Learning a New Language

By Paolo La Rosa (545)

Some people think that studying a foreign language in the country where the language is spoken is the best way to learn the language, but other people think that learning a foreign language while living in your own country is preferable. However, there are several differences between learning a foreign language in own country or in another country.

When we learn a foreign language in the country when the language is spoken, usually the teachers are mother language who don’t speak our language. Therefore, the learning process is very difficult especially in the beginning, since it is impossible to translate sentences from our language to the new one because change the grammar and the structure of the sentences. Also, to communicate each other is difficult; consequently, it is possible to have miss understanding. Furthermore, the learning process is difficult because in the foreign country the culture, the society and the people are different than own country. For example, I’m studying English language in United States where the society, the culture and the people are different than my country which is Italy; also, all my teachers don’t speak Italian language and they don’t understand when I make sentences directly with translation from Italian language to English.

On the other hand, when we learn a foreign language while living in our own country, the teachers are usually mother language who speak our language. Consequently, to learn a foreign language is easy in the beginning, because it is possible to translate directly from our language to the new one since the teachers understand. Also, it is possible to clarify every doubt that we have asking the teacher and receiving the explanation in two languages. In addition, it is possible to learn the idioms easier than another country, because the teachers know how explain us these. Moreover, we learn the new language in a place with is our country, with the culture, society and people that we know. For example, my sister studied English language in Italy and she had a teacher mother language that spoke also Italian language very well. Consequently, the learning process was easy for her since she translated the sentences and the idioms directly from Italian to English and she had a opportunity to clarify all doubts that she had. Moreover, she studied English in Italy which was her country, so with the same culture, society and people than her habit.

Whenever learn a new language in the same country that we leave is easier than learn a new language in a foreign country, for me learn a new language in the country where the language is spoken is the best way to learn, because stay in touch with people with different culture, with different society and with people who speak only the language that I have to learn, is a hard but a good opportunity to learn the best pronunciation and is a really good life experience.
Paolo La Rosa