Exposure to a foreign language at a young age can increase the chance of an individual learning a language successfully. Because infants have a greater capacity for picking up on language nuances, they are more likely to adapt to more than one language if they are presented with them. Also, immersion into a place that speaks only a foreign language provides individuals with flexible characteristics that make trying new words and speaking new languages enticing.
Two more characteristics of successful language learners are their personalities and their attitudes in general. Persons with outgoing, dynamic personalities find it easier to converse with people who speak different languages. Also, those who tend to be more adventurous or extroverted usually feel more comfortable with practicing their language skills at any given opportunity, making them more successful at learning other languages.
An individual who is good at mimicking may be also be a successful language learner. Mimicry is a talent or characteristic that involves a natural ability to match verbal tones and sounds. The ability to mimic others enhances learning abilities because those individuals can hear and repeat subtleties in the pronunciation of foreign languages. Also, those who can mimic well can detect differences in regional dialects and accents, allowing them to sound more like native speakers.
Another characteristic of language learners is the ability to strategize. The process of learning a new language can be complex, and those who can partition the learning process into steps, strategies and methods have a better chance at learning the structure and grammar of the language. Also, those who spend a lot of their time studying and learning other subjects may find that learning a language comes more easily to them than it would to someone who is not an active learner.