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Finally learning italian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| armando Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6221 days ago 44 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans Studies: Italian | Message 1 of 13 17 September 2007 at 3:33pm | IP Logged |
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My dad was Italian, but never spoke it at home so I never learned it. I did hear him speak it sometimes and thus did get an interest in learning it. I listened to many Italian tapes on and off over the years, and picked up some pronunciation but they were mostly useless. I worked as a waiter for a while in an Italian restaurant and picked up some phrases - most of it in regional dialects and very colloquial...
Now - after many years I am devoting some serious study to it! So far I am using Pimsleur and I am on lesson 23 of Part 2. So far its good for what it is - but gets a bit boring! I am spicing it up bit with learnitalianpod. My goal is to get to basic or advanced fluency by the end of next year. (To intermediate level by the end of this year...) My resources - Pimsleur (started in June, listening to 1 track a day on the commute to work, I am finding it boring...) - I can get Michel Thomas from work so I might do that next month after pimsleur II for a change of pace. - I am thinking of subscribing to Acquerello italiano Audio Magazine from January 2008 to gain fluency. - Some videos recorded from BBC learning zone - I have only seen a bit and it seems lively and interesting. - I can practise speaking only with family - but that means long distance calls. No local speakers around here as far as I know. My goal - Finish Pimseur III and michel thomas his year. - Have a proper conversation with my sister and brother in law when I phone them. (by the end of 2007 at least be able to talk a little about whats happening). - By end 2008 - enjoy a movie in Italian, get and use some Italian cookbooks. - Take a trip to Italy sometime in 2008 and speak mostly Italian to the locals. Where I am now (September 2007) On lesson 23 of Pimsleur II. I can answer back 90% of each lesson. I can follow long with some, but not all of learitalianpod. I can mostly follow along to my satnav in Italian. I cant really formulate new thoughts. (I try this durin odd moments of the day - translating thoughts or describing things to myself in Italian.) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| armando Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6221 days ago 44 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans Studies: Italian | Message 2 of 13 01 October 2007 at 4:51pm | IP Logged |
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I am almost finished with Pimsleur II - its getting frustrating now because although I can respond in the lessons, I feel totally lost when striking a conversation (there was an italian market in shrewsbury this weekend where I spent a fortune on cheese!)
I want to get part 3 over and done with as quickly as possible by listening to 2 lessons a day and then starting something more advanced - based on the recommendation here I am going to go with "La lingua italiana per stranieri" (I see there is a once volume edition + an answer key for the exercises). Also just signed up on the bbc 12 week program for the motivation and variety...http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/steps/ 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| armando Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6221 days ago 44 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans Studies: Italian | Message 3 of 13 04 October 2007 at 2:37pm | IP Logged |
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I got the michel thomas cd's today. What a change! Its funny, entertaining and he explains the grammatical rules clearly and simply. Listening to the first cd has already made many things clear to me!
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 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6322 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 13 06 October 2007 at 2:19pm | IP Logged |
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I think we have different preferences --- I really enjoy Pimsleur but I can't stand learnitalianpod. The English pronunciation is so irritating that I can't listen, which is a shame because I think the podcasts have a lot of good content.
BTW, if you are interested in Italian radio and tv, RadioRai has a lot of content online, including podcasts that you can download. Good luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| armando Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6221 days ago 44 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans Studies: Italian | Message 5 of 13 07 October 2007 at 4:21pm | IP Logged |
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I also cant stand learnitalianpod so thanks for the tip - I will check out RadioRai!
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| armando Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6221 days ago 44 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans Studies: Italian | Message 6 of 13 09 October 2007 at 3:27pm | IP Logged |
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I just discovered something that might be useful to other people: Go into itunes, scroll to the bottom and choose your store. I chose 'italia'. Now you can choose podcasts, audiobooks, etc in italian grouped nicely by categories! (I guess its the same for other languages...)
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| mike789 Newbie United States Joined 6270 days ago 39 posts - 51 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 7 of 13 09 October 2007 at 5:36pm | IP Logged |
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I went all the way thru the end of Pimsleur III. On the Level III they introduce some tenses other than the present and completed past. However you'll still have much more confidence & experience with the present tense.
I'm planning on getting the Michel Thomas series, so I'm glad to hear you liked it! I've also started working thru the "Italian Now -- Level One Workbook" by Danesi. After getting used to how the words sound I want to be able to read them. The book presents a more detailed explanation of the rules of the language, especially the direct and indirect objects. I was always mystified on the Pimsleur tapes on how to decide what the proper object would be (for example, when saying "I'd like to invite you ...") And while on Pimsleur you're supposed to learn the verb conjugations by hearing them, the book spells out the 3 forms and the endings. I was recently in Italy and share the sentiments you expressed about the difficulty in striking up a conversation. But after thinking about it a bit it started to make more sense. I can express some of my thoughts; I know what I want to say. But if Pimsleur teaches 6-10 words a lesson then I only know about 750 words. That's the entire palette I can use to describe the world, while a native speaker can call on tens of thousands (most of which I don't know). Further more I have difficulty recognizing any conjugation but the present for verbs. So I've bought the Linkword program (4 levels available) which promises to teach 1350 words by the end of all 4 courses. A link is http://www.unforgettablelanguages.com/frames_a19.html 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| armando Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6221 days ago 44 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans Studies: Italian | Message 8 of 13 27 October 2007 at 3:51am | IP Logged |
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I am in lesson 10 of Pimsleur 3 now and I am getting a bit bored with it. I estimate that my current language ability is at A1, maybe A2.
I noticed that with Pimsleur 1, I listened to the lessons on average 3 times, with 2 it was about twice and with 3 some of them only once (and some of them 3 times). I find the past tense difficult because there are no explanations of why things are so - I am thinking of stopping Pimsleur for a while and doing Michel Thomas. He gives nice explanations of the tenses. I received the books I ordered 'La Lingua Italiana per stranieri' by Katerinov and it looks great. I can handle the introductory unit ok. The first unit is going to take a bit of effort. Looking towards the last unit its completely incomprehensible to me! I expect it to take me 6-8 months to finish. By the end of it I should be at B2 level. I will writ eup on it in the books forum. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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