Michele:
the thing to remember, when you are afraid of making a fool of yourself, is that no-one else in the class is going to know if you have made a mistake or not, only the teacher. In my advanced Spanish writing and reading classes at the U of M, conducted entirely in Spanish, I have some students with great grammatical knowledge and fabulous accents, others who are less fluent. I tell them every semester that this is not a competition. During oral discussion, i.e. the entire class, the other students don't pay as much attention to eachothers responses as they do to the teacher. They are not able to detect the errors that I hear immediately. And they would never laugh or snigger at a mistake because they understand that the language classroom is different to all others and they would hate to be laughed at themselves by people more fluent than themselves.
The reason why a language class is so different is because you start from the position of a knowledgeable, speaking adult with experience in the world. However, your ability to express 'yourself' , your sense of 'you' is limited to the vocabulary and grammatical structures you have learned to date. So, it can get frustrating in that sense. But, everyone in your class is in the same boat and they are too busy freaking out about their own performance to really care about yours.
I have never had students laugh and snigger at eachother's mistakes, even when I have taught required beginning and intermediate language classes. Actually what happens is the reverse: over the course of the semester the students and I form a community that is unique to the academic system. In a language class more than any other the students and teacher get to know eachother and enjoy eachother's company. When you are in a large physics class or English 101, you are one person lost amongt hundreds of others, there's little chance of forming a community there.
But in my classes I foster a relaxed learning environmnent where, as the students get to know eachother, which happens quickly because you are forced to share so much personal information together, they actually become one large support group. They cheer eachother on when someone has mastered a new concept and displayed that mastery. They laugh at eachother's anecdotes and personal mishaps when we do oral work and presentations, but here the laughter is at the anecdote itself, not at the person's shaky grammar.
And as Kathryn says, older students are a delight to have in the classroom. They are prepared, do all their assignments and on time, are the most respectful members of the class and do not have attitude problems! Your teacher will welcome you with open arms!
Remember that you will be embarking on a learning experience/process and not a competition to see who can master the language the fastest. If you feel nervous during class, just ignore the others and do your own thing. Never be afraid to speak and give opinions. Firstly because you are a unique individual who has as much to contribute as anyone else. Secondly because if you don't make mistakes, you can't learn from them and correct them. Thirdly, because if students don't collaberate and contribute the teacher cannot teach! Students who participate make the language class possible. otherwise, what? We sit in stony silence?!?!?!?
Learning another language is an adventure and being able to speak the language of a country when you visit opens doors for you that the English speaking tourist cannot enter. The Italians will love the fact that you can speak to them in their own language, you will be showing them how much you value their culture.
Michele, have fun with Italian, OK? And let us know how you progress!
Clare
