Can introverts learn languages?

Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here.

Shiny there... Today, I'm going to talk about introverts and language learning. Do you need to be an extrovert in order to learn languages?. You know, there are so many myths surrounding language learning. You need to do this. You need to be that. You have to be musical. You have to have an ear for music. Some people have a talent. I don't have a talent. I don't believe any of that. I don't believe you need to be an extrovert to learn languages and I'll tell you why.

Because language learning comes down to the three keys.

And I've said it before and I'll say it again, number one, attitude. You have to be interested in the language. You have to like the language. You have to believe you're gonna achieve your goal. And I'll just stay with that for a second because it's very important.

If you're looking for something around the house and you go looking in a closet or through your different pants pockets, say you're looking for a key.

If you're convinced that the item you're looking for is there you'll find it, in many cases. But if you're not really sure that it's there, you kind of halfheartedly look and in the end you don't find it. So you're determ... you're belief that you can achieve your goal is very important and I think there, very often, the first-time language learner has a problem because they've never done it before. So... but that's one part of attitude, enthusiasm, interest, dedication and so forth. Attitude is 70% of the battle.

Number two is time.

You have to spend the time. You have to spend a lot of time. Language learning takes time. It's not three months to fluency. It takes a lot of time every day for many, many months or longer.

And the third thing you have to do is develop this ability to notice.

You have to, you know... so often people are stuck with the way words are written in their own language and they don't listen to how it's pronounced in the new language. They'll constantly translate expressions from their own language into the new language and they're not paying attention to how things are said in the new language, so alertness, attentiveness.

Now, none of those three things, the attitude, the willingness to spend the time and the attentiveness to the language, none of those three things require you to be an extrovert.

Introverts can just as easily have those qualities. So, you know... and if I look, for example, at LingQ at some of our members in our wonderful community, many of whom speak several languages, many of whom I've spoken to in a variety of languages, I wouldn't call... some might be extroverts, a lot are introverts. It's irrelevant.

And, you know... if we look at the sort of main language-learning activities, an extrovert may want to get out there and speak right away and not worry about what he or she doesn't understand and wants to show off the few phrases that they have.

And that's all good. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm not really an introvert, but I don't do that. And that's not a necessary condition of language learning. I derive immense enjoyment from listening and reading and building up my vocabulary, building up my familiarity with the language, and these activities... which are so enjoyable to me.

Right now, last two weeks I've been listening to Italian.

I've been listening to podcasts and audio books and reading and really getting into the language, deriving great enjoyment and thereby refreshing my knowledge of Italian, acquiring new vocabulary and so forth and so on. It doesn't require me to be an extrovert. These are all introverted activities, if you want. I'm communicating with the language and through the language with the culture, but I'm not required to be an extrovert to do that.

My goal, eventually, is to speak and I know that these activities improve my ability to speak.

Now, an introverted person may be more inclined to be, you know, afraid to expose their shortcomings in the language, the mistakes that they're going to make. Maybe they're more afraid that they're going to sound, you know... less educated than they are, less intelligent than they are. It's possible. But the solution, nevertheless, is to engage, in this... in my view, these input-based activities. Build up their familiarity, their vocabulary, their comprehension skills, so that when they go to speak they will feel more comfortable.

Because introverted people, don't necessarily... I see no evidence that introverts are less capable in their own language.

I see no evidence that they have a smaller vocabulary, that they read less, that they understand less well, that they're interested in fewer things. So if that's true of their own language, I think it will be equally true of a foreign language or a second language. They may behave differently, you know... in the new language. They may speak less you know... at some gathering.

However, introverts, typically, when they are very comfortable, they usually have a lot to say, a lot of things of substance to say.

If you're an introvert, devoting yourself to input-based activities such as we do at LingQ, lots of listening and reading and building up your vocabulary, this is going to make you more comfortable because when you go to speak you will have better listening comprehension, a bigger vocabulary. You'll be better able to defend yourself and that's going to make you more confident.

So, I think that very often the idea is that people who are extroverts and love to talk are going to do better.

I think, initially, it's a bit of a tortoise and hare situation. I think they'd be more like the hare, off the bat they're speaking more quickly. But in the long run, in terms of all of the language skills that we normally talk about, listening, reading, speaking, writing, vocabulary, accuracy, all of these things, I don't think the extroverts have an advantage.

So that's my take on whether being an introvert is an obstacle to language learning.

I'll be very interested in hearing your opinion. I'll remind you again that I want to hear your opinions, but it doesn't mean that I will agree with these opinions. Sometimes when I ask for opinions, someone gets on and makes a comment and then I don't agree with that comment. I've had this sort of thing ‘Well, if you didn't want my opinion, why did you ask for it' kind of thing. I don't have to agree. We can exchange opinions. I won't convince you, you won't convince me, but it's interesting to see a variety of opinions.

So there you have it.

Thanks for listening and I look forward to hearing from you. Bye.