What do you really need to learn a foreign language?

Every evening while doing his Spanish homework, my son complains that he is "NOT like me" and "he does NOT like Spanish” and that he “ONLY wants to speak English”…while I admit…I do become slightly irritated that he is not a “language lovah", I realized long ago that your children, most of the time, do not share your interests and they are their own people. Much to my dismay, of course. When I found out my daughter is severely allergic to horses and could not/should not ride, I had a two week mourning period that she would never ride like I do and that we would never ride together as I had planned.

So, I started thinking about it and asked myself what really makes a person “language learning friendly” and what do you really need to be able to learn a foreign language.

While complete immersion in the target language, being the child of parents whose native language is the one you are trying to learn or living in the destination country are all fantastic options and help a lot, these three options are not easily attainable by most would be language students.

Here are my thoughts:

A very good memory-The ability to memorize entire pages of vocabulary and then be able to visualize them during a test or while in conversation is a huge help. I always say that is the number one attribute you need to learn a language. It has never failed me in my pursuit of languages.

Passion for the language you are learning-Spanish was a very popular language to take in my high school; but Spanish never called to me. French did. Had I taken Spanish, I may not have done as well as I did with French because I didn’t have the passion to learn Spanish as I did with French. Choice of language is VERY important and only you can make that choice. After French, Japanese called to me. And now it’s Italian (such a beautiful language) and the ancient, written language Sanskrit (yes, I am readying Sanskrit 101).

Repetition-Revisting the day’s lesson at night is a must. Repetition = Remembering as far as language learning is concerned. The more you look at it, read it aloud, pronounce it over and over again, the faster you learn. Partnering with a friend who is a native speaker or studying the same language is a huge plus.

You don't need to be BRILLIANT to learn a foreign language; you need to be passionate, have a good memory, be willing to put time into studying and reviewing each day. Language learning can be FUN!