PistolPete Newbie Scotland Joined 4381 days ago 28 posts - 33 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin, Italian
| Message 1 of 5 03 January 2013 at 12:05am | IP Logged |
Greetings all.
My first TAC and first log. I hope I last the distance, and look forward to cheering on my fellow Romulans as we embark upon our language learning endeavours. I’ve decided, as I am new to the site and new to TAC to mainly focus on one language: the best language ever. Italiano!
Goals:
I do not have a fixed goal or certain level I wish to reach this year. I just want to see how far I can go with the language and how much I can learn. My ultimate goal, in the future, is to be able to read Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel Il Gattopardo in Italian.
I also want to revive my Latin studies (I studied Latin at university) at some point this year and catch up with my old friends Apuleius and Catullus. Italian, however, is my main focus.
Resources:
Take off in Italian. This course is published by the Oxford University Press. It combines a textbook with audio CDs and I’ve enjoyed it thus far. I’m nearing the end of Unit 3 out of 14 but have slacked off over the last month due to various commitments and also because I’ve been dabbling with other resources.
BBC talk Italian Grammar. I bought this as a supplementary grammar reference book, but it also contains activities that I may complete.
Easy Italian Reader by Riccarda Saggese. I’ve not used this yet but plan to read it after completing the Take off course.
Living Italian by Maria Valgimilgli. I found this old 4th edition (pub. 1994) when I was back at home and promptly added it to my resources. The tapes accompanying the textbook have either perished or have been lost but there are many reading and writing activities I can tackle.
Memrise and Anki: to build my vocabulary
Duolingo: I’ve been using the Italian Beta over the last few weeks and am enjoying the experience. It’s a nice holiday from textbook based courses.
Miscellaneous:
I’ve also been listening to some Italian music: Nina Zilli, Gino Paoli, Umberto Tozzi, Jovanotti, Giorgia. If anyone has some good, and slightly less cheesy recommendations I’d love to hear them.
I occasionally read some Gazzetta dello Sport just for fun and to keep up with how Pirlo’s doing in Serie A.
I aim to post here fortnightly updates of my progress and welcome any comments, help, encouragement and even criticism (if justifiable!).
Andiamo!
Edited by PistolPete on 03 January 2013 at 12:06am
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Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5955 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French
| Message 2 of 5 03 January 2013 at 5:43am | IP Logged |
Best wishes for this year PistolPete, looks like a great start and I am certain you will go the distance!
PistolPete wrote:
I do not have a fixed goal or certain level I wish to reach this year. I just want to see how far I can go with the language and how much I can learn. My ultimate goal, in the future, is to be able to read Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel Il Gattopardo in Italian.
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Excellent attitude, and although I don't know much about the novel, I think it is neat to have a particular work in mind as a goal for language learning. I will be taking the same approach if/when I tackle Spanish (anything by Borges).
Edited by Spanky on 03 January 2013 at 5:45am
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garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5206 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish
| Message 3 of 5 03 January 2013 at 11:33am | IP Logged |
Good luck! Soon I won't be the only Scot who speaks Italian :) It's an exaggeration, but only a slight one.
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PistolPete Newbie Scotland Joined 4381 days ago 28 posts - 33 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin, Italian
| Message 4 of 5 06 February 2013 at 10:42pm | IP Logged |
Well, I've certainly not lived up to the goal of posting fortnightly. Peccato!
Over the past month I've mainly been focused on learning vocabulary and have been using programmes like Anki, Memrise, and Duolingo to achieve this. This has come at a price though, as I can only really write and speak in the present tense.
I think I have to set myself clear goals, at least monthly, to achieve a greater grasp of the grammar; once I've got the grammar, surely it's only a case of putting that into practice whilst continually adding vocabulary.
So, my aim this month is to try and complete the Take off in Italian course I own.
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Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6619 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish
| Message 5 of 5 07 February 2013 at 7:46am | IP Logged |
I'm not sure what level you are, but I always like to use a textbook or course in the beginning. Grammar is important and you do learn a good bit of vocabulary as well, usually.
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