Polski & Italiano (+ Latin) Episode II: StringerBell Strikes Back
Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2019 10:44 pm
Link to my previous log: Italian + Polish with comprehensive input
RESOURCES LIST FOR ITALIAN. (Resoures for Polish are in the next post.) These are resources that I have used myself (unless otherwise noted).
YOUTUBE CHANNELS / VIDEOS:
Italy Made Easy There is a wealth of useful videos for beginner and intermediate learners. I used this site a lot early on.
Italiano Automatico Alberto created 300+ videos that are duel subtitled in English and Italian. I used these videos intensively; they are really worth their weight in gold. This is my favorite YT channel for learning Italian.
Podcast Italiano Davide has spent a lot of time producing really top notch podcasts and is now starting to create more videos.
STREAM ITALIAN TV SHOWS:
it.dplay.com This site is geoblocked, so you will need to magically move your computer to Italy (or use a VPN) while watching
PODCASTS:
Podcast Italiano: Free episodes available through iTunes, Spotify, and his website. He has a range of episodes for complete beginners, intermediate, and advance Italian learners. The beginner and intermediate episodes have transcripts available on his website. I've listened to all of the advanced episodes and they are fantastic; this is my favorite podcast series for learning Italian.
Italiano Automatico: Free episodes available through iTunes and Spotify. His episodes don't have transcripts, but if you've already spent a lot of time with his subtitled videos, then the podcast episodes will likely be very comprehensible. He releases a new episode every Monday (there are several years' worth at this point). I found these to be very useful to improve my listening comprehension.
Veleno Podcast Serial This is 7 episodes produced by an Italian journalist who investigated in depth a true event that happened 20 years ago involving mass hysteria over satanism and child abuse. It consists of narration and interviews with the people involved. It is really intense and very gripping. There is a full transcript for all 7 episodes available on the website. This is more suitable for those with an upper intermediate level.
Equilibrio Digitale This podcast series contains only 4 episodes, which is a shame because it's great. The narrator speaks very clearly. The topic is about problems with living in a digital age and how to counteract issues like being addicted to a smartphone. There's no transcript. It's free to listen to through this website, or to download through iTunes.
PianoP this is a platform where journalists share podcasts they've created. It's where I found Equilibrio Digitale, which I really liked.
Storia in CucinaThis is a 20 episode series about the history of food. Also available through iTunes.
Alle Otto Della Sera this is the platform where you can find lots and lots of podcast series.
Dylan Dog These podcasts are based on a very popular supernatural/noir graphic novel series. There are a bunch of podcast episodes available to download for free.
AUDIOBOOKS:
Audible: Last year there was very little in the way of Italian audiobooks, but their catalogue seems to be growing at a steady pace.
emons I haven't yet ordered from emons, but they seem to have a decent catalogue of audiobooks
LibriVox Free audiobooks for public domain titles
PAID PROGRAMS:
Italiano Automatico > Conquista Italiano and Conversazioni Reali in Italiano I've seen samples and it looks extremely well-thought out. Alberto hired a professional voice actor to do much of the recordings. Everything is text + audio, and there are various options for audio (normal speed/slower, different speakers with different accents).
Italy Made Easy in addition to the ton of high-quality free resources Manu offers, he has some paid courses (I haven't used them myself, but they look pretty good). He offers: (From Zero to Italian) Beginner Italian 1 & 2, Intermediate Italian 1, Speak from Day 1.
FREE PROGRAMS / COURSES / COURSEBOOKS:
L'Italiano Secondo Il Metodo Naturale This is a free graded reader series for beginners. All of the stories follow one family. There are English notes in the margins with vocabulary or grammar points. This is a really excellent resource, I highly recommend it.
FSI Italian Fast Course Volume 1
FSI Italian Fast Course Volume 2
edX.org edX.org offers several online Italian language courses throughout the year. It's free and there's no commitment to sign up for a course - you can do as much or as little of it as you want. I did one course and was really impressed with how good it was. These courses typically are the same as those offered at ivy-league colleges. This is an amazing free resource to take advantage of.
GRAMMAR-BASED COURSEBOOKS:
Practice Makes Perfect - Complete Italian Grammar This is the grammar book I am currently using (I found a used copy that was like-new for less than $15). So far I'm happy with it.
BLOGS / ARTICLES:
Efficacemente This website contains 400+ well-written articles on the topic of personal growth (search the archive). I have read almost all of them; I find them to be ideal for an intermediate/advanced Italian learner because they are written in an informative way combining colloquial language with some higher level/less frequent vocabulary.
Erika Porreca's Blog This is Erika from Podcast Italiano writing about social anxiety.
Focus Italia Articles on Science, Nature, Environment, Culture, Behavior, Technology.
wikihow.it Read how-to articles in Italian about anything....Examples of things I've read about are: How to train a dog, How to survive in the woods, How to get rid of a wasps' nest.
National Geographic Italia
Wired.it Italian version of Wired
WEBSITES OFFERING HELP/LESSONS/TIPS/EXPLANATIONS:
Italy Made Easy There is a treasure trove of free resources on the Italy Made Easy website.
Iceberg Project I really like this site, the articles are interesting and useful.
FluentU Prepositions Very useful!
ThoughtCo. Verb + Prepositions cominations This is very useful! I refer to it a lot
When to use Congiuntivo
Speak Italian Lessons for A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2 levels
ielanguages A handy site to refer to. Scroll down to choose: Italian I, II, III, IV, V, VI
PARALLEL TEXTS:
50 Languages
Il Piccolo Principe free Italian translation of the Little Prince
TEST PRACTICE / SELF-EVALUATION:
Practice CILS exams
Italian Level Test Cactus Language online grammar evaluation
BOOKS THAT DON'T USE PASSATO REMOTO IN THE NARRATION:
As you may know, Italian novels typically use the verb tense passato remoto in the narration. I, personally, hate this, because the reason that I read in Italian is to reinforce when to use proper verb tenses, so seeing passato remoto in every sentence is not only irritating but counterproductive, because this is not how one would speak. If this verb tense is something you'd like to avoid, you can do so by reading books that are non-fiction (for example: self-help) though watch out for history books, which may use passato remoto, albeit for a different reason. However, since there isn't such a category as "non-fiction" in Italian, you will have to choose categories like "psychology" or "self-improvement" or "health". Other books to seek out are those written diary or journal style, those written using present-tense narration, or collections of essays. Dialogue won't have passato remoto (unless the person is recounting something that happened a long time ago) so anything heavy on dialogue (like graphic novels or interviews) should also be good.
Without further ado, here is a list of books I've compiled that do not use passato remoto in the narration. I'm not claiming that any of them are particularly good, just that they fulfill my requirement of containing verb tenses that correspond with spoken Italian.:
Young Adult:
-The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series (Diario di una Schiappa) by Jeff Kinney (YA)
-Mary's Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein (Mary e il Mostro. Amore e ribellione. Come Mary Shelley creò Frankenstein) by Lita Judge (YA)
-The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Noi Siamo Infinito) by Stephen Chbosky (YA)
-The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Diario Assolutamente Sincero di un Indiano Part-Time) by Sherman Alexei (YA)
-The Book Thief (Storia di una Ladra di Libri) by Markus Zusak (YA)
-The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Lo Strano Caso del Cane Ucciso a Mezzanotte) by Mark Haddon (YA)
-Looking for Alaska (Cercando Alaska) by John Green (YA)
-Everyday (Ogni Giorno) by David Leviathan (YA)
-The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
-Il Colpo Degli Uomini d’Oro by Bruno Gamarotta
-The Neon Bible (La Bibbia al Neon) by John Kennedy Toole
-I Am Watching You (Ti Sto Guardando) by Teresa Driscoll
-An Unwanted Guest (L’ospite Indesiderato) by Shari Lapena
-The Handmaid’s Tale (Il racconto dell’Ancella) by Margaret Atwood
-Alias Grace (L'altra Grace) by Margaret Atwood
-Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Molto Forte, Incredibilmente Vicino)
-Ciao, America! (Un Italiano in America) by Beppe Severgnini
-Eleanor Oliphant is Totally Fine (Eleanor Oliphant Sta Benissimo) by Gail Honeyman
-The Dinner (La Cena) by Herman Koch
-Our Endless Numbered Days (I nostri giorni infiniti) by Claire Fuller
-Where’d You Go, Bernadette? (Che fine ha fatto Bernadette?) By Maria Semple
-Nutshell (In Guscio) by Ian McEwan
-Rough Trade (Il Sentiero della Speranza) by Dominique Manotti - translated from French
-Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King
-Il Cigno Nero (Black Swan) by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
-Chocolat by Joanne Harris
-Come Viaggiare con un Salmone by Umberto Eco (collection of essays)
-Think and Grow Rich (Pensa e Arricchisci te Stesso) by Napolean Hill
-7 Strategies of Highly Effective People (Le 7 Regole per Avere Successo) by Stephen Covey
-How to Win Friends and Influence People (Come Trattare gli Altri e Farseli Amici) by Dale Carnegie
-Me Talk Pretty One Day (Me Parlare Bello un Giorno) and other books by David Sedaris
-Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
-The Three Sisters (Le Tre Bambine) by Jane Corry
-My Husband's Wife (La Nuova Moglie) by Jane Corry
-Il Diario di Anne Frank
-America Lost (America Perduta) by Bill Bryson
-The Girl on the Train (La Ragazza Del Treno) by Paula Hawkins
-Behind Closed Doors (La Coppia Perfetta) by B.A. Paris
-Rising Strong (La Forza Della Fragilità) by Brene Brow
-Gone Girl (L'amore Bugiardo) by Gillian Flynn
-One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Qualcuno volò sul nido del cuculo) by Ken Kesey
-Flowers for Algernon (Fiori per Algernon) by Daniel Keyes
-Myra Breckinridge by Gore Vidal
-The Lacuna (Il Mondo Altrove) by Barbara Kingsolver
-A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (Una cosa divertente che non farò mai più) by David Foster Wallace (and other books of his)
-Blink (In un Batter di Ciglia) by Malcolm Gladwell
-David and Goliath (Davide e Gollia) by Malcolm Gladwell
PUBLIC DOMAIN:
-Il Giornalino di Gian Burrasca by Vamba (aka Luigi Bertelli)
-Il Diario de Eva by Mark Twain
-La Carta da Parato Gialla / La Tappezzeria Gialla (I've seen both translations of the title The Yellow Wallpaper) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
-Il diario d'un pellegrinaggio by J. K. Jerome
RESOURCES LIST FOR ITALIAN. (Resoures for Polish are in the next post.) These are resources that I have used myself (unless otherwise noted).
YOUTUBE CHANNELS / VIDEOS:
Italy Made Easy There is a wealth of useful videos for beginner and intermediate learners. I used this site a lot early on.
Italiano Automatico Alberto created 300+ videos that are duel subtitled in English and Italian. I used these videos intensively; they are really worth their weight in gold. This is my favorite YT channel for learning Italian.
Podcast Italiano Davide has spent a lot of time producing really top notch podcasts and is now starting to create more videos.
STREAM ITALIAN TV SHOWS:
it.dplay.com This site is geoblocked, so you will need to magically move your computer to Italy (or use a VPN) while watching
PODCASTS:
Podcast Italiano: Free episodes available through iTunes, Spotify, and his website. He has a range of episodes for complete beginners, intermediate, and advance Italian learners. The beginner and intermediate episodes have transcripts available on his website. I've listened to all of the advanced episodes and they are fantastic; this is my favorite podcast series for learning Italian.
Italiano Automatico: Free episodes available through iTunes and Spotify. His episodes don't have transcripts, but if you've already spent a lot of time with his subtitled videos, then the podcast episodes will likely be very comprehensible. He releases a new episode every Monday (there are several years' worth at this point). I found these to be very useful to improve my listening comprehension.
Veleno Podcast Serial This is 7 episodes produced by an Italian journalist who investigated in depth a true event that happened 20 years ago involving mass hysteria over satanism and child abuse. It consists of narration and interviews with the people involved. It is really intense and very gripping. There is a full transcript for all 7 episodes available on the website. This is more suitable for those with an upper intermediate level.
Equilibrio Digitale This podcast series contains only 4 episodes, which is a shame because it's great. The narrator speaks very clearly. The topic is about problems with living in a digital age and how to counteract issues like being addicted to a smartphone. There's no transcript. It's free to listen to through this website, or to download through iTunes.
PianoP this is a platform where journalists share podcasts they've created. It's where I found Equilibrio Digitale, which I really liked.
Storia in CucinaThis is a 20 episode series about the history of food. Also available through iTunes.
Alle Otto Della Sera this is the platform where you can find lots and lots of podcast series.
Dylan Dog These podcasts are based on a very popular supernatural/noir graphic novel series. There are a bunch of podcast episodes available to download for free.
AUDIOBOOKS:
Audible: Last year there was very little in the way of Italian audiobooks, but their catalogue seems to be growing at a steady pace.
emons I haven't yet ordered from emons, but they seem to have a decent catalogue of audiobooks
LibriVox Free audiobooks for public domain titles
PAID PROGRAMS:
Italiano Automatico > Conquista Italiano and Conversazioni Reali in Italiano I've seen samples and it looks extremely well-thought out. Alberto hired a professional voice actor to do much of the recordings. Everything is text + audio, and there are various options for audio (normal speed/slower, different speakers with different accents).
Italy Made Easy in addition to the ton of high-quality free resources Manu offers, he has some paid courses (I haven't used them myself, but they look pretty good). He offers: (From Zero to Italian) Beginner Italian 1 & 2, Intermediate Italian 1, Speak from Day 1.
FREE PROGRAMS / COURSES / COURSEBOOKS:
L'Italiano Secondo Il Metodo Naturale This is a free graded reader series for beginners. All of the stories follow one family. There are English notes in the margins with vocabulary or grammar points. This is a really excellent resource, I highly recommend it.
FSI Italian Fast Course Volume 1
FSI Italian Fast Course Volume 2
edX.org edX.org offers several online Italian language courses throughout the year. It's free and there's no commitment to sign up for a course - you can do as much or as little of it as you want. I did one course and was really impressed with how good it was. These courses typically are the same as those offered at ivy-league colleges. This is an amazing free resource to take advantage of.
GRAMMAR-BASED COURSEBOOKS:
Practice Makes Perfect - Complete Italian Grammar This is the grammar book I am currently using (I found a used copy that was like-new for less than $15). So far I'm happy with it.
BLOGS / ARTICLES:
Efficacemente This website contains 400+ well-written articles on the topic of personal growth (search the archive). I have read almost all of them; I find them to be ideal for an intermediate/advanced Italian learner because they are written in an informative way combining colloquial language with some higher level/less frequent vocabulary.
Erika Porreca's Blog This is Erika from Podcast Italiano writing about social anxiety.
Focus Italia Articles on Science, Nature, Environment, Culture, Behavior, Technology.
wikihow.it Read how-to articles in Italian about anything....Examples of things I've read about are: How to train a dog, How to survive in the woods, How to get rid of a wasps' nest.
National Geographic Italia
Wired.it Italian version of Wired
WEBSITES OFFERING HELP/LESSONS/TIPS/EXPLANATIONS:
Italy Made Easy There is a treasure trove of free resources on the Italy Made Easy website.
Iceberg Project I really like this site, the articles are interesting and useful.
FluentU Prepositions Very useful!
ThoughtCo. Verb + Prepositions cominations This is very useful! I refer to it a lot
When to use Congiuntivo
Speak Italian Lessons for A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2 levels
ielanguages A handy site to refer to. Scroll down to choose: Italian I, II, III, IV, V, VI
PARALLEL TEXTS:
50 Languages
Il Piccolo Principe free Italian translation of the Little Prince
TEST PRACTICE / SELF-EVALUATION:
Practice CILS exams
Italian Level Test Cactus Language online grammar evaluation
BOOKS THAT DON'T USE PASSATO REMOTO IN THE NARRATION:
As you may know, Italian novels typically use the verb tense passato remoto in the narration. I, personally, hate this, because the reason that I read in Italian is to reinforce when to use proper verb tenses, so seeing passato remoto in every sentence is not only irritating but counterproductive, because this is not how one would speak. If this verb tense is something you'd like to avoid, you can do so by reading books that are non-fiction (for example: self-help) though watch out for history books, which may use passato remoto, albeit for a different reason. However, since there isn't such a category as "non-fiction" in Italian, you will have to choose categories like "psychology" or "self-improvement" or "health". Other books to seek out are those written diary or journal style, those written using present-tense narration, or collections of essays. Dialogue won't have passato remoto (unless the person is recounting something that happened a long time ago) so anything heavy on dialogue (like graphic novels or interviews) should also be good.
Without further ado, here is a list of books I've compiled that do not use passato remoto in the narration. I'm not claiming that any of them are particularly good, just that they fulfill my requirement of containing verb tenses that correspond with spoken Italian.:
Young Adult:
-The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series (Diario di una Schiappa) by Jeff Kinney (YA)
-Mary's Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein (Mary e il Mostro. Amore e ribellione. Come Mary Shelley creò Frankenstein) by Lita Judge (YA)
-The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Noi Siamo Infinito) by Stephen Chbosky (YA)
-The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Diario Assolutamente Sincero di un Indiano Part-Time) by Sherman Alexei (YA)
-The Book Thief (Storia di una Ladra di Libri) by Markus Zusak (YA)
-The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Lo Strano Caso del Cane Ucciso a Mezzanotte) by Mark Haddon (YA)
-Looking for Alaska (Cercando Alaska) by John Green (YA)
-Everyday (Ogni Giorno) by David Leviathan (YA)
-The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
-Il Colpo Degli Uomini d’Oro by Bruno Gamarotta
-The Neon Bible (La Bibbia al Neon) by John Kennedy Toole
-I Am Watching You (Ti Sto Guardando) by Teresa Driscoll
-An Unwanted Guest (L’ospite Indesiderato) by Shari Lapena
-The Handmaid’s Tale (Il racconto dell’Ancella) by Margaret Atwood
-Alias Grace (L'altra Grace) by Margaret Atwood
-Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Molto Forte, Incredibilmente Vicino)
-Ciao, America! (Un Italiano in America) by Beppe Severgnini
-Eleanor Oliphant is Totally Fine (Eleanor Oliphant Sta Benissimo) by Gail Honeyman
-The Dinner (La Cena) by Herman Koch
-Our Endless Numbered Days (I nostri giorni infiniti) by Claire Fuller
-Where’d You Go, Bernadette? (Che fine ha fatto Bernadette?) By Maria Semple
-Nutshell (In Guscio) by Ian McEwan
-Rough Trade (Il Sentiero della Speranza) by Dominique Manotti - translated from French
-Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King
-Il Cigno Nero (Black Swan) by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
-Chocolat by Joanne Harris
-Come Viaggiare con un Salmone by Umberto Eco (collection of essays)
-Think and Grow Rich (Pensa e Arricchisci te Stesso) by Napolean Hill
-7 Strategies of Highly Effective People (Le 7 Regole per Avere Successo) by Stephen Covey
-How to Win Friends and Influence People (Come Trattare gli Altri e Farseli Amici) by Dale Carnegie
-Me Talk Pretty One Day (Me Parlare Bello un Giorno) and other books by David Sedaris
-Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
-The Three Sisters (Le Tre Bambine) by Jane Corry
-My Husband's Wife (La Nuova Moglie) by Jane Corry
-Il Diario di Anne Frank
-America Lost (America Perduta) by Bill Bryson
-The Girl on the Train (La Ragazza Del Treno) by Paula Hawkins
-Behind Closed Doors (La Coppia Perfetta) by B.A. Paris
-Rising Strong (La Forza Della Fragilità) by Brene Brow
-Gone Girl (L'amore Bugiardo) by Gillian Flynn
-One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Qualcuno volò sul nido del cuculo) by Ken Kesey
-Flowers for Algernon (Fiori per Algernon) by Daniel Keyes
-Myra Breckinridge by Gore Vidal
-The Lacuna (Il Mondo Altrove) by Barbara Kingsolver
-A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (Una cosa divertente che non farò mai più) by David Foster Wallace (and other books of his)
-Blink (In un Batter di Ciglia) by Malcolm Gladwell
-David and Goliath (Davide e Gollia) by Malcolm Gladwell
PUBLIC DOMAIN:
-Il Giornalino di Gian Burrasca by Vamba (aka Luigi Bertelli)
-Il Diario de Eva by Mark Twain
-La Carta da Parato Gialla / La Tappezzeria Gialla (I've seen both translations of the title The Yellow Wallpaper) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
-Il diario d'un pellegrinaggio by J. K. Jerome