language learning

It was at a language-teaching conference in Karaj (mid March 2000) when I raised the question: "why do the European students learn English better than their Iranian mates?"
There and then I myself had a queerly obscure idea as to the possible ways to approach this question, but after experiencing teaching college students, about to leave their teen years, in Germany and Belgium, I have a gathering clear vision of the scopes of relativity by dint of which one can address this question.
1. Cultural backbone: as English belongs to the European club of Germanic languages, and the European students are more or less familiar with the European state backdrop of history and culture, they have the advantage of having the presuppositional and presumptuous awareness of European state history and culture, while Iranian students are barely even aquainted with their own culure, let alone a western and long-incriminated language as such. Say, when you name Ann Frank for instance at a school here, everyone has already read the book and knows a lot more beyond the limiting borders of its history. But say Leonard Cohen's "Halleluja" and ask how many Iranian students have ever heard of it, not to ask about its storyline. You may say that Iranian students know enough about Islamic cum Quoranic stories of for instance Moses, but do you think it gives enough to know Abosolum Absolum or to interpret why Christians cross swords with Jews. What is the concept of an Irnian student when they are reading "A Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock" ? Do they know Lazarus? Do they know John the baptist? What about " A Clean Well-Lighted Place" when Hemingway makes a parody of Our Father prayer?
2. Language affinity: basing the discussion on the fact that the Germanic languages are of one big family, we can understand why a Polish, Dutch, Swiss etc student learns English faster than an Iranian student. It's enough to master the phonological mutations as morphology remains almost the same in the deep structure while an Iranian student should learn the lexicon plus pronunciation plus culture capsules in exact contextual situations. Examples are so ample that I can't limit myself to one or two.
3. Channels of communication: they are open for European students: we listen to Roger Waters, Madonna, U2, K3 etc, we discuss (Speaker's Corner) daily political issues condemning this and that, we watch film excerpts, we use the internet inside the classroom, we take day or week trips to England, we disscuss contemporary novels and poems, we watch English TV channels and watch films in original language, in short we live with English, we sleep and wake up with English, we play games with English and nothing can hinder this in an open society. But which one of these we had back in Iran when we were learning and later teaching English? Our teachers here have at least two MA's who work only 20 hours a week (as full-time) and are not obliged to have a second job....., our students are free and are not squeezed between fake and phoney superego moral teachers in society and natural exigencies of life.....

This can be extended to further more discussions but I'm pressed for time now. Misschien later!