Learning a language is not easy. It is especially difficult when it is a language not commonly spoken in your home country. Without constant immersion into your target language, it can be easy for language-learning habits to be waylaid, or become stagnant. It is critical to acknowledge that the most important aspect of learning a language is time and commitment. It needs to become a purposeful, daily habit if you hope to build your Italian skills.
Why even learn Italian in the first place? There are many reasons. Some learn because they want to connect with their ancestors. Some want to learn a romantic-sounding language: the language of music, art, and fine cuisine. And a select other few want to learn Italian because they have dreams of spending extensive amounts of time in the country of Italy itself. No matter your reasoning, it is important to commit yourself to your efforts. Here are twenty tips and tricks to help you continue to build your language learning skills in the year 2024.
1. Take an Italian Class
Sign up for formal classes with an actual teacher. These classes can be large group, small group, or even individual. They can be in-person at a learning center, or online via Zoom or iTalki. The specifics of what kind of Italian language class you take is unimportant; what matters is that you have a fluent teacher that can help you pin-point your strengths and weaknesses and build lesson plans that fit your individual learning needs.
2. Download Duolingo
Or any other language learning app. These apps will never replace an actual language teacher, nor will they help you develop conversation skills. However, they do offer an opportunity to refresh and review concepts you’ve covered previously in a class, or allow you to practice grammar skills or new vocabulary words on your own. Compared to a lecture with an actual teacher, Duolingo offers a stress-free environment to review your skills.
3. Watch Netflix
There are many Italian movies and shows available on Netflix. Turn one on and enjoy. Subtitles are your best friend. For beginners, keep the original Italian audio but add English subtitles. For intermediate learners, change the subtitles to Italian. For even more of a challenge, remove the subtitles altogether and rely solely on comprehending the audio.
4. Listen to Music
On Spotify, or any other music-streaming equivalent, search for Italian playlists or look up music by your favorite Italian artists. Put on your headphones and enjoy surrounding yourself with the Italian language and accurate pronunciations. Challenge yourself even further by looking up the lyrics and singing along to your favorite Italian song, word for word.
5. Read a Book
Or a magazine. Or a poem. Or even just a single newspaper article. Just read. Don’t worry about scholarly jargon that you don’t already know. Challenge yourself to see what you can understand. The skill of using context clues to help you decipher the meaning of words or phrases you don’t know helps greatly in building your language confidence. (If you often read on your smartphone or tablet, we highly recommend downloading LingQ, a reading app that lets you click on and save unknown vocabulary in your target language.)
6. Read a Children’s Book
Think like an elementary school teacher. Read at your reading level, which is likely much lower in Italian than it is in English. Try to find and read a children’s book in Italian meant for children learning to read independently. It might feel a bit silly as a grown adult reading a children’s book, but it will do great things for your comprehension skills.
7. Teach Italian
You will never know how well you understand something until you try to teach it to someone else. Tutor a friend or family member some of the basics of the Italian language. If you can confidently explain Italian grammar rules to another person, then I can confidently tell you that you have mastered a new skill!
8. Write in Italian
Instead of only talking in the Italian language, try to use it yourself. Write your grocery list, jot down your daily to-dos, or keep a daily journal – except do it all in Italian. This will not only help build confidence in your written skills, but it will also help you commit to memory the words and phrases that you probably use most often.
9. Get Creative
If you are the creative type, try using that creativity in Italian. Write poetry, short stories, or lyrics in your target language. Perhaps your creative work won’t be as good a final product as it would have been in English, but imagine the pride you will feel if you can write an entire poem in Italian!
10. Get Cooking
Combine language learning with a cultural experience. Find an authentic recipe for an Italian dish (like tiramisù or pasta alla Norma) in Italian and get cooking. When you are Googling a recipe, make sure to use Italian words in your search, as in “ricetta tiramisù” instead of “tiramisù recipe” to help ensure you find Italian recipes. When friends ask you for the recipe after hosting dinner, however, I recommend translating the recipe into English so that your non-Italian-speaking guests can make it for themselves.
11. Change Your Settings
For unconscious practice with your target language, change the settings of your electronic devices to Italian. You can change the pre-set language of cellphones, laptops and computers, and tablets from the main settings page. If Italian isn’t an option on your device, consider changing the language for the apps you use most frequently. Social media apps like Facebook allow you to change your language preferences right in the app settings. On a day when you are tired and really don’t want to sit down and study, remember that your subconscious brain was taking in the Italian language every time you used your electronic device, and feel a bit better about wanting to take it easy with studying today.
12. Try Speaking
If you personally know someone who already knows Italian, ask them to speak to you solely in Italian for a set interval, and aim to respond to them only in your target language. If you don’t know any fluent speakers, ask a fellow language learner to make efforts to communicate only in Italian. You two can learn and grow in your language skills together.
13. Or Texting
If speaking aloud seems too daunting, or your Italian language partner is not readily available for face-to-face conversation, settle for communicating via text in Italian. Written expression is just as important as spoken expression when learning to communicate in a second language.
14. Practice Pronunciation
It doesn’t matter that you’ve mastered all the verb conjugations if no one understands you when you speak. Carefully practice pronouncing Italian correctly – with appropriate vowels. Vowel sounds will be the most difficult. You can practice by reading anything aloud that you find. When practicing pronunciation, comprehension is not the goal, so it’s perfectly acceptable if you do not comprehend the meaning of every word. The important thing is that you were able to pronounce it correctly. Record yourself speaking if you want to check your own vowel pronunciations afterwards.
15. Study Out Loud
Whether you are doing a quick 5 minutes on Duolingo or attempting to read a newspaper article, study it out loud. Read aloud and repeat back what you have written with your voice. Our brains tend to retain information better when we say it out loud. As an added bonus, it also acts as a quick pronunciation practice.
16. Write it Down
Similarly, our brains hold on to information well when we physically interact with it. While studying Italian, it can be helpful to write it all down. Don’t type it on a keyboard. Actually write what you have learned with a pen and paper. This especially will help you commit new vocabulary to memory.
17. Read Daily Italian Words Daily
This blog exists for a reason: to help Italian language learners grow their vocabulary. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive an Italian Word of the Day and make an attempt to use the new vocabulary word in a sentence at some point during the day. A great place to do this is in our friendly Facebook group, which now consists of 150k active members!
18. Find a Balance
Don’t push yourself to complete a teach-yourself-Italian book as fast as you can. Slow down when the content is difficult. Review and refresh previously studied information as often as you need. Find the balance between “pushing yourself to learn new things” and “building up your confidence with skills you already know”.
19. Make a Habit
If studying Italian isn’t already a daily habit, make it one. Dedicate at least 5 minutes a day to practicing your target language.
Pro Tip: research has shown that studying right before bed can help with memory!
20. Remember
Remember that studying a language is only effective when you make it a purposeful habit. Don’t just “go through the motions” of studying. Stop and think deeply about what you are learning. Make a point of allowing Italian to be an active aspect of your life.
Written by our American contributor in Florence, Lyssa Yapp.
Heather Broster is a graduate with honours in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, proficient in English and Italian, as well as Japanese, Welsh, and French to varying degrees of fluency. Originally from Toronto, Heather has resided in various countries, notably Italy for a period of six years. Her primary focus lies in the fields of language acquisition, education, and bilingual instruction.
If there is a free version of LingQ, why does it require a credit card? Thanks