The bibliography pertaining to Language Acquisition is copious -both for first and for second languages-; nevertheless, it is too general to be valid for the specific purposes of translation. This paper will draw on the general features of a student of Translation Studies in order to look for a meeting point to make the teaching and learning of languages easier. From an empirical point of view, given the authors’ long experience of teaching foreign languages for translators, the authors look into the two languages which they teach: Italian and English, two very different languages at first sight which nevertheless converge in many of the teaching approaches. This analysis will yield some results which will allow the authors to propose some general approaches for a successful research and teaching of foreign languages for translators.