The Chelsea legend took the Cremonese job last month - his first as a senior coach. So far, from his first two games, Cremonese have won one and lost one.
Cole told The Mail’s Could It Be Magic? podcast: “I think the language is massive.
“It is important, and I struggled to get a number two. I literally jumped in the puddle, jumped in the mud, and just went… I’m just going to have to go. It was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down.
“And I was like, that is what it is. You know, you have to sink, or you swim, and right now it’s looking all right.
“It’s tough because I’ve never been in this position. I didn’t know what to expect.
“It’s been hard getting around the language a little bit. I lived in Italy for a year and a bit. My wife is Italian, but I don’t really practise speaking it.
“So you know going back to the basics again of understanding the little words to get me by.
“But now I need to continue to have conversations with players and just tighten up on my language a bit. But doing the 11 v 11 stuff, I didn’t do too much 11 v 11 as an assistant.
“So that would probably be the main difference, really, where you set up your team, how you are going to press, when you get in a mid-block?
“Are you going to set up? Are you going to be aggressive? Defend your box? It’s like a lot of details to get in.
“But like I said you know it is a challenge. But I’ve watched and been around enough coaches and managers to understand it and pick it up quite quickly. So yeah, it’s been good for you.”