I am primarily an Italian teacher and, as Italian is not often taught as a foreign language in schools abroad, I frequently have A0-level students, which means absolute beginners.

If you think it's impossible to learn a language from scratch as an adult without living abroad, I can tell you from firsthand experience that this is not the case. My Polish, Irish, English, German learners of Italian thrive.

But they're not all the same. Of course, there are individual differences in the pace of learning, but also different interests, objectives, and intensity of effort. All of this is going to contribute to different end results.

Even some character traits can make it easier or more difficult for you to get started in a foreign language. Perfectionism hinders progress because you don't dare speak until you're perfect, for instance.

But that's not all. There are other factors that, in my experience, make the difference between "strong" and "weak" language learners. If you belong to the second category, some of your habits and mindsets are working against you.

The good news? You can change these habits and learn a lot in the process.

#1: Not knowing the grammar of your native language

Many native English speakers didn't learn grammar in school. They are well-educated, but have no idea what an article or a preposition is.

You can speak and write flawlessly in your native language without explicit grammar awareness, and you can surely learn other languages without knowing what a subject or a subordinate clause is.

Still, being familiar with grammar concepts can make learning faster.

Take this sentence: "The verb "insegnare", "to teach," requires a direct object in English, but an indirect object in Italian, so the pronoun we use with this verb will be different from the one we use with the verb "chiamare", "to call", which requires a direct object in Italian."

If you know grammar, this sentence makes sense to you, even if you don't know anything in Italian beyond "cappuccino." If you don't, this sentence doesn't make any sense, although you might well be fluent or bilingual in the two languages.

Grammar awareness makes it easier to understand how your language and your target language differ and how they're alike, and helps recognize patterns and schemata.

If you want to acquire this superpower, you can always learn grammar (especially if you plan on learning multiple foreign languages).

But if you hate the idea, be sure to use a contrastive grammar book (one that compares your native and target languages and emphasizes similarities and differences) and always, always, always note down examples to make sense of the rules.

#2: Insisting on translation

"How do I translate 'to take' in Italian?"

It depends. "To take a picture"? Fare una foto.

"To take a look?" Dare un'occhiata.

"To take medicine?" Prendere una medicina.

It's not that Italian is complicated and uses three verbs where English only needs one. It's just that there is no direct correspondence between words.

Of course, it makes sense to ask what the Italian equivalent of "bottle" or "cat" is. But when it comes to verbs, actions, figures of speech, verb tenses and modes, and any sort of language item that's a bit more complex than just objects to point at, languages are wild.

To avoid getting stuck, look up whole sentences rather than words and learn vocabulary in chunks, that is, meaningful expressions in context.

Learn what verb tenses do in your target language and accept that sometimes Italian requires two different past tenses where English would only need one, and only one present tense where English uses two.

Whenever you can, try to express whatever your idea is in a way you've already seen used in the target language rather than reinventing the wheel.

#3: Not grading your language

The learners who do this are quite often the same who insist on translating word by word.

If you're a beginner or even an intermediate language learner, you cannot expect to express yourself with the same level of precision you have in your native language.

This doesn't mean you can't express complex ideas and thoughts. But you have to simplify your language.

Let's say the sentence you have in mind is: "I didn't apply for the job because I felt underqualified and I was afraid of wasting everyone's time."

Now you want to say it in Spanish, but you don't know half the words. Rather than looking them up, stop and think: Is there an easier way I could express the same concept?

Maybe you could say: "I thought the job was too difficult, I am not good enough, I did not try."

Or if you're a beginner, you might say: "Job is very difficult, I am not good, I don't do it."

These are words you know how to say in Spanish. You may lack some nuances and details included in your original formulation, but on the other hand, you've been able to communicate.

Your takeaway: find the easiest way to say what you want to say using what you know.

To do that, try simplifying in your native language first (as I did in the example above). Then switch to your target language.

If it's still not easy enough, go back and simplify again. Repeat the process until you're left with the minimum viable concept you're able to communicate. And if you don't know any of the words you need, only at this point can you assume you are not ready to say it yet.

#4: Wanting to skip the drill

Sometimes, learners tell me, "Now I understand how Italian conjugation works." That's great, but they sometimes think this equals being able to actually conjugate them correctly.

Unfortunately, this doesn't happen without practice.

No matter how much emphasis you put on conversation, interactive learning, immersion, and any technique you can think of: some things (conjugations, case endings, declinations…) need to be automatized. Memorized. Drilled.

Yes, it's boring. Yes, it was extremely overused in the past.

No, you can't skip it. Not if you want to conjugate verbs, at least.

This doesn't mean the whole learning process should revolve around drilling. You can do textbook exercises, but then spend the rest of the time using what you've just learned in real conversation, in context, and so on. But in order to remember that "I eat" is mangio and "you eat" is mangi, the only thing you can really do is repeat, repeat, repeat.

#5: Not using challenging enough input

Almost all my learners hate listening comprehension exercises. Few things on earth are more frustrating than hearing people talking without being able to understand what the hell they're saying and then getting asked about it.

"I only got a general idea of what they're talking about, but I don't have any details! They talked too fast. And there were a lot of words I didn't know."

No matter if in class or outside, keep in mind: you are not supposed to understand everything.

If you're able to understand 30 to 70% of the conversation, depending on the objective of that particular exercise, you're doing great.

If you understand 90%, that input is simply too easy for you. You're not learning enough. And you don't want to get stuck, do you?

The Internet and textbooks are filled with free, graded materials. You can adjust the speed of reproduction, use subtitles (or not), and, for written texts, use AI to reformulate them in simpler words (I don't recommend it, though, because ChatGPT tends to dumb them down a lot).

As soon as you're able to, challenge your fear and tackle authentic materials. You don't have to read novels; a blog post about the Grammys works just fine.

Remember: It's okay to only get the gist.

#6: Only using relevant input once

The big question is: how do I go from understanding 70% of a conversation to understanding 90%? Practice.

But if you only listen to an audio once and then move on, if you only read a text once and then move on, nothing's going to happen.

You need to train your ear. You need to let the new vocabulary stick. You need to break apart sentences and then put them together again so many times that you memorize the new structures.

Listen to a two-minute YouTube video without subtitles. Then listen to it again, with subtitles. Then slow down the speed and try to recognize the words. Look up new words, create flashcards, then listen to it again and summarize it orally.

This is just an example, but you get the idea: don't just consume input passively, study it. That's why everybody always recommends engaging in topics you like in your target language: because, if you're doing it right, you're going to read and re-read and re-read (or listen to) it multiple times.

You can't expect to only read or hear a new word once and remember it forever. But if you work on it, it'll stick.

#7: Only using your target language during class or while studying

Not everyone can do immersion. But if you expect to learn a language by only getting in contact with it one or two hours a week during class or study sessions, your progress will be slower.

There are free online resources for any level. I'm not a fan of language apps, but I love how good Instagram is to learn a language.

When I was studying German, I started to follow any account that had "German" in the name: Learn German with X, Easy German with Y, German Daily with Z. There are tons of them, and the algorithm offers you more and more once it catches on.

Once you move from beginner to intermediate, you can confidently take authentic posts from national newspapers, but also regular accounts dealing with topics you're interested in: psychology, sport, food, travel, celebrities. The more you know about the topic, the easier it'll be to understand the posts, because you're likely seeing the same headlines and news in English, too.

Again, you're not expected to understand everything. At first, I could only understand a word here and there. Then, over time, I started to understand most of the titles, and finally, I became able to read the content and comments, too.

#8: Overlooking everyday topics

"What did you do at the weekend?"

"Where did you last go on holiday?"

These questions are so omnipresent in language courses that I am sometimes really sick of asking them over and over.

On the other hand, many "real-life" topics are often overlooked in books, courses, and videos.

One of my learners really struggled with small talk. Week after week, I would ask her: "What did you do at the weekend?" and she'd say: "I cleaned my apartment." She didn't do much apart from cleaning her apartment, meal-prepping, and watching TV (by the way, kudos to her: I never get to do all three). So our conversation would last two minutes maximum: not ideal in a language class.

That's why I prepared a whole lesson about cleaning: mopping the floor, doing the washing up, changing the bed, doing laundry…we had a fictional character (Marco) clean up his entire house and prepare dinner.

She learned a ton of new words she'll actually use. We disagreed about whether it's more annoying to dust the shelves or fold laundry. She actually spoke, and we had fun!

So, yeah: life is not only made up of restaurant dinners and summer holidays. Traffic, laundry, a leak in the kitchen sink, connection issues, or whatever your daily life is really made up of: there is no uncool topic.

#9: Overlooking pronunciation

I've always stated that beginners shouldn't care about having an accent. You can be fluent in a language and still have an accent, or if you want to get rid of it, you can work on it later on, once you master the basics.

But accent and pronunciation are two different things. If you stress the wrong syllable, people won't understand what you're saying.

And you, in turn, won't recognize the word when you hear it pronounced by native speakers (or anyone else).

Whatever you use to learn vocabulary (paper or digital flashcards, apps, notes, and so on), never omit the pronunciation. You don't need to learn the IPA alphabet: you can create your own conventions.

For instance, with my English learners, I always write the correct spelling of a new word, and then add a simplified "how to pronounce it" below.

I use smaller fonts for letters that are barely pronounced, cross out those that are not pronounced at all, and mark the stressed syllable in bold. If an "i" is pronounced /ai/, I simply write "ai".

If you don't like the idea of writing pronunciation, simply keep Google at hand and listen to the word whenever you're unsure.

#10: Relying too much on AI

The biggest challenge when learning a language without a teacher is the lack of feedback. When I was learning German, I used ChatGPT a lot to correct the texts I wrote (or the transcriptions of my monologues to practice speaking), and I found it extremely valuable.

However, just typing something and giving it to AI is not enough. If you don't work on the text first, you won't even remember what you got wrong and why, and you'll find yourself making the same mistakes again and again.

Something I find more useful is to write a text, re-read it carefully, try to spot and correct your own mistakes, and only then ask ChatGPT for feedback.

This might seem intuitive. But with all the support we have from autocorrect, AI, Grammarly, and so on, we risk never really stopping to re-read what we wrote and question our grammar, vocabulary, or punctuation. And without this critical reflection phase, feedback becomes less effective.

Also, please always remember that AI does make mistakes. It will give you contradictory answers, find errors when there are none, miss obvious ones, and not be able to satisfactorily answer complex questions about grammar or vocabulary.

It's still a great help if you don't have a teacher, but never trust it over your book, an in-depth Google search, or even a language lovers' forum thread.

Final take

Something I love about language learning is how flexible the process is. You can learn on your own or with a teacher, at home or abroad, in six months or three years, and most of what you do will work eventually.

However, these ten habits can slow down progress and therefore impact motivation and waste your precious time.

Change is never easy, but it can be worth it. Good luck with your language learning journey!