The Value of a Tutor for Learning Italian (or Any Language)

After a return trip to Italy in 2017, I was so frustrated that after all these years (of honestly, half-assed) studying Italian, the language was still such a struggle. My husband and I were leaving my beloved borgo of Viterbo and headed to the region of Campania when we were rerouted through Vitorchiano, another small town in the region of Lazio. The road was closed due to construction, and I had no idea where we were driving, except behind lots of angry, tiny cars and motorini. We pulled up alongside a traffic cop, and after a few minutes of exhaustive attempts, I understood we had to go three kilometers north, and follow the next detour until we could get back on our original road. I was so upset at how difficult it still was for me to communicate in the country I had come to love so much over 11 years.

Viterbo durante San Pellegrino in Fiore

A few months later, the idea of not half-assing my language learning was still pinging me. Never ignore what continues to ping you. Due to my intense travel schedule, I signed up for one-on-one tutoring through Fluent City, where a tutor would come to my house twice a week and work around my schedule (which just wasn’t fit for standard 10-week in-person classes). I loved it. My lessons quickly became my favorite part of the week, despite my struggling, because my tutor Luisa and I clicked, because I had never before known the value of one-on-one tutoring, and because I was seeing consistent, measurable improvement.

I’ve learned over time that everything in life is just like my journey into the world of running. Language learning is no exception. The first steps are the hardest, and physically the most painful. You have to push through those. One day soon you can run a mile and you feel like a damn champion. That measurable success keeps you going. Then you can run a 5K, then five miles, then a half marathon, then a half marathon starts to feel something unthinkable—it feels easy. Then your time is a little faster and you may even want to tackle a full marathon. Measurable, steady success keeps you going. Just doing it keeps you going. Running has shown me that quite literally anything can be done, and done well, that you’ve never done before. Runners often say you have to put one foot in front of the other. Just one foot in front of the other, every day, and you’ll get wherever your ‘there’ is. Language learning, my current ‘there’, is just like this. My lessons with Luisa are linguistic 5Ks and 10Ks (not sure I am at half marathon yet). Every day I am a little better, a little faster, a little smarter. Every day something that used to feel hard feels easier, and something new is there to make my brain hurt. One day direct objects are easy, one day the language flows out of my mouth (albeit, with errors). It is so simple, but it is anything but easy.

Teacher and student in Ischia

Over the past year and a half, Luisa has become a good friend. We chat about everything going on in our little worlds. I’ve visited her wonderful family in Ischia and seen her daily Italian life from her favorite negozi and pane to her preferred routes for an evening passeggiata. We’ve shared countless meals and tears together. She is a cheerleader for my language success, and also my life success. That bond deepens your learning capability, which is why this story is not unique. There are countless stories of students and teachers becoming close friends. I am lucky to have found mine.

There are many resources for learning a language, and one-on-one tutoring is just one. For me, nothing has been more valuable, more life-changing, or more enriching.