In my experience, attitude is aptitude when it comes to language learning.
Some language groups are more receptive to "others" learning their language,
and more encouraging. Learners from certain origins are also more willing to
try to learn and mix in.  Some "people of colour" already have several
languages and find it easier, whereas others, say from East Asia, do not ,
and have more trouble.

 It also varies according to individuals. An English Canadian can feel
intimidated or reluctant to try French in Quebec,  and immigrants may feel
varying degrees of willingness or confidence to try to communicate in
English. I have seen no evidence that this is based on colour. This has
never come up at LingQ and we have members of all origins, many of whom live
as immigrants in English speaking countries.

I am a firm believer that language learning is, for quite a long time,
largely an input based activity, and therefore the attitude of the native
speaker does not matter. The attitude of the learner does. Listening, over
and over to the same content at first, and then covering more and more new
material, reading this content to mine if for words and phrases. And when
the learner has enough familiarity with the language, and enough vocabulary,
the learner feels more confident in speaking. So for the first period in the
country  the immigrant simply has to accept the fact that he or she is
limited in the language, and has to make every effort to get as much
exposure to the language as possible. Those that do usually manage to learn.
Those who stay within their own language community, only watching videos
from home and reading only in their own language, do not do as well.

I think that the phrase "of colour" is greatly oveused. Differences are more
likely to do with education level,  cultural background and individual
differences.

Steve



-- 
Steve Kaufmann
www.thelinguist.blogs.com
www.kpwood.com
604-922-8514
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