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Vini’s TAC 2013 - Team Romulan

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
14 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
FireViN
Diglot
Senior Member
Brazil
missaoitaliano.wordpRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5231 days ago

196 posts - 292 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 1 of 14
31 December 2012 at 7:09pm | IP Logged 
Well, this is gonna be my (mainly) Italian log.

Background
Eeh. I have been trying to learn Italian for a long, long time. I haven't had the motivation or time to keep studying everyday, though, and I neglected language learning for a long time last year. I'd say I'm near B1, maybe. Oh well, a little introduction about myself first.

My name is Vinicius, I'm a 20 years old guy from Campinas, São Paulo. My entire family came from Italy, but they all speak portuguese. So... no native Italian speakers to help me. Anyway, I work full-time as a programmer and my major (I go to university at night) is not related to IT or languages. So.. yeah, I'm pretty much confused about what I want and have just too little free time.

Other languages?
I've been learning french for the Assimil Experiment, but I'll probably drop it when it's over. It's not really a language I'm passionate about. My focus will be Italian. I have this crazy interest in Turkish, though, and I'm thinking about tackling it later. I'm also interested in Mandarin, Swahili, Welsh, Romanian, etc. etc.

English
I'd say my level in English is near C1. I'm not sure about that, but this year I plan to solidify this level and get a nice score on TOEFL. I obviously make some mistakes, but I have no problem understanding or expressing myself in English. I plan to read at least 10 books in English this year and to stop using subtitles. Even though I understand movies/tv shows without it, subtitles are kinda hard to get rid. I'm so used to it, and sometimes I watch movies with my monolingual parents.

Edited by FireViN on 06 January 2013 at 3:36pm

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FireViN
Diglot
Senior Member
Brazil
missaoitaliano.wordpRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5231 days ago

196 posts - 292 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 2 of 14
06 January 2013 at 3:39pm | IP Logged 
As I said, I think my Italian is probably at B1 right now. I'm not sure. I can follow conversations and read fairly well. My writing is not bad either, but speaking is hard. I plan to reach B2+. I think it's a reasonable goal and I will reach it if I focus.

Materials
I have Assimil's "O novo Italiano sem esforço". Passive wave, lesson 40. It's a great book, aparently. I really feel I'm learning with ease, spending no more than 30 minutes per lesson. I plan to finish it soon and focus on more advanced materials.

"La lingua Italiana per stranieri", by Katerin Katerinov. I read a couple chapters and found it to be very well made. It's all in Italian, but I'm not having trouble following the course.

I have access to plenty of fiction books, grammars, courses (mainly in Portuguese), etc. from my University's library. I won't have trouble finding native material to read. Music and movies are a whole different matter, though. I hardly find any Italian movies here. They are simply too expensive for me to buy, and stores that rent dvds are all going bankrupt. Music is hard to find simply because there aren't many Italian rock bands that fit my taste. I like punk rock, hard rock, heavy metal, etc etc. Italian music is mostly that romantic stuff that I'm not really interested. I recently discovered this new awesome band called I Mostri, but they only have 1 CD.

So... any suggestions on good movies/music/books are welcome. Oh, and please, feel free to correct my stupid English mistakes (:
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Tsopivo
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Senior Member
Canada
Joined 4473 days ago

258 posts - 411 votes 
Speaks: French*, English
Studies: Esperanto

 
 Message 3 of 14
06 January 2013 at 9:22pm | IP Logged 
I am a huge fan of the movies "Incompreso" (it's an old movie from 1966 though so it might be hard to find it), "La vita è bella" (the one by Roberto Begnini) and "Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo" (but I watched this one in English). You probably already know them though.

For movies, maybe it would be easier to search online rather than buying or renting a physical copy from a store.

I don't know any Italian rock bands but you could ask Italian natives what they listen to or look on blogs or forums about music in Italian.
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FireViN
Diglot
Senior Member
Brazil
missaoitaliano.wordpRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5231 days ago

196 posts - 292 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 4 of 14
14 January 2013 at 7:30pm | IP Logged 
Thanks Tsopivo! I remember watching "La vitta è bella" when I was younger, perhaps I should watch it again.

It took me a long long time to reply and update this log. Eh. This year started really bad for me. I had this annoying Stye in my eyes which completely destroyed my studying plans. When it was finally healing, a few days ago, I had an accident with my bike. Nothing serious, but it hurts like hell. i.e. I haven't studied at all. I did a couple Assimil lessons, but that's all.

I'll try to get back on track this month, and hope everything goes fine.
1 person has voted this message useful



FireViN
Diglot
Senior Member
Brazil
missaoitaliano.wordpRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5231 days ago

196 posts - 292 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 5 of 14
20 January 2013 at 1:32am | IP Logged 
So.. this week I went to the library and got two books that seem to be very nice. I got "Sí all'italiano", by Anita Cevidalli and Olga Mordente and "Leggiamo e conversiamo" by G. Battaglia.

Sí all'italiano is an all-italian method, primarely to brazilians (they show the differences between portuguese and Italian and focus on that). I think it was supposed to be used in classes, and there's no audio. Anyway, it's apparently a very good book, since it uses real literature for sample texts, and there's a good amount of drills.

Leggiamo e conversiamo is some kind of reader. The texts are very, very interesting. I mean, the first one had philosofical questions. After the text they make a summary of the vocab and questions about the main text. There's also a small, funny text after that (with questions too) and a section for proverbs. They mark the stress in every word when it doesn't fall on the penultimate syllabe, nice!

So.. that's where I am now:
Assimil - Lezione 43
La lingua Italiana per stranieri - Terza Unità
Sí all'italiano - Prima Unità
Leggiamo e conversiamo - Seconda lezione
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Emily96
Diglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 4430 days ago

270 posts - 342 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Spanish, Finnish, Latin

 
 Message 6 of 14
22 January 2013 at 2:10am | IP Logged 
Leggiamo e conversiamo sounds interesting, i think i'll go see if they have one at my library.

Good luck!
1 person has voted this message useful



FireViN
Diglot
Senior Member
Brazil
missaoitaliano.wordpRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5231 days ago

196 posts - 292 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 7 of 14
23 January 2013 at 4:16pm | IP Logged 
Emily96 wrote:
Leggiamo e conversiamo sounds interesting, i think i'll go see if they have one at my library.

Good luck!


It's pretty good! The texts sometimes are silly, but they are very easy to follow and the exercises really make you think. I think it was supposed to be used in classes, since there are some exercises like "talk to your partner", but it's pretty good to be used solo (:
1 person has voted this message useful



FireViN
Diglot
Senior Member
Brazil
missaoitaliano.wordpRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5231 days ago

196 posts - 292 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 8 of 14
06 February 2013 at 12:18pm | IP Logged 
Updates for this week:

ITALIAN
Assimil - Lezione 51, finally in the active wave!
LLIPS - Quarta Unità
Sí all'italiano - Seconda Unità
Leggiamo e conversiamo - Quarta lezione

FRENCH
Assimil - Leçon 29

ENGLISH
Since last update I've been watching Breaking Bad. 17 episodes without subtitles. That's almost 13 hours! I'll probably go for TOEFL this year, so I'm trying to boost my comprehension and active abilities. Skype conversations would be nice, if anyone is willing to help me (:

PERSIAN
... wait, Persian? Haha. That's my 6WC language. It's fascinating, but I started from scratch. I already know the alphabet and a few words.
Easy Persian - Lesson 10
Pimsleur - Unit 3
Chai and Conversation - Lesson 2

I'm planning to start with Assimil when I finish the Italian one, even though my French is still bad.



Edited by FireViN on 06 February 2013 at 12:19pm



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