|
 |
Italian Learning Log | ||
Tags: Italian | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6188 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes  Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 16 27 June 2008 at 4:18am | IP Logged | ||
|
As I have decided to take an actual class in German which starts in October, I decided to use these two months to get some Italian knowledge for my holiday to Neopolitan Riviera in September. I am only going to Italy for a week, but it was a good enough excuse to start with a language I have always found interesting. If I ask for Pizza in Pizza's native language, it's bound to taste even better :P
This log will hopefully come in handy to monitor my progress, and to simply chat or rave about the process. It may even come in useful in my future language learning attempts. So the story so far: 25/06 - Download Italian BYKI (Free version) and went through the list 26/06 - Practiced some of the words from the list from memory during the day Mastered "Seasons". Also good progress with "colours", "numbers", "days of the week list" I also downloaded Beta version of Buonosoft, and practiced their "Basic Phrases" and "Every day phrases" To get the hang of "sound" of language, I wanted something interesting to listen to.I was fortunate enough to find the Italian version of "Little Women" in Text and on Audio. I listened part of the first chapter on the audio while following the words on text. This was good practice, and because I already know the book very well, I didn't need to look at English translation. I could get the "feel" of what was happening. So even though my vocabulary is very limited, I was able to understand some things, and even picked up new words in the process. 27/06 - This morning while going to work in a bus - I went through BYKI lists for week, seasons, months, beverages and numbers again. Then I studied a lesson on "vowels" and half a lesson on "consonants" to understand the pronounciation. GOALS FOR TODAY: Master 3 more BYKI lists Listen to complete chapter 1 of Little women Practice "Basic Phrases" and "Everyday Phrases" of Buonosfot 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6188 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 2 of 16 29 June 2008 at 2:54pm | IP Logged | ||
|
If I manage to keep the devotion to Italian I have shown in last three days then I will be on my way to fluency in few months - however, I suspect the devotion may wear off a little after a while. But not yet.
I have accomplished the goals of the first entry, as well as mastered several other lists in BYKI. I have practiced and practiced both lessons available on Buonosoft. I have shadowed first page of Piccolo Donne several times. Listened to first page of Harry Potter 1. Listened to Hansel and Gretel in Italian. Best of all, I have done first two units of Pimsleur's Italian Short Course, which I really like. Though I did find that after a while, I had to get up and walk about in the room, because sitting on the sofa was just making me way too comfortable and sleepy. The short course is 4 hours long, and 2 units were about 1 hour. So I should be able to finish another 3 hours of units in three more days at the most. Depending on how that goes, I may either start it again or move on to Pimsleur's complete Italian. I suspect there will be some repetitions in there from the short course anyway. It is the first time I have tried Pimsleur, and I must admit that I like it. I was half expecting to be annoying like Rocket German I tried where in between practicing dialogues there was just accessive amount of american commentary. This one, while does have american narrative, it's not accessive so I don't mind very much. Oh yes and I have also watched several episodes of Charmed and Bewitched in Italian. When I get sick of it and need some comprehensible entertainment, I still keep Italian subtitles on so that I would at least notice some new words. Last couple of days immersing myself in Italian has motivated me a lot, so I hope I will maintain it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6188 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 16 30 June 2008 at 6:41pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Back to working day so unfortunately did not have as much time as the weekend.
But I reviewed Unit 3 of the Pimsleur short course, and went through Unit 4. Did a memory test on some of the BYKI lists and basic verbs I had learned over the weekend. Also listened to beginning of Harry potter, Piccolo Donne and Hansel and Gretel for some audio practice. In one of the shadowing formats, someone had proposed using exercise bike as an alternative to walking outside for people who are either self-conscious or simply haven't got the space for it. I decided to try out that idea, as I would look like a right headcase walking around in Bristol talking in Italian to myself because unfortunately there are no woods or anything remotely countryish close to where I live. Anyway, I have used the bike twice now while shadowing a book, and then Pimsleur lesson. I am happy to say that it's worked. In fact, it's has solved two problems. First is that if I just sit on the sofa and listen to audio lesson, I get sleepy. It soon turns into hypnotic voice and my eyes start to close. Being on the bike solved that problem. Another good advantage is that I manage to stay on the bike, exercising, without looking at the clock every five seconds because generally I find exercise just too boring and really hate it. So hopefully I will continue to do so. I would certainly recommend it for people who want an alternative to outside walking and learning. My thanks to whoever had posted the original post. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Felipe Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5973 days ago 451 posts - 501 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Italian, Dutch, Catalan | Message 4 of 16 01 July 2008 at 10:55am | IP Logged | ||
It looks like you have done a great job with your Italian studies so far. Keep it up. I know that it takes a lot of encouragement to continue to study so hard. Don't let the devotion wear off, you'll reach your goal! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6188 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 5 of 16 02 July 2008 at 4:39pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Luglio 02, 2008
Martedí I have finished the Pimsleur Italian Short Course. Completed Unit 6, 7 and 8 today. They certainly need reviewing. So I am going to start Beginner A tomorrow from the beginning, as it includes the first 8 units covered in short course. I plan to review all of them and then move on to second part of Beginner. I practiced “Basic Phrases” list of Buensoft few times during the day, as well as “Meeting and Greeting 1 and 2” from BYKI and “In the Hotel.” Also listened to Audio of Hansel and Gretel again. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6188 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 16 06 July 2008 at 2:48pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I have been busy over the weekend with 6 hours of Italian yesterday, and so far 5 1/2 hours of study today. I was hoping to do little more .. but still I am not unhappy with this weekend's work.
I have finished entire Unit 1 of Linguaphone Italian. CD1 of Instant Immersion. Berlitz Unit 1 and 2 Pimsleur Beginner A - I have reached up to Unit 9 Michel Thomas Foundation Lessons 1 to 21 Listening to Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of Harry Potter, I was suddenly very surprised to find that I understand a lot more than I understood the first time I tried. Even though I still don't get most of the words, simply recognizing new words I have learned here and there, and of course being aware of the story in English, enabled me grasp where the story was. Shadowing beginning of Hansel and Gretel is also improving. Berlitz Rush Hour has 6 songs which translates simply English sentences into Italian. They said it was catchy, and it certainly is. Quite funny too. Next bit now is to finish MT Foundation and Pimsleur Beginner's course. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6188 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 16 10 July 2008 at 12:42pm | IP Logged | ||
|
L-R Method
Reading about it on Volte's recent post has made me enthusiastic about trying this. It has worked for many people, and I am hoping it will work for me. So I am thinking about reviewing MT and Pimsleur lessons on MP3 during my morning and evening commute, as well as lunch break, and also evenings where I intend to take many breaks. For longer periods of time in evenings and weekends, I will focus on L-R method. About the method itself, there have been many discussions on this forum and people who have tried it have varying opinions. I figured, I need to find for myself what works for me. I know people recommend parallel text. I don't have it, and I am not going to spend hours making it, because I have already spent far too much time on research and resources that should have been spent studying. So I have decided to experiment and see if it works for me. I will do the following steps: 1)listen to the Italian audio, and read the English text at the same time (once) I am going to start with Book 1 of Harry Potter, which is a book I know very well, so I was in two minds about whether to bother reading it in English. However, I have decided to try this for the first time with proper steps and see how it works. Besides, I think it will be a challenge to focus on Italian and English at the same time. 2) listen to Italian audio and read the Italian text, several times, until I understand majority of the book. I think this will be slightly hard to judge. Since I know the story, I am not going to have hard time figuring out what's going on. But I will see how it goes. 3) listen to Italian audio without text, until I understand the book without having text in the front 4) shadow the audio with Italian text 5) read the Italian text on its own 6) Repeat steps 1 to 5 for a new book (do these for at least 4 different books to decide whether there has been any benefit, and if the method works for me) This evening I have few hours to focus on it, so I will start now. In fact, as soon as I post this. :) Buona Fortuna to me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6382 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 8 of 16 10 July 2008 at 12:53pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Good luck!
1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
