Learning Foreign Languages builds bridges, throws walls down.

Speaking a foreign language is building a bridge.

Last week my daughter graduated in civil engineering with the big dream of building bridges in the future.

She likes the structure of bridges but the meaning of bridges has always been in her soul: bridges connect people, give the possibility of exchanges, of meetings of understanding.

And it was strange to think that when I graduated in foreign languages I thought the same because speaking another language gives the possibility to communicate with others in a more complete way and understand each other.

This same idea led me to teach my language:Italian.And I discovered many people feel that speaking other languages give the possibility of better communication and understanding among cultures.

“Among people, language is the primary means of communication. It is through language communication, spoken or written that we are able to share our ideas, opinions, views, and emotions with another person. The purpose of language is making sense of complex and abstract thought.”

After many years of learning and teaching I have just a couple of suggestions:

1.do not think you’re too old

Many people think they are too old to learn a foreign

It may be true that the younger brain can more easily absorb information. However, an adult has something a child may not have: the motivation .It can be just pure love for languages, love for somebody, love for a place, business or necessity, Motivation is so important

“I am interested in language because it wounds or seduces me.”
― Roland Barthes, The Pleasure of the Text

2.do not pretend to be perfect when speaking a foreign language

Too much attention to detail can limit progress. Aim for communicative competence rather than lexico-grammatical perfection. Remember that even talking in our mother language, we make mistakes or do not understand perfectly well what the others are telling us. Accept mistakes and be proud to communicate with others.

You are building bridges towards many other cultures and exciting worlds to be discovered.