tw561 Newbie United States Joined 4735 days ago 26 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Italian
| Message 1 of 11 03 January 2012 at 5:50pm | IP Logged |
Hi everyone!
Here's some background information on myself and my goals for 2012.
I've taken Spanish now for 5+ years. I really enjoyed it, and I still do! I would
classify myself at an intermediate level. For 2012 I am going to practice Spanish on
the side. My primary focus will be Italian.
I am a complete beginner in Italian. I am planning on visiting Italy this summer, and
I feel like if I can get the basics down before hand I will benefit from knowing this!
I am currently using a wide variety of materials in order to gain exposure to the
language. I have two textbooks, Italian Now! Level 1, and Sparknotes Workout in
Italian that I am using. I also have an old Linguaphone audio set, which I just
finished disc 1. Along with this, I am using StudyStre.am to brush up on vocabulary.
Studystre.am is actually REALLY helpful! I would highly recommend it. I've been
watching the videos and (attempting to) reading the articles in Italian. Very useful!
Well, that's all for now. Here's to the start of something amazing!
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Lianne Senior Member Canada thetoweringpile.blog Joined 5120 days ago 284 posts - 410 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, Toki Pona, German, French
| Message 2 of 11 03 January 2012 at 6:35pm | IP Logged |
Welcome to the team! :) We aren't studying any of the same languages (I'm working on French and a bit of Esperanto), but Italian is on my one-day list. I hope studystre.am adds French to their list of languages soon!
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tw561 Newbie United States Joined 4735 days ago 26 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Italian
| Message 3 of 11 03 January 2012 at 7:03pm | IP Logged |
Grazie! I've taken a look at Esperanto in the past, and it's also on my to do list! It's
quite an interesting concept. I hope to master that once I am done with Italian.
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kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4894 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish
| Message 4 of 11 03 January 2012 at 10:23pm | IP Logged |
How was the Linguaphone Italian? I haven't used that one before, and am always looking
to add more diverse materials.
I'm trying to get a base in Italian here too, for a trip this April.
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tw561 Newbie United States Joined 4735 days ago 26 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Italian
| Message 5 of 11 04 January 2012 at 1:41am | IP Logged |
Actually, Linguaphone has been really helpful! I'm enjoying it so far. You basically
listen to a story (at least in my edition) of a woman named Sarah who goes to Italy.
She's met at the airport by a native, and she does not speak any Italian at all. You get
to hear the pronunciation of words, which is always helpful, and build a good solid
amount of vocabulary. I definitely recommend it.
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mcsice Newbie United States Joined 4778 days ago 13 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 6 of 11 04 January 2012 at 7:36pm | IP Logged |
Thanks for the tip on StudyStre.am. It looks like it will be very useful.
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Hendrek Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4887 days ago 152 posts - 210 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Persian
| Message 7 of 11 23 January 2012 at 9:40pm | IP Logged |
I second the thanks for mentioning studystre.am from the few minutes I've looked at it so far... it looks helpful.
If you can, I would check out SCOLA.org too. If you already know a good bit of Spanish, I would recommend springing for Michel Thomas. The reason: between English and Spanish, you'll be able to pick up the vocabulary pretty quickly, but having the verb forms spring to mind more easily will be the difference between "just getting by" in Italy and having a good time talking to people without too much difficulty.
Something else I just (re-)discovered: public libraries are great! It just dawned on me that maybe my library has Italian films... yes they do. No more relying on Netflix with forced-English subtitles.
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tw561 Newbie United States Joined 4735 days ago 26 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Italian
| Message 8 of 11 25 January 2012 at 8:39pm | IP Logged |
I will definitely check it out. Thank you for the recommendation! I'm definitely making
a lot of progress through the materials I've been using.
I bought the Living Language : Italian Grammar course. It's probably been the most
helpful book so far. It's very thorough, and it comes with an audio CD so you can hear
how the passages in Italian are read. It was only $15. I HIGHLY recommend this!
1 person has voted this message useful
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