gingermidget Newbie United Kingdom profile.to/estellewe Joined 6286 days ago 29 posts - 28 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French
| Message 1 of 3 15 May 2007 at 5:09am | IP Logged |
Ideally I should have started this journal a couple of months ago when I first started learning Italian, but never mind, better late than never as they say!
I am using the following methods in order to learn Italian:
Michel Thomas Foundation Course
I am currently on CD6 of the course, and I am finding it very enjoyable. I have listened to the course all the way through once before, but just little bits and pieces were sticking in my head. I usually listen to it through my MP3 player while going around doing ironing/making dinner/looking after the kids etc, so I am forever having to press the pause button when there is too much noise! È molto difficile per me studiare durante il giorno, perchè i bambini sono molto rumoroso!
Assimil Italian with ease
I am currently on lesson number 8 of the course (passive wave.) I am not trying to translate any of the text or do any of the exercises as yet, I'm just using it as the book (and most of you on here) advise me to. I am finding that I can understand the majority of the text without looking at the English translation anyway, which is encouraging for me.
I am also doing some exercises from the book Italian Verb Drills which is proving to be very helpful to me.
I'm determined to stick with it this time, as my previous attempts at learning languages (of which there has been many!) have always failed dismally as I lost interest easily. I have to say that I am finding the methods that I am using to learn Italian very interesting, which is half the battle really.
I shall make a promise to myself to keep this regularly updated, so that I'll be able to see just how far I've come with my learning!
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administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7216 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map
| Message 2 of 3 15 May 2007 at 8:33am | IP Logged |
I'm just back from Napoli where I spoke Italian at just about every street corner. This is such a great language! So rewarding! You will love it - just stick to it until the end and don't try to learn 5 other languages at the same time, however attractive they are.
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gingermidget Newbie United Kingdom profile.to/estellewe Joined 6286 days ago 29 posts - 28 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French
| Message 3 of 3 15 July 2007 at 1:21pm | IP Logged |
Wow, it's been a long time since I last wrote in this logbook, didn't realise how quickly the time had gone!
My Italian has been improving slowly but surely, mainly down to using the Michel Thomas cds. I completed the Foundation Course, and I am now near the end of Cd 1 of the Advanced Course. I also listened to the first 3 cds of the Vocabulary Course, although I haven't been paying as much attention to that at the moment, I'd rather get the Advanced course under my belt first.
A week or two after I started this log, I bought the Assimil Italian with Ease course. I have just started the passive wave, and I am currently on lesson 52 of the passive/3 of the active. I had not been studying for just over a week due to both my children going down with chickenpox in quick succession! I'm happy to say I've found the inspiration again though, and I'm into the swing of things again.
I know a lot of people may not agree with me here, but I have to say that I feel I have learnt a lot more so far with the Michel Thomas courses than I have with Assimil. I feel that Assimil is too complicated to start with as a complete beginner, so I think if I had started with this route before instead of MT, I don't think I would have lasted as long.
I have also decided to start up with my French again, but not on the same level that I am studying Italian - about 15 minutes to half an hour each day will be enough for me to cope with. Thanks to this forum I discovered the Loquella site, so I am on sentence 1000 of the first lesson - it seems a much more fun way to learn than the FSI original version, I am sure I would have got a headache reading all that very quickly!
So, I shall make more of an attempt to add to this, rather than wait 2 months between entries!
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