[Travel] Learning a foreign language in the comfort of your own home.

[Binney on acid]

Can anyone on NSC recommend an online course that will help me to learn very basic Italian ?
My girlfriend and I are going on holiday to Sicily next June, and I want to be able to master the basics.
Me attempting to communicate in Italian will probably be a humiliating experience, but I’m up for it.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

I've been using Duolingo to learn Italian for approaching a year.

Obviously not a substitute for actually having lessons and speaking to people but I'm definitely improving (from a starting point of literally zero knowledge of Italian).

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Can anyone on NSC recommend an online course that will help me to learn very basic Italian ?
My girlfriend and I are going on holiday to Sicily next June, and I want to be able to master the basics.
Me attempting to communicate in Italian will probably be a humiliating experience, but I’m up for it.

Until recently there was an Italian trying to learn English in Brighton - he seemed to have a friend sitting next to him all the time to translate when needed.

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

Pimsleur is great, its based on listening and repeating - you kind of brainwash yourself into remembering what you've learnt (in a goodway!).

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[chickens]

Another vote for Duolingo here.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Can anyone on NSC recommend an online course that will help me to learn very basic Italian ?
My girlfriend and I are going on holiday to Sicily next June, and I want to be able to master the basics.
Me attempting to communicate in Italian will probably be a humiliating experience, but I’m up for it.

Did about six months of Duolingo (Greek) and thought I was doing ok. Then I stopped doing it and found that I'd retained zilch other than the words I'd picked up organically on previously holidays before I started trying to study the language 'properly'. I'd suggest sticking with Google Translate for the basics and learn the words for hello, goodbye, please, thank you and 'the bill please'. Then just build on how people respond back. They'll appreciate you trying

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

Did about six months of Duolingo (Greek) and thought I was doing ok. Then I stopped doing it and found that I'd retained zilch other than the words I'd picked up organically on previously holidays before I started trying to study the language 'properly'. I'd suggest sticking with Google Translate for the basics and learn the words for hello, goodbye, please, thank you and 'the bill please'. Then just build on how people respond back. They'll appreciate you trying

Greek is tough (IMO)

I went to evening classes in an effort to learn more than 'speak menu' which is what I could do already.

I failed miserably to (drastically) improve - and can still only really greet people and order food / drinks etc.

Locals definitely appreciate you making the effort.

 

[Ali_rrr]

Duolingo is absolutely my recommendation to start. I speak 5 languages fluently and I'm currently learning French via Duolingo.


It is excellent for starting out and will teach you the basics so you can have a slight feel for the language and you can take it further after if you so will, but then you should move onto another course. The reason why so many people are against Duolingo or find they have no progress is because they don't practice it outside the app.


Saying that, I went to Sicily a couple of years ago and I was shocked at how good the level of English is there.

 

[Bakero]

In my professional opinion as a language teacher, Duolingo is a bit rubbish*. It's useful for picking up vocab but I doubt it'll teach you to speak. So use it by all means but supplement with other resources.

First thing to do is learn the rules of pronunciation. Italian is a phonetic language so every word is pronounced as it's written. Once you know the rules, it's fairly straightforward. The most important thing to remember is every vowel is enunciated. You know how in English we put the emphasis on certain syllables and other vowels get squashed? (eg. information: think about how the o sounds). Well, they don't do that. This also means the rhythm is very different to English, as I'm sure you know. This is because Italian is syllable-timed (this means each syllable takes about the same amount of time) whereas English is stress-timed (meaning stressed (emphasised) syllables occur at regular intervals and the others get squashed to fit the rhythm). Hope that makes sense. Imagine it like this: English = da da da DA, da da da DA, da da da DA and Italian = DA DA DA DA DA DA DA. You might feel like you're puting on a cod Italian accent but you've just got to go for it.

Before I moved to Italy, I read this book and found it very useful. Unlocking Italian by Paul Noble Just a fiver for the kindle edition so highly recommended. It's by no means comprehensive but like a cheat code to give you the basics to navigate everyday situations. Once you've got these structures, you'll be able to adapt them to new vocab that you learn.

On top of that, you need lots of listening practice. Youtube has an abundance of resources. I can't remember which channels I used though, I'm afraid. Here's one to get you going though: Look for a good podcast too.

Dual readers (stories with one page in English, the other in Italian) are also really useful. Loads on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=dual+readers+italian+beginner&i=digital-text&crid=V3YOKFOGK246&sprefix=dual+readers+italian+beginner,digital-text,110&ref=nb_sb_noss Look for ones aimed at Beginner/elementary (A1/A2 level). Ones with dialogues are particularly useful.

The BBC has some good resources too https://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/

Buona fortuna!



*Duolingo disclaimer: I haven't used it in years fo it may have improved.

 

[cloud]

Open Learn do free Italian courses https://www.open.edu/openlearn/local/ocwglobalsearch/search.php?q=italian

 

[lost in london]

Another partial downvote for Duolingo from me. I was trying to encourage my school age kids to stick with Duolingo so signed up to learn Portugese six months ahead of a holiday there so we could egg each other on with trying to keep our streaks going.

Portugese is a tricky language, but I found (a) what I was learning might have been useful foundations for learning the whole language, but it was not so great at learning holiday basics and pleasantries and (b) every bugger spoke English back to me when I spoke to them in Portugese, even when I knew I had got it right.

I have since moved onto French to try and dust off my 'skills'. It's been quite good at that, and has exposed just how much I have forgotten since I was last learning French at uni. Streak is at 420 days or so at the minute, hanging in there just to keep my daughter company.

The gamification is great and does keep you going, I'm just not convinced it's the best way of learning the basics for a holiday.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Another partial downvote for Duolingo from me. I was trying to encourage my school age kids to stick with Duolingo so signed up to learn Portugese six months ahead of a holiday there so we could egg each other on with trying to keep our streaks going.

Portugese is a tricky language, but I found (a) what I was learning might have been useful foundations for learning the whole language, but it was not so great at learning holiday basics and pleasantries and (b) every bugger spoke English back to me when I spoke to them in Portugese, even when I knew I had got it right.

I have since moved onto French to try and dust off my 'skills'. It's been quite good at that, and has exposed just how much I have forgotten since I was last learning French at uni. Streak is at 420 days or so at the minute, hanging in there just to keep my daughter company.

The gamification is great and does keep you going, I'm just not convinced it's the best way of learning the basics for a holiday.

I found with Duolingo (Greek) that by the time you'd got to about level 7 of 60 you were being asked to translate things like 'Does the gorilla with the blue hat belong to the man?' And I only slightly exaggerate. Duolingo (Greek) seemed strangely obsessed with gorillas

 

[Jim in the West]

I've been learning Greek at home for three years - it's tough! And that's from someone who has lived and worked in France and is probably at C1 level French, plus B1 level Spanish. But based on my recent language-learning, I would recommend a couple of things:

- Finding an on-line teacher with whom you can have regular one-to-one lessons. OK, it's not cheap, but the only real way to learn a language is to be in a position where you HAVE to speak it, and if you're not in Italy, the next best thing is to be interacting with a native speaker over Zoom, etc.

- Watch "Easy Italian" on Youtube....the videos themselves are free, but you can subscribe to a whole load of support materials on the Patreon platform. The team that does the "Easy Greek" version are great, and it's easy to build up a sort of affinity with the teachers. https://www.youtube.com/@EasyItalian/videos

 

[Stumpy Tim]

I've been learning Spanish for 4.5 years at home. I use Duolingo which is helpful, but without my 1:1 classes I wouldn't be anywhere. Try www.classgap.com as you'll find some relatively cheap teachers there.

 

[lost in london]

I found with Duolingo (Greek) that by the time you'd got to about level 7 of 60 you were being asked to translate things like 'Does the gorilla with the blue hat belong to the man?' And I only slightly exaggerate. Duolingo (Greek) seemed strangely obsessed with gorillas

Exactly. Just went back to my Portugese course on Duolingo. First line for me to translate - 'The cow likes the farm'. Strangely enough that didn't come up too often when I was out there on holiday.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

In my professional opinion as a language teacher, Duolingo is a bit rubbish*. It's useful for picking up vocab but I doubt it'll teach you to speak. So use it by all means but supplement with other resources.

First thing to do, is learn the rules of pronunciation. Italian is a phonetic language so every word is pronounced as it's written. Once you know the rules, it's fairly straightforward. The most important thing to remember is every vowel is enunciated. You know how in English we put the emphasis on certain syllables and other vowels get squashed? (eg. information: think about how the o sounds). This also means the rhythm is very different to English, as I'm sure you know. This is because Italian is syllable-timed (this means each syllable takes about the same amount of time) whereas English is stress-timed (meaning stressed (emphasised) syllables occur at regular intervals and the others get squashed to fit the rhythm). Hope that makes sense. Imagine it like this: English = da da da DA, da da da DA, da da da DA and Italian = DA DA DA DA DA DA DA. You might feel like you're puting on a cod Italian accent but you've just got to go for it.

Before I moved to Italy, I read this book and found it very useful. Unlocking Italian by Paul Noble Just a fiver for the kindle edition so highly recommended. It's by no means comprehensive but like a cheat code to give you the basics to navigate every day situations. Once you've got these structures you'll be able to adapt them to new vocab that you learn.

On top of that, you need lots of listening practice. Youtube has an abundance of resources. I can't remember which channels I used though, I'm afraid. Here's one to get you going: Look for a good podcast too.

Dual readers (stories with one page in English, the other in Italian) are also really useful. Loads on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=dual+readers+italian+beginner&i=digital-text&crid=V3YOKFOGK246&sprefix=dual+readers+italian+beginner,digital-text,110&ref=nb_sb_noss Look for ones aimed at Beginner/elementary (A1/A2 level). Ones with dialogues are particularly useful.

The BBC has some good resources too https://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/

Buona fortuna!



*Duolingo disclaimer: I haven't used it in years fo it may have improved.

I tried Duolingo before going to Brazil about 8 years ago, and while it gave me enough to be able to work out what pizza toppings I was ordering it wasn't great. The Italian course now is definitely a lot better than the Portuguese course was then, and has quite a lot of listening/talking involved (if you choose to engage with it). There's also relatively little of the nonsensensical "the bear drives a car through the library" sentences in the lessons that I assume were intended to teach people about sentance structure or something but just come across as insane.

Obviously I then actually listen to actual Italians speaking actual Italian, and immediately revert to just saying "prego" in response to everything and hoping for the best.

Seriously though, I wouldn't rely on any of these things to actually learn a language properly. But there are certainly less productive ways to spend a train journey.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

I found with Duolingo (Greek) that by the time you'd got to about level 7 of 60 you were being asked to translate things like 'Does the gorilla with the blue hat belong to the man?' And I only slightly exaggerate. Duolingo (Greek) seemed strangely obsessed with gorillas

I tried the French course briefly last year before going there. That course is weirdly obsessed with Mexicans for some reason.

 

[Bakero]

One more top tip from me: No word is an island.

By that I mean words don't exist in isolation. When you learn a word, think about how you'd use it in context. Don't just make a note of a word and its translation. Write an example sentence or 2. Make your sentence relevant and, preferably, personal to you; something about your job/life/family/interests. Not a Duolingo-style "It's a nice lion but I can't buy it". At first coming up with your own examples may be difficult so try to adapt the dictionary examples or use AI to help you come up with sentences.

Also, think about collocation (words that commonly go together) eg. in English, collocations with take include: take your time/a photo/a chance/a break. Learning collocations and chunks will boost your fluency and make you seem more natural. It's also important to focus on collocations as they'll often be different to English so you can't just translate word by word. Here are some Italian collocations to exemplify this https://www.italiantranslation-teaching.com/learn-italian/lets-learn-ten-italian-collocations/


This may all seem a bit advanced but it's something you can put into practice from day one. For example, don't just learn the word for table. Learn how to say "I want to book a table for 2 at 8pm" etc

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

One more top tip from me: No word is an island.

By that I mean words don't exist in isolation. When you learn a word, think about how you'd use it in context. Don't just make a note of a word and its translation. Write an example sentence or 2. Make your sentence relevant and, preferably, personal to you; something about your job/life/family/interests. Not a Duolingo-style "It's a nice lion but I can't buy it". At first coming up with your own examples may be difficult so try to adapt the dictionary examples or use AI to help you come up with sentences.

Also, think about collocation (words that commonly go together) eg. in English, collocations with take include: take your time/a photo/a chance/a break. Learning collocations and chunks will boost your fluency and make you seem more natural. It's also important to focus on collocations as they'll often be different to English so you can't just translate word by word. Here are some Italian collocations to exemplify this https://www.italiantranslation-teaching.com/learn-italian/lets-learn-ten-italian-collocations/


This may all seem a bit advanced but it's something you can put into practice from day one. For example, don't just learn the word for table. Learn how to say "I want to book a table for 2 at 8pm" etc

Simple tap-in there for somebody...

 

[Blue3]

Duallingo is quite good however I was learning German for a year went there on holiday where it was of no use and here lies Dualingos problem you cannot speak to anyone who knows the language, Dualingo does have a speak option but for it to understand what I was saying I needed to shout and rave like Hitler before it understood me and I thought this is not a good look and I should probably not repeat that while in Germany hence no one understood a word