Learning a Foreign Language

by Alan Wallach

Years ago, more years ago than I care to mention, my wife and I with two sons ages 8 and 6 moved to Italy to live, specifically to Milan in the industrial north. I was offered a job to work for an Italian engineering company which was looking for an American manager for their infant computer systems division. How I got the job is a story for another day. I want to talk a little about learning the language, or foreign languages in general.

Americans as a group don't learn foreign languages. They are usually required to study one in school but most never reach even a level of basic conversation. One of the most significant features of living in a foreign country is the opportunity to learn the language. But it doesn't happen automatically for Americans. Why is that? I'll give you a few reasons in my experience.

First, people in a foreign country tend to live near each other. You need only look at our country and the history of these immigrant groups. Neighborhoods with ethnic flavors were the result of immigrants to our country grouping together. Even today, there are immigrants who have been here for years and barely speak any English. Americans tend to do the same. This is compounded by the fact that people in foreign countries want to learn English and they work at it. So an American in a foreign country is overwhelmed by such people. If a serious English speaking person tries to speak the native language, they are swept back to English and fall into the rut.

When I was set up in my office at the Italian company I had newly joined, I was assigned a secretary whose English was so good, I didn't have to speak Italian. Her father was an engineer who worked abroad so she went to an American school as a child where he was working. The employees working for me wanted to speak English so I managed to meet only those employees who spoke some English. I didn't understand the significance until my secretary went on vacation. Her replacement didn't speak a word of English. I was amazed at how fast I started to learn at that point. The result was that when my original secretary came back we made a pact. No English except at the end of the day. In six months, I was fluent enough to meet and communicate with everyone and even more significant, converse on the telephone which has no body signals or context as a crutch.

My wife went to school to learn Italian and did well. My kids went to the American School and learned almost no Italian. Fortunately, I didn't think so at the time, the American School raised its prices to cover the construction of a new school. The cost was more than I was willing to pay. So I sent my boys to an Italian school. They went and in one year, after some initial suffering, they were completely fluent in Italian. But the advantage we had as Americans were that we lived in a neighborhood where there were few Americans. Some, yes, but they spoke Italian for the same reason we did.

My advice is, if you ever get an opportunity to live in a foreign country, make the effort to learn the language. And go out of your way not to live in an American enclave. If you want to get the feel of Milan, read my novel Moffett's Wife which you can get via my website alanwallach.com or look it up at Amazon.