When I met my Italian husband eight years ago, I was unwavering in my decision to learn the language. Having learnt Spanish a few years earlier at University, I thought that this would be easier. I would be living with someone that I could converse every day in Italian with. Now, I have never been the best language learner and every other language I started I have more or less quit in the early process. 

I knew learning a language was difficult. But finding my way with Italian has been a gritty process. I feel with Spanish the words are somewhere deep in my head, but with Italian the words haven’t stuck the same. Now ten years later, the struggle to remember new words has become that much more of a challenge. Things don’t stick the same way anymore, instead words slip from my mind like oil with water.

An old proverb comes to mind, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. And it is true, over time learning, especially a language gets more difficult. Being an English Language Teacher I see the proof of this everyday. Though this doesn’t mean that being older always means you are at a disadvantage. Albert Costa from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra mentions that it is easier for adults to learn vocabulary than grammar, because the words can easily parallel the learner’s current knowledge.

Though we know languages are difficult to learn even more for adults, the benefits may outweigh the struggle. With age we are all susceptible to age-related decline, mainly to our attention and memory. But maybe the challenge is worth it, a lead researcher Thomas Bak says, “Learning a language later on in life might be more beneficial than learning it earlier, because it takes more effort”. He goes on to mention that learning a language as an adult is like doing physical exercise, such as a walk for your health.

I am now many years into my journey of learning Italian and there is still so much to learn. There are moments when I am upset or frustrated because I feel that progress is crawling along at a snail’s pace. It still make many mistakes, failures and have many painful moments. For example asking my mother-in-law for a teaspoon (cucchiaino) and instead saying cocaine (cocaina). Despite this, I still have much desire to get better and improve.

As Marie Curie said, “I was taught the way of progress is neither swift nor easy”.