Learning Italian

Learning a new language is hard! For us, it was and still is really, really hard! 

Should you learn Italian if you plan to move to Italy? We’d say the answer is a resounding YES, even if you just visit often on vacation. 

Being able to speak even at a beginner level will open so many doors. We have had so many memorable experiences by simply talking (trying to talk) with Italians we meet in the street, in shops and in the “piazze”. This has sometimes led to being invited to have a coffee or aperitivo together. Our impression is that many Italians really appreciate the effort to learn and speak their language even if poorly at best. One phrase I’d commonly use (still do at times when my brain goes elsewhere) – “Mi dispiace, ma il mio Italiano è come un bambino di cinque anni.” (sorry, but my Italian is like a five-year old) This always brings a chuckle and sincere encouragement.

Prior to our first trip to Italy in 2006, we wanted to learn a few phrases. We picked up a beginner Pimsleur CD audio course. We found this surprisingly effective in getting an “ear” for Italian and to start speaking with a decent pronunciation.

To prepare for our next trip, we bought additional levels of the Pimsleur course and the Rosetta Stone program. Both courses were helpful in establishing a good foundation for beginning a study of Italian. They each used very different approaches. Pimsleur focused on listening, speaking, and pronunciation. Rosetta Stone focused on expanding vocabulary, spelling, and verb conjugation. The combination of these courses allowed us to get a good foundation of basic Italian. Some of our friends have also had good success with various online apps, such as Duolingo.

At this point, we could read and speak a little, but when were heard conversations on the street, we were usually totally lost. Maybe we’d hear a word here or there that we’d recognize. As Italy became our favorite destination for vacation, we decided to take the next step.

We became aware of a language school, Il Sasso, in Montepulciano. They offer group classes for one or more weeks. The first day, you take an exam and briefly speak with one of the instructors. They then divide the students into classes based upon their level. The standard schedule is by the week with class starting in the morning and ending about 1:20 p.m. with a couple of breaks in-between. The classes were taught completely in Italian, so it was almost a full day of immersion that was composed of grammar, listening, speaking, reading articles and playing games. 

The school also offers afternoon activities such as hiking to nearby towns, cooking classes, tours of the city, wine tasting, etc. We really valued this experience as it was fun and gave us the confidence to go out and start talking. We met many like-minded classmates from all over the world and have made many friendships. My wife and I would whole-heartedly recommend attending a class here or in the other schools in Italy that are specifically designed for stranieri (foreigners) learning Italian.

Back home in Texas, what do we do to not lose the Italian we worked so hard to learn? Well, we discovered online websites such as Conversation Exchange and Language Exchange. These sites facilitate people connecting with each other for the purpose of practicing a language, either via emails or voice or video calls. You enter what is your native mother tongue and what is the language you are learning. Then you can search for other users that would be a good match. For example, we’d search for native mother tongue Italian that were learning English. Through these websites we met many Italians that were wanting to improve their English, as we were doing the same for Italian. Typically, we’d spend half the time talking in Italian and the other half English. Sometimes this would lead to developing friendships. We have met for dinner or aperitivo with many of our language partners on travels to Italy and we’ve even hosted some here in Texas. In fact, some of our closest Italian friends who we’ve traveled with were met this way! We have also used an app, Hello Talk, that uses the same idea but also gives the option of texting or sending short audio clips for practice.

We enjoy watching Italian language films. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Apple TV have a large selection of Italian movies. We usually watch with subtitles in English or Italian, as we aren’t yet at the level where we can watch all films with just listening. Some of our favorite Italian films are:  Bicycle Thieves, La Dolce Vita, Cinema Paradiso, Life is Beautiful, Mediterraneo, Il Postino, and Malèna.

Other ways to keep our Italian fresh is listening to music. Apple Music has a huge selection of Italian language songs. There is something about lyrics in music that really imprints in memory. 

We also have used a website, News in Slow Italian. They create weekly podcasts of current events in the news in Italian at different levels (beginner, intermediate, and advanced). They also offer supplementary transcripts and study aids on the website.

Learning basic Italian was not that difficult but taking it to an intermediate level has been a challenging endeavor for both of us. Being fluent with the many verb tenses and conjugations, awareness of when to use subjunctive, using the correct prepositions – this has been – and still is – quite a challenge. But we have enjoyed the journey. Perhaps after three months of daily immersion I won’t have to say:  “Mi dispiace, ma il mio Italiano è come un bambino di cinque anni!” Spero!