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One year of me learning Italian | ||
Tags: Italian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Fenn Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4882 days ago 51 posts - 119 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 1 of 20 06 July 2011 at 5:20pm | IP Logged |
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6th July 2011 - 6 July 2012
Introduction Hi, i'm Fenn (Nicholas in the real world). I'm 20 years old and live in north west England, just outside Manchester. I currently only speak English My mothers side are from Italy, well not really they where born in Egypt but my grandma has an Italian passport, speaks Italian, cooks brilliant Italian food etc. I can understand a few words here and there but other then that i have nothing. I've wanted to learn Italian for along time but never really put any thought into it and bought the hype about being able to become a language god in a a month. (omg become fluent in 3 weeks!!!) Recently though i've put more thought into, done more research and don't have too high expectations. I will however have goals that are hard to reach if i start to slack. (The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.) Goals - 1 month (Aug 6th) Be able to follow a slow basic conversation in Italian. - 3 Month (Oct 6th) Be able to have a basic conversation in Italian both talking and through writing. - 6 month (Jan 6th) Be able to follow Italian TV, radio and books, to an acceptable standard. - 12 month (Jul 6th) Be able to have a steady conversation with an Italian with making an arse out of myself. (Would 500 hours be a good goal?) I know these goals are kind of vague but i don't really want to count hours(i'll count but it will be really simple, and not all that accurate to be honest) They're something i'll know when i hit them. The Plan I have pimsluer and FSI-fast and have Assimil ordered (should be here by the Monday 11th) For the first month or so i will be listening to 1 hour pimsleur while walking the dog and doing 1 hour of FSI-fast in the afternoon (i may replace FSI with assimil when it arrives or wait a few weeks to use it) and then maybe just listen to the audio of FSI before bed. When i have a basic grasp of reading and listening i'll be introducing children's books, sports news and talk radio. When i think im able to spit out a conversation ill be looking for some Italian gamers that i could talk to online while playing computer games. Every month i will hopefully type a paragraph or 2 in Italian and a maybe a short voice clip to show my progress. The reward If after 12 months i can hold a decent conversation in Italian (not like a native obviously) I will go on a week or two trip to Italy, to err, speak with some real Italians (not for the football, food or wine honest. Purely to improve my Italian...). The end, or would the start be more accurate? Edited by Fenn on 07 July 2011 at 11:55am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Fenn Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4882 days ago 51 posts - 119 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 2 of 20 08 July 2011 at 3:25pm | IP Logged |
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Yesterday and today i tried Michel Thomas (as i read it was a great introduction to learning a new language). To be frank i hated it and got nowhere. Its takes along time to complete the hour of audio, the two fairly annoying students, and his overall style didnt seem to suit my learning style because i was left frustrated, having learnt very little.
I was about to carry on and try and fight through it (i heard so much good about the course) until i read the 3rd post in this thread, (http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp? TID=28569&PN=1&TPN=1) and decided try my Pimsleur. I put on the first lesson of Pimsleur and its night and day compared to Michel Thomas. I finished the first lesson satisfied that i learn something, didn't feel any frustration and wanted more. I have done about 3 hours total over the past 2 days, 2 hours of Michel Thomas and one hour of Pimsleur. I really wanted to do 2 hours a day but until my assimil comes thats going to be tricky. Edited by Fenn on 08 July 2011 at 3:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| WentworthsGal Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4879 days ago 191 posts - 246 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish, Spanish | Message 3 of 20 10 July 2011 at 5:05pm | IP Logged |
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Good luck on your language journey! I shall be following you and your progress :o) I've recently started to teach myself Swedish and I think it would be amazing if I could achieve the goals you've set too (although I don't think I could lol!).
Take care and good luck! x 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Fenn Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4882 days ago 51 posts - 119 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 4 of 20 12 July 2011 at 6:18pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the comment (and the look, i think i'll need it), its strangely encouraging knowing that compplete strangers from all over the place are following your progress.
Good news, yesterday (11th) my assimil came! Now i can start bumping up the amount of time i do each day. On the 9th and 10th i only managed to do 30minutes each day (pimsleur says only do one lesson each day). However on the 11th i did 1h30 and today i should clip 2 hours as i need to repeat the last pimsleur lesson because i was kind of distracted while doing it so i don't think i hit the 80% mark. Assimil is very different to pimsleur and it take abit of experimentation to work out how to use it best. I've found if i play it through while reading the Italian, then play it through while reading (silently) through the Italian, then read aloud while playing it Italian (kind of like a slow shadowing), then say each word in Italian, play the word (sometimes a phrase) then pause and repeat then go onto the next word etc. The finally i finish by reading while listening to the whole text twice. Not the quickest but by the end it seems to stick. Bad news, the playful banter has started from my family. (its funny how they expect a conversation after 5hours of learning :) ) Total learn time: 7h30 Edited by Fenn on 12 July 2011 at 6:23pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| magictom123 Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5584 days ago 272 posts - 365 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French | Message 5 of 20 12 July 2011 at 9:01pm | IP Logged |
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Hi Fenn/Nicholas, I too am learning Italian and live in the North-West of England.
Everyone is different of course but the first proper thing I did when beginning out with Italian was to use the Michel Thomas course. I thought it was brilliant. I would recommend you see it as a way to float through the grammar of the language and not get too bogged down with the students or Michel's accent. Anyway It's good to see someone else on here learning the language. If I could recommend one thing to aid home study it would be, if possible, for you to get a free to air satellite kit. I got one towards the end of last year and they are relatively cheap (£50) and easy to set up. Once done, you will access to a load of Italian channels (from the Hotbird satellite) that will help maintain your enthusiasm. Watching each day has rapidly improved my listening comprehension and this is I believe generally considered to be one of the more difficult aspects of language learning to conquer. I would also suggest that no matter how interesting a course appears to be to begin with, the novelty can wear off and it can feel more a chore, and when this is the case just being able to watch some TV and relax is a good thing. Personally, I found that for the time put into Pimsleur, the return was not great. Since you have it, it may be a good supplement to a more thorough course such as Assimil. Good luck with your studies, and don't hesitate to ask any questions... Edited by magictom123 on 12 July 2011 at 9:05pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Fenn Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4882 days ago 51 posts - 119 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 6 of 20 14 July 2011 at 12:15pm | IP Logged |
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I was supposed to post this yesterday but never got round to it. Sorry.
Thanks for the comment Magictom123. I'll probably give Michel Thomas another go at the weekend, as i said i didn't like it but with so many people saying its a great tool i'd be stupid not to give it another go. The free to air satellite kit is a great idea, especially when i have a decent grasp of the basics. I was about to just use the internet but its alot easier to watch tv on a proper television then it is on a laptop. Where did you buy yours from? 13th July (1 week) 8h30 Yesterday i had my first loss of motivation and a morning filled with self doubt. I don't know what happened but i woke up and felt like i couldn't learn Italian, it was a terrible feeling. Anyway i had to walk to dog so thought i may as well listen to Pimsleur... I ended up smashing through the psychological barrier, felt great, learnt everything in the lesson, and cleared a few things up i was having a bit of trouble with I ended up doing 30 minutes of pimsleur and 30 minutes of assmil I was listening in to a conversation between my grandma and my mum, proud to say that between hand gestures, certain Italian words i have learnt/already know, and the small amount of English they used i could understand what they were talking about (not able to fully follow the conversation though, obviously) My speaking gave my grandma a laugh, but it was all it good humour. I've changed my mine about assimil (not the first time and probably not going to be the last) But more seems to stick if i limit the time looking at the book and listening to the cd in small half hour segments. I'm only going to update this every other day like i have been. From now on im going to wait a week till i update so each post isnt something along the lines of "did assimil today". If i get any replies i will post a reply but the actual blogging will keep to once a week. I'll also be keeping a written blog so my weekly updates dont miss any facts or interesting points 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| supertom Diglot Groupie Joined 4985 days ago 87 posts - 114 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 20 14 July 2011 at 4:00pm | IP Logged |
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Best of luck to you Fenn!
I agree (partly) with what MagicTom123 says, so I hope to be able to elaborate a bit more on it. What I am now finding to work best for my studies (as I am new to this also) is to use a combination of really studying and 'relaxed' studying. In your case, this means that the real studying means a lesson of Pimsleur (although I am not a big fan, like MT lost more!) and a lesson of Assimil. For the relaxed studying, just try to fit in as much Italian as possible. Things like reading a Italian book (if you can simultaneously listening to the Italian audio, as seen in the LR method), watching Italian TV, flipping through websites and the like. The point being, stick to the hard studies with Pimsleur/Assimil/FSI but try to accompany this with easy things to keep things flowing without taking to much concentration. Best of luck to you again! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| magictom123 Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5584 days ago 272 posts - 365 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French | Message 8 of 20 15 July 2011 at 10:42am | IP Logged |
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I agree with supertom. Steer clear of FSI Italian however, as it is dreadful.
I bought my satellite kit from ALDI in one of their 'Sunday Sales' At different times, LIDL, B&Q and some other places also sell them. I too began by watching RAI news and a few other things on my laptop. The problem being the hassle of having to turn on the laptop, load the stream, keep the battery charged and the small choice of material available. It's much easier of course as you said to be able to just turn on the TV and be greeted with a whole host of Italian channels. Edited by magictom123 on 15 July 2011 at 1:00pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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