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Kat Takes on Italian - TAC 2011 - Team í | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| diabolo menthe Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5966 days ago 68 posts - 70 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Swedish, Japanese | Message 1 of 14 10 July 2010 at 10:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have been working on my Italian for a long time, but very on and off. About a year ago I started a journal on
here in order to try and motivate myself, but quite soon after that my life took an unexpected turn and my language studies were really put on the back burner. So I would like to try again, from the very beginning, and with a new set of "tools". Background My language learning history is mostly made up of a near lifelong partnership with French. I grew up in Belgium and was placed in a French-speaking school by my parents, and so I was fortunate enough to be forced into learning the language by necessity. After that time I have continued to study it actively, and it has given me an interest in branching out to other languages, nominally Italian, German, Swedish and Japanese. But I have gotten quite tired of gathering bits and bobs of languages, and really want to invest my time and energy into building a very firm grasp of just one. And so I have chosen Italian. It is a beautiful language, and most importantly I find it really engages me more so than any of my other languages at the moment. Goal To achieve intermediate fluency over the course of a year, hopefully more. At the moment I feel I am at a mid- beginner level, I have a very easy time reading longer and slightly complicated texts, can keep up with spoken passages on certain easier topics, and can construct basic sentences on a series of subjects. My reading I think is very strong, but this is likely due to my background in French as well. What I really struggle with is the confidence to write or speak to native speakers. I would like to feel more comfortable actually using the language. At the moment the only materials in my possession are Assimil and Barron's "Mastering Italian Grammar". I am planning on doing an hour a day for now of active studying, and then adding onto that some films and listening to music in my spare time. I will report along the way, and see if anything happens! If you took the time to read along, please let me know if you've done the same or have any interesting caveats or pieces of advice! Edited by diabolo menthe on 07 January 2011 at 12:54am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Dripdrip Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5517 days ago 58 posts - 62 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Italian | Message 2 of 14 10 July 2010 at 11:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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Italian's a great language. I, too, want to learn it. It sounds good, but it looks weird on the page. All the best for your studies.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| diabolo menthe Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5966 days ago 68 posts - 70 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Swedish, Japanese | Message 3 of 14 19 July 2010 at 12:18am | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you for your well-wishes!
Well, it has been a week since the great declaration has happened, and things have been going quite well. I have well and truly started from the beginning, going over the basics of articles and pronouns before finally moving on to the present tense. I have put a few of the first Assimil lessons onto an old iPod that I've decided to dedicate to the cause, and listen to them at work (my job is suitably dull and inane enough to be able to study at the same time), and acquired the Barron's Complete Grammar Review from the library. I don't know if I am just a real geek or what, but I really enjoy doing little fill in the blank exercises and trying to find the errors in sentences. Also, I am a huge fan of the footballer Gianluigi Buffon and for some ridiculous reason there are videos of him on YouTube just talking about what he eats before matches, and what he likes to do in his spare time, which are exactly the kind of thing beginner learners need to use! I am also waiting on a possible language exchange that is starting up between me and a woman in Rome who is trying to perfect her English. Hopefully it will be very lucrative for both parties involved! All in all, I would say that so far this has been quite successful. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| xandreax Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5893 days ago 142 posts - 160 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 4 of 14 23 July 2010 at 10:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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"I don't know if I am just a real geek or what, but I really enjoy doing little fill in the blank exercises and trying to find the errors in sentences."
Yup, me too! I'm one of those people, though, who could go through a workbook on grammar of the language and not once become bored. The language exchange is an excellent idea! And I'm interested to see how the Assimil lessons and "Barron's Complete Grammar Review" (which I've looked at many positive reviews for in the past on amazon.com) work out for you. They both seem like excellent materials to use for learning. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| diabolo menthe Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5966 days ago 68 posts - 70 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Swedish, Japanese | Message 5 of 14 12 December 2010 at 9:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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It has been a while since I have updated, but I have made considerable progress. Due to my job, I have access to
university level Italian courses for free, and I am now half-way through my first year. I am looking forward to the knowledge that I will gain from this, but at the same time I am wondering what sort of qualification I can get from it. Were this England I would gladly do a second bachelor's degree in Italian, but here in Canada it would mean taking courses I am not at all invested in in order to get the qualification. We'll see about that part. I have also started watching more films, and am now reading a novel in Italian (which has proven thus far to be easier than I thought! I suppose it is a more basic text...) The only thing I am still missing is a verbal exchange. For anyone else learning Italian, what was successful for you? Did you have a friend over the Internet to exchange with, or did you find someone in your own town to help? Did you just wing it? Any advice would be appreciated! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5123 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 6 of 14 13 December 2010 at 12:12am | IP Logged | ||
If you are interested in more than just the language aspect of Italian (history, geography, etc) there is a three year Laurea program offered through www.italicon.it. Most of the studies and tests can be completed onlne, with only the semester and final exams needing to be sat in person. The semester/final exams are offered in most major cities throughout the world. Three years is a pretty big investment, but upon completion, your knowledge of both the language and culture will be quite well-rounded. R. == 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| diabolo menthe Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5966 days ago 68 posts - 70 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Swedish, Japanese | Message 7 of 14 13 December 2010 at 12:43am | IP Logged | ||
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That sounds excellent, thank you for the link. I am indeed interested in all aspects that shape the language and
culture, so it sounds like a good fit. Did you do it yourself? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5123 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 8 of 14 13 December 2010 at 2:21am | IP Logged | ||
I did. Completing the program was enough to get me accepted (well, I needed to take another test too) into the specialistica program within the Italian University system. I think very highly of italicon. You will learn more about the language, the history (including some ancient), the geography, the migration patters of the people, how modern media developed in the 20th century, etc. - more than you probably thought you would ever want to know. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful |
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