Can a teenager learn Italian faster?
Sometimes we tend to underestimate the skills of children and teenagers.
Think of a 5-year-old child. They already know and understand thousands of words in their own language without even studying or reading.
Now, imagine how many words a teenager knows in their own language. Add to that perfect pronunciation.
This type of natural learning that occurs during the early years of life is called language acquisition.
Being an adult and learning a foreign language like a native speaker is very difficult, if not impossible. And this type of learning is called second-language acquisition.
Thus, the younger you are, the easier it will be to become fluent in a foreign language.
So yes, generally speaking, a teenager can learn Italian faster than an adult.
Can a teenager become fluent in Italian?
Language learning is a very subjective process.
Becoming fluent in Italian depends on so many factors, such as:
- Your age
- Your native language
- Any other language/s you speak
- Your personality
- Your motivation
- Your dedication
- Your availability
- The setting/environment
As you can see above, one of the factors is age.
This means a teenager can definitely become fluent in Italian, but only as long as other conditions are met.
How long will it take a teenager to learn Italian?
We cannot give you an exact answer to this question since it’s very relative.
You need to think of the teenager’s specific case.
Let’s set different scenarios and compare the following three teenagers and try to guess who will learn faster:
- Paula: age 15, Spanish native speaker, doesn’t speak other languages but likes to talk a lot; is not very motivated but is dedicated and has lots of free time; lives in Spain and studies Italian at school.
- Mark: age 13, English native speaker, speaks fluent French, is very outgoing, motivated, dedicated, has lots of free time, and recently moved to Italy.
- Caria: age 18, Turkish native speaker, doesn’t speak any other language, is very shy and is not very motivated or dedicated and doesn’t have much free time; lives in a small village in Turkey and has some Italian relatives.
Mark is the most likely to learn faster. Why? Because he’s very young, he already speaks two languages, one of which is French, which is a Romance language (like Italian).
Also, he’s very outgoing, motivated, and dedicated, and he has lots of free time. He’s also surrounded by Italians.
We cannot say exactly how long it’ll take him to be fluent in Italian, but it probably won’t take him more than a few months, so probably between 6 months to a year.
Now, guess who will take longer to learn Italian, Paula or Caria?
Try to analyze both cases and support your answer with good arguments.
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