Lionel Messi is arguably the greatest
footballer to have ever lived. I played when I was younger but haven’t done
so for the last few years because of injuries. There were some things I was
good at and some things I wasn’t so good at. Messi is 35 years old and apparently
started playing when he was 5; that is 30 years of playing football almost
every day (with small breaks for holidays/injuries). Maybe Messi is only better
than me because he has played more than me? If I played the exact same amount
of football as him, would I be just as good as he is?
Unfortunately for me, the answer is a categorical no. But why? It’s a simple answer: Messi has more talent than me. But what exactly is talent? Football is a sport that humans invented; it isn’t a naturally occurring thing. As a result, a ‘talent’ for football isn't something we can quantify. I believe what people mean when they use the word ‘talent’ is in fact a combination of natural attributes that humans have. Football can require a lot of things – balance, speed, power, agility, coordination, spatial awareness, and many more. The reason why Messi is better than me at football is because he has high levels of all of these attributes, whereas I definitely do not.
Do you need talent to learn
a language?
I’ve heard lots of people use a
lack of ‘talent’ as a reason not to learn a language. Just like the football
example above, I don’t believe there is a natural ‘talent’ to learn a language.
Once again, this is instead made up of different attributes that help you in
your language learning (for example, a good memory or ability to spot patterns
in a language).
Having attributes such as those
above is a bonus and will help. However, if we don’t have them, does that mean
we can’t learn a language? Just because I can’t play football as well as Messi,
does that mean I can’t play football at all? Once again, the answer is a categorical
no. I believe this idea comes from the bad habit of comparing ourselves to
other people. People may look at Messi and say “He is incredible. I just don’t
have the talent to play football like he does. I give up” They may also look at
Steve Kaufman (a Canadian man who speaks around 20 languages at various levels)
and say “He is incredible. I just don’t have the talent to learn languages like
he does. I give up.” These are dangerous habits, because they make us think
that we can’t do something just because somebody else is better than us. And we
try to make excuses by using the word talent, and pretending that it's something natural that we either have or don’t have. In life, there'll always
be someone who is better than us at something. This doesn’t mean that we can’t
be successful at it as well.
Talent vs hard work:
There is a famous quote made by basketball
player Kevin Durant:
Hard work beats talent when
talent fails to work hard
Another football player,
Cristiano Ronaldo, is also regarded as one of the best players of all time.
However, one of his former coaches described him in this way: “He is the most
dedicated of them all. The most talented, he might not be.” This idea has been
repeated by other former players and coaches in the past as well. This isn't a
criticism of
Ronaldo; I'm a massive fan of his. This just highlights that there have potentially
been lots of players who had more ‘talent’ than he did, but he was so dedicated
and consistent that he became one of the all-time greats.
Whether it’s sport, language
learning, or anything else, if a person has lots of ‘talent’ (a combination
of natural attributes that make somebody good at something) but doesn’t display
dedication and consistency, they'll have less success than somebody with less
‘talent’ but works harder. I believe this is the outcome in most cases.
In language learning, your
dedication is the most important factor. If you really commit
yourself to the language, you will learn it. If a person has an extraordinarily good
memory but doesn’t work hard, they won't learn a
language as well as someone who does. In my 5 years of language
learning, I'd say I’ve had success in the languages so far. I have no
special talent, but I’ve worked really hard and stayed committed.
Summary:
For those reading who hate
football, I apologise for all the football references, but I think they can be
quite important to understand that this idea of ‘talent’ for something isn’t as
clear as people may think. There are more details involved when talking about
talent, and it’s also something that is often less useful than pure hard work
and dedication.
Hard work and dedication will
bring you success. I’ve heard people say “I don't have any talent to learn
languages, so I gave up” far too often. This ‘talent’ is made up of various different
attributes that may make language learning slightly easier for some people than
others. This does NOT mean that we cannot learn a language just because we
think we don’t have this ability. Everyone can learn a language. It all comes
down to how much you can commit yourself to the process.
Key vocabulary:
Arguably – something that some people (but not all) may
believe
Categorical – without any doubt
Regarded - seen or thought of as something
Criticism – expressing comments about someone’s potential
mistakes or problems
Extraordinarily - very unusual and more extreme than most
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