Advice on learning Italian (Advice Center) Language Learning Forum

Advice on learning Italian
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19 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3

tarvos
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Message 17 of 19

17 November 2013 at 8:38pm | IP Logged

Serpent wrote:

True but you'll get the most out of a trip if you can understand the
cultural explanations in Italian.

I think not knowing the language and going to the country still beats reading it in a
book, it still gives you more tangible experience to connect to, but that is probably
more personal preference than anything. I also understand that this is not always
feasible.
1 person has voted this message useful

Donaldshimoda
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Message 18 of 19

18 November 2013 at 3:42pm | IP Logged

Sarnek wrote:

Donaldshimoda wrote:

catullus_roar wrote:

Italian songs - you'll
find that the
music is (at least in my
opinion) greatly exciting compared to the rest of Europe, and the songs from Sanremo
are especially good for learners. They're sung in a sort of soft-rap way, and have
many English translations of their lyrics online, but the clear way they're sung should
help you understand them. The following songs are a bit old but very classic of
Sanremo!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnddCs7-zqE Pensa by Fabrizio Moro, which is about the
Mafia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgExJlYONxY Luca era gay, Povia, very controversial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhvB734jnbg Ti regalero una rosa, Simone Cristicchi,
about mental illness.

Sanremo tends to exhibit many more songs, often by the above artists as well but I
chose these as they're more 'young' compared to some of the songs and yet follow the
same comprehensible style as opposed to slang-heavy pop or rock music...

Just be aware (as in every language)that lots of that soft pop songs have "weird"
lyrics in order to match metrically with the music. That could be a little bit
confusing for a learner....

For instance, a very simple sentence like YOUR EYES

spoken Italian -----> I TUOI OCCHI
within a song you could find --------> GLI OCCHI TUOI (and nobody talks like that)

That is important as well. Sometimes you might hear "gli occhi tuoi" even in spoken
language, but you need to understand that it's done to emphasise a particular part of
the sentence, like German does.

NEVER HEARD of " gli occhi tuoi" a single time throughout all my life..I just meant of
being aware that songs lyrics might be "insidious".
Assuming you're listening a song with "gli occhi tuoi", a beginner lerner might be
thinking he can easily switch words order as he wishes:
I TUOI OCCHI (spoken language) vs GLI OCCHI TUOI (kind of arcaic -"you'll never hear
that spoken).
Albeit he's going to be understood, he has actually learned something useless
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renaissancemedi
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Message 19 of 19

19 November 2013 at 7:54am | IP Logged

Watch the RAI channels, if possible. For me it has many advantages.

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