Can one have a natural talent for learning languages or Does everyone have an equal point of departure?

 Can one have a natural talent for learning languages or Does everyone have an equal point of departure?

Some people can learn a foreign language faster than others, that is a fact. But why does that happen?  Is learning a language a matter of talent?

My parents were born in Portugal and my in-laws in Spain. If it were not for the fact that my son used to spend part of his days with his grandmothers when he was 5 years old, these pieces of information would be irrelevant. The fact is that learning how to speak, read and write while being around people who spoke differently had a great impact on my son's foreign language learning process later in his life, his environment stimulated him to find patterns in what he heard.Back on one of those days, I was doing my nails when my son asked me; "Mom, do you want me to get you the nail polish remover?". The thing is that in Portuguese, polish remover is called 'acetona' and he said 'azetona'. At first, that was noted as a cute, funny mistake, but then, being a teacher enabled me to notice how smart his mistake, in fact, was. 

My mother-in-law always pronounced /s/ when words had a /z/ sound in Portuguese. She would say Marissa (Marisa), aceite (azeite), aceitona (azeitona), cassa (casa), belessa ( beleza), etc... These Spanish interferences in my mother-in-law´s Portuguese speaking were never ignored by my son. On the contrary, he found a pattern in my mother-in-law's way of speaking and reversed it. If she said Belessa, he should call acetona, aZetona. It makes sense, doesn't it?

Another episode related to patterns of language in speaking happened  when he said; ' bees’ are on the table' which in Portuguese would be 'As abelhas estão na mesa'. The curious fact is that he had noticed that the definite article in Portuguese (o, a) is used before singular nouns - , a vaca , a geladeira, a cadeira.. - So when he listened to people saying ' abelha' he infered that the name of the insect was 'belha', 'a belha'. Therefore, the plural form would be “as belhas”!

I cannot say that my son’s abilities to find patterns in languages is something innate  or if it was developed by his exposure to different ways of communication. The fact is that being attentive to patterns and details is a fundamental skill in the learning process of a foreign language.  Every language works differently. However, there are patterns, similarities and differences to be noticed. Developing this skill might be key to learn faster and more efficiently.

In short, the classic debate of whether people can have a talent for learning languages or if everybody has an equal point of departure remains. The truth is, learning a foreign language successfully depends on many factors (exposure level, learning environment, student's personality, teaching strategies...). Nevertheless, your willingness to notice, that is, your curiosity of the target language will always be the most important amongst them. Curiosity and creative thinking fuel the desire to look for answers and notice little things that make you more successful in learning. At the end of the day, attitude is more important than any predisposed talent.

Marisa Bernardes holds a B.A. in Language and Literature – Portuguese and English- from Universidade São Marcos, a Post-graduate in English language from Universidade de São Paulo- USP and a Proficiency certificate from the University of Michigan. Marisa also runs a blog and an Instagram page called @Entender_pra_Aprender.