailed manner as to how I think. I may not know what your reactions are to how and why I think it that way, but that's up to you to decide. I would love to hear your comments, grazie.

So, back to patience. There are a million things to learn about a new language but it definitely needs a lot of patience to make the learning work.

Picking up words of a different language is almost the same as picking up a new word from the language that you know and am familiar with at an intermediate status or expert. Only thing is, it is spelled differently and pronunced differently. That's how I look at learning a new language - learning new English words.

Well, with all the characteristics in mind, anyone would be able to learn any language be it as a mother tongue or something novel. That would help much.

We carried on with the course and as I was about to leave the building, I could see through the main glass doors that it was pouring heavily as it is now. What went through my mind was the array of food that would be served at the engagement ceremony. I had my stomach tuned to what I would expect at her place. I had not eaten lunch then. Avevo molto fame ( I was very hungry).

Fortunately, a classmate drove 4 of us to a train station and we departed from there. I received a text saying I was to head back home because the ceremony was over. I knew I would miss it.