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Advice for someone struggling with L2? | ||
Tags: Italian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| pagare Newbie CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3541 days ago 16 posts - 15 votes Studies: English | Message 1 of 24 26 December 2014 at 8:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ok I'm 32 years old. And I started my l2 (Italian) jan 2014 with basically no knowledge of the language other
than a few words. Always want to learn Italian so I bought fluenz 1-5 , ouino, use duolingo everyday then got assimil Italian with ease (on lesson 81) now I'm using lingQ and watching movies and television and have a few Skype people to talk to. The point in all this is I feel I CAN NOT express myself in any real way with the language. My goal isn't to be a ployglot I just want my L2 to be close to my L1. Any advice for someone like me. I'm one year into this and I want some advice so I don't "waste" another year with limited progress. Things I struggle with: listen ( I have to think about what words mean A LOT then get lost in conversations) Talking: "ummmmm, ummmmmm" ever couple of words. I am WILLING to work hard I just don't want to waste my time doing ineffective studying methods. Thanks guys 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5164 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 2 of 24 26 December 2014 at 8:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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This sounds a lot like me a while ago (but I'm doing Spanish). Just stick with it and do a little bit every day. It is a long slow battle, but very rewarding. It is a lot slower than people realize. I'd recommend continuing to use good courses like Assimil. I'm not familiar with study material for Italian so I cannot give you advice on specifics. I found that doing Assimil and FSI thoroughly really made a huge difference. Hopefully some people here will give you some specific advice on Italian.
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| pagare Newbie CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3541 days ago 16 posts - 15 votes Studies: English | Message 3 of 24 26 December 2014 at 9:07pm | IP Logged | ||
Thanks. What is FSI? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 3888 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 4 of 24 26 December 2014 at 9:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Depending on how many hours you've actually spent studying and what you mean by expressing yourself "in any real way", it sounds like you're making average to above average progress.
Getting your L2 to a point even remotely close to your L1 is an enormous commitment. For an advanced degree in Italian, you are looking at 600-900 study hours on average. That's two to three hours per day for a year, even with the right types of materials and strategies. If you've done one hour per day, every day, for this year, you might expect to be closer to a B1-B2 in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages... in other words, you should be struggling to understand, and you should be saying "umm" a lot, and making semi-serious grammar mistakes. Edit: I should add that 600-900 is for Italian, as a native English-speaker, which is apparently considered 'easy'. Other languages, it's claimed, require up to 1200 hours of guided instruction to pass the most advanced exam. Edited by eyðimörk on 26 December 2014 at 9:25pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5051 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 5 of 24 26 December 2014 at 10:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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First, welcome to the forum, parare! The free FSI (US Foreign Service Institute) public domain courses, do not have a thorough course for Italian. So, FSI can't help you. James29 and many others here have benefited greatly from the language drills in the course for their languages. Drills help to make features of a language more automatic in speech and thinking. I highly recommend finding some Italian drills to do.
You haven't mentioned doing any reading. Reading is a good way to increase vocabulary and learn phrases and idioms, especially with novels. You should have a look at the Super Challenge and eydimörk's log Italian the lazy way. She's using subs2srs which is an innovative aid to language learning. As edyimörk and James29 have said, I'll just add that despite what the course hype may say, it takes a lot longer than that to get to a stage in a language when learners can speak with "ease" and express themselves as easily as they can in L1. Almost everyone here has experienced that. You have come a long way from zero, but you still have a long way to go. Keep watching films and television series- TV series are better for learners for many reasons. Also, keep going with the skype voice chats. Most of all just be aware that you still have more to learn (and not necessarily from courses). Know that this is normal for raw beginners. Consider writing on lang8.com in Italian for correction. Above all, realize that what you are going through is a normal part of the process. There's no reason for alarm at this point. Edited by iguanamon on 27 December 2014 at 1:39am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4919 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 6 of 24 27 December 2014 at 12:14am | IP Logged | ||
I have a suggestion that could cost some money, but it's well worth it at your stage: a conversation class or a regular language meetup/roundtable/get together. I've seen a lot of people here downplay conversation classes, but when I was at your stage with Italian, they really helped me. I went once a week for a two-hour class. The class provided enough breathing room so I didn't feel pressured to always be speaking, but when I did speak, I got feedback from the instructor. You also get some listening experience, even if most of it is from non-native speakers, and you can learn from their mistakes too. Do you have an Italian Cultural Center/Institute near you? They're a great resource. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pagare Newbie CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3541 days ago 16 posts - 15 votes Studies: English | Message 7 of 24 27 December 2014 at 1:00am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks a lot for the responses guys I will look into some conversational classes. And do some reading which
I already do with lingq but I will some more 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5164 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 8 of 24 27 December 2014 at 3:12am | IP Logged | ||
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I did not realize there is not an FSI course for Italian. I'm guessing there is not a DLI course either? Anyway, I recall gaining a lot of confidence at the point where I had completed Assimil and then did a second good active wave. Just try to have fun with it. The more you learn the more you'll realize how much there really is to learn. Enjoy.
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