How I learnt five languages

I’ve always had this curiosity pushing me towards what I didn’t know. Ever since I was little, I wanted to learn everything, most of all languages. I was fascinated by the fact that people could communicate in a way others couldn’t understand, and that words carry the power of bonding people, the spirit of a culture, the past and present of a group of individuals with something in common. Then I had to accept the fact that learning every language in the world was nearly impossible. But still, in some ways, I tried to quench my thirst for knowledge.

Let’s start from the fact that I am not an English native speaker. I was born in Italy (so of course I can speak Italian), and started learning English at the age of 6. After primary school, at 11 years old, I started learning French, and three years later German. I’ve been learning these languages until today. Now I have a C2 level in English, and a B2 level in French and German. How did I do that?

Well, from my experience I can say that the one and only rule and principle you need is

you need to include that language in your daily life.

You won’t need tons of textbooks or hours of repeating grammar. Of course, you will need some basics and you’ll need to understand some of it, but the real game-changer is consuming content in the language you are learning. Listen to podcasts or songs, watch Youtube videos, TV series and films, read books. This really helps you engage in the learning process, making it a habit that becomes part of your life, not only school. You will become familiar with the pronunciation, new vocabulary and the use of that language, involving all of the areas you need to know when learning a language.

Writing is also a foundamental part of the process. In order to really master a language, you need both “input” and “output”. By this, I mean that you have to consume that language from the outside (by listening, watching, reading and so on), but you also need to produce content yourself. It can be something simple, like writing down some words that you retained, ore something that requires a little more effort (but is extremely efficient) like writing a diary, even just a few pages.

I won’t lie to you: learning a language needs effort and a bit of luck. There are some people who are naturally inclined to learn languages more easily, and I am fortunately one of those. But that doesn’t mean that, if you find them difficult, you cannot learn them. Effort is a part of the process, but most of all you need passion. You need to be learning for yourself, not for impressing someone or getting a high grade in school.

What makes you go forward and face any struggle is the love you put in what you do. And that doesn’t apply to language-learning only. If you do something with passion it will surely come out good, no matter what. Try to find your spark and follow it. It will guide you to what makes you happy.