Leviathan's Log - Italian, German

[Leviathan TQ]

Who I am:
Ciao a tutti! I am a 23-year-old Sicilian-American living in New England, working as a chemical engineer. Most of my family is Sicilian, although I have Norwegian and Swedish genetics on my grandmother's side, putting me at 75% Sicilian, 12.5% Norwegian, and 12.5% Swedish.

My Language History
In school, I studied Spanish for 10 years, from Grade 1 to Grade 11. At my peak, I was probably at a A2-B1, but have since lost my fluency after attending university and failing to study Spanish for my five-year duration. I am probably at an A1 level now.

In the sixth grade, I became friends with a German exchange student, who graciously allowed me to stay with them for three weeks in Germany. This experience made me fall in love with the German language. While I never took courses or actively attempted to learn the language, I started listening to German music (Santiano and Unheilig being my favorite thus far).

In December 2022, I went to Rome and Florence with my Italian cousin. The experience was so inspiring to me that I immediately enrolled in an Italian I course at university, which rapidly became my favorite course. Unfortunately, it was in my final semester there, so I was unable to continue on to Italian II-IV. After graduation, I landed a job at an Austrian company, which is chock-full of Austrian nationals who speak German. This has reintroduced a practical reason for me to learn German again.

My Language Goals
First and foremost, I want to learn Italian. I have purchased a variety of language manuals and resources and I have been studying Italian in my off time daily. I am not yet at a full A1 level, but I have hopes of achieving that level of proficiency within a few more months of dedicated practice. My primary motivation for learning Italian is to be able to communicate with my Italian relatives, make it easier for me to obtain Italian-American dual citizenship, and have the flexibility to live in Italy if I desired. I also want to be more in touch with my own heritage, as I truly love Italian culture.

In the future, I intend to dive into German, but I want to hold off on learning two languages at once. Let's become proficient in one language first!

My Study Plan
My current setup involves using Anki to introduce ~20 words/day to myself, listening to 30 minutes of Italian dialogue/content a day, and doing 1 or more writing exercises a day. The words I am learning come from a textbook called Italian with Elisa, which has 20 audio clips of dialogue. My goal is to use Anki to learn the vocabulary and familiarize myself with the dialogues so that I can distinguish and understand every word said, then I'll move to the next dialogue. I also have two other textbooks, The Complete Italian Step-by-Step and English Grammar for Students of Italian, along with two reference books, Barron's Italian-English Dictionary and Barron's 501 Italian Verbs.

The greatest challenges for me will be vocabulary and finding opportunities to speak the language. I have no family that live with me who can speak Italian, but I do have an aunt and a cousin who are fluent. I need to set up consistent times to speak with them in Italian so I can practice.

I look forward to getting to know you all!
A presto!

[Leviathan TQ]

8 August 2023

1. I got to the end of Chapter 1 Italian with Elisa and have been drilling the vocabulary for a few days now. I think I am about ready to move on to Chapter 2.

2. Some things still worry me, like the slow recall of the different forms of the verb avere. I have been able to successfully recall them, but it's just a bit slow. Fortunately, Anki will help with that as time goes on.

3. I have been implementing some word list usage to drill some of the words into my skull, doing those before my Anki decks every day. I've found it hard to follow Elisa and do language exercises from the Complete Italiantextbook simultaneously, so I have not been doing them.

4. I have been listening to a podcast on my drive home from work, called Italy Made Easy, which is a slow-speaking podcast in Italian that has transcripts online. I haven't been using the transcripts when I get home, but I think I will be going through them and making word lists out of the transcripts to supplement Elisa while also improving my listening skills.

[Leviathan TQ]

16 August 2023

1. I should be working through the final review of the two dialogues in Italiano con Elisa. I have been getting stuck on a few words, but I should have some time today to go over them thoroughly.

2. I ordered a set of colored pens so that my word lists can be better organized. I have been using a combination of word lists and anki (words derived from the dialogues and grammar lessons in Elisa. I usually start with reading and listening to the dialogue, then doing any necessary anki learning/review, then doing the wordlists.

3. I want to get to the point where I can do intensive reading of Il Principe, but I think I am going to do more beginner-friendly texts from First Italian Reader, which is a parallel text.

4. I am hoping to take the A1 exam within the year. My experience with Italian in university has allowed me to get a bit of a headstart, so I think by October I will be sufficiently prepped. I have passed the A1 diagnostic exam on https://www.europassitalian.com/italian-test/a1-level/ with a 9/10, so that's a good sign. I hope to take the full exam on that site to properly diagnose where I am.

[Leviathan TQ]

24 August 2023

Today, I took a longer diagnostic exam offered by Europass Italian Language School, which is a multiple-choice exam with about 75 questions. I was able to confidently answer about 25% of the exam and ended up scoring a 34%. Their rating system goes as follows:

Beginner (A1-A2): 0% - 32%
Intermediate (B1): 33%
Advanced (B2-C1): 66%

While true I scored a 34%, I would probably rate myself at a 25%, for I guessed on some questions/concepts I haven't explicitly studied (direct obj. pronouns, indirect obj. pronouns, she subjunctive mood, compound tenses beyond il passato prossimo, and others.

This would put me around A2 level, which is higher than I expected. I would still like to take the CILS exams in sequence from A1 upwards, for I know my speaking abilities are nowhere near as proficient as my reading comprehension.

Are there any other solid diagnostic exams out there for Italian?

[Leviathan TQ]

26 September 2023

Recently I have been slacking slightly with the language practice, but I have finished Livello 2 of Italian with Elisa. I have begun the vocabulary for the third section.

I picked up on doing Language Transfer Italian again, and I finished the 10th lesson last night and am in the middle of the 11th today.

Durante la settimana scorsa, ho scritto il mio diario in italiano e voglio continuare questo esercizio.

I am still a bit hesitant to sign up for any of the PLIDA exams. I think once I finish this textbook, I will be confident enough to drop money on the A2 exam.

[Leviathan TQ]

3 February 2024

It has been some time since my last entry. A few developments:
1. I have paused my Italian studies in favor of studying German.

2. I have been living in Austria for the past few weeks and will remain here for another month. This has given me ample opportunity to practice my German (even if Tyrolean German is a bit tougher than Hochdeutsch!)

3. My study strategy generally involves using Assimil, which I try to do every day. So far, I have done 36 lessons, which equates to an average of 3/4x a week. Trying to push to being more consistent. Fortunately, being in Austria means I am always being exposed and learning new words!

4. Shockingly, I have been blessed with the opportunity to practice my Spanish, because a few of my coworkers are from Spain and Ecuador. I was NOT expecting to need to practice and remember my Spanish from High School, but I am surprised by my ability to, at the minimum, get my point across. Castillian is a bit harder for me to understand, though, as I have figured that out the hard way.

[Leviathan TQ]

9 February 2024

I am continuing strong with my Assimil lessons. I have found myself unable to do them some days, but that's mostly because I am out talking to people and getting essential practice and exposure.

Many of the people I have met here in Austria have been very supportive of my efforts to learn German. It feels great to be told that my German is already as good as it is, despite only studying for a few months.

Word recall continues to be a struggle, along with forming sentences with more than 2 verbs. I can handle two sentence verbs, since most of the time I am speaking in the past with haben + infinitive, or the modal verbs.

I am also struggling a bit with the difference between the accusative and the dative cases. I find myself using them both incorrectly, and overusing the accusative when a noun is actually needed to be nominative. I guess this is something that will come more naturally as time goes on.

I try to write in German as much as I can when I communicate with my German-speaking colleagues. I still have to use a dictionary and google translate for about half of my sentences, which I hope will be reduced as time goes on.

[Leviathan TQ]

18 Feb 2024

This week, it was a bit difficult for me to study because I felt quite ill. It may have been COVID, although I didn't test myself. Nonetheless, I feel 90% better and started studying again.

On 10 February, I created an Excel sheet for tracking the number of minutes spent on studying German. Since then, I have already logged 7.7hrs of studying. Not bad. If I can actually study every day like normal this week, I will be curious to see what that number gets to.

[Leviathan TQ]

19 Februar 2024

Today, I signed up for the Goethe Institut A1 Exam in June. I also managed to convince my friend who also is interested in German to sign up . My hope is that by paying for an exam now, I will give myself a deadline to reach my next milestone. Given it is a few months out and I have already studied fairly consistently, I know I will succeed. I already feel fairly close to the mark, but there are things I have to specifically focus on for the certification. In the meantime, I want to finish my Assimil course at least a month before the exam to give myself time to prep for the exam itself.

[Leviathan TQ]

28 February 24
Heute, ich habe das fünfzigste Lektion des Assimil gemacht. Das ist ein guter Meilenstein für mich. Ich habe viel Glück das, ich bin hier im Österreich. Es motiviert mich sehr, weiter zu studieren.

Also, I was told that my pronunciation was extremely good by my German friend while I was traveling. What a confidence booster that was to hear!