A Beginner Needs Help in Where to Start for Learning Italian!

[mattk12]

Hello!

First off, I have never learned another language in my life. Seriously. I am very new with this language learning stuff. I am absolutely stuck on where to start. My first language that I will pursue learning is Italian. I get scared by researching different programs because there is SO many "cons." Where can I start learning this beautiful language? What are some solid programs, books, or anything that I can start learning from? Any help would be appreciated!

[Brun Ugle]

Hi! Welcome to the forum! You’ve come to the right place. You’ll find lots of support and advice here throughout your language-learning journey. It’s a very supportive and friendly place. Unfortunately, I can’t advise you on Italian since I’ve never studied it, but there are loads of people here who have and I’m sure a few of them will be along any moment. In the meantime, let me suggest you read Iguanamon’s blog article on the multi-track approach, the Italian resources thread, and the Italian study group.

Don’t worry, it’s natural to feel overwhelmed when beginning a new language, especially if it’s your first. It’s hard to figure out what materials to use and how to approach learning. You will soon get a lot of advice from varying forum members and much of it will be conflicting as we all have different styles of learning. One person might love a certain textbook and another might hate it. I’d say, don’t worry too much about finding the perfect book/app/course/technique/etc. There isn’t one. All courses have their strengths and weaknesses, which is why I recommend picking two main courses or textbooks and supplementing with some lighter materials like apps, phrase books, YouTube videos, etc. You might want to start by checking your local library to see what materials they have and remember that if they don’t have anything, they might still be able to order stuff from another library. That could save you some of the expense of buying a book you later find out you don’t like.

As a beginner learner you are sure to have a lot of false starts and make mistakes. Even more experienced learners do that. I’ve started courses, gotten stuck, tried different courses, gotten stuck, but eventually I figure out the bit of grammar or whatever that was confusing me and move on. The main point is not to give up. I suggest you keep a log on this forum and whenever you get stuck or confused, write about it and more advanced learners and natives will help you out.

[Doitsujin]

You might want to start with Elizabeth Smith's Instant Italian (AKA Traveller's Italian or Fast-track Italian). It teaches you just enough grammar and vocab to make yourself understood and used copies are relatively cheap.

After you've finished the book, I'd recommend the Italian Assimil course.

[AnthonyLauder]

First off, I have never learned another language in my life.

This means you will almost certainly need a course that does a lot of hand-holding. Although experienced language learners can dive into the deep end of a language pretty quickly, a newcomer to language learning risks drowning. That is, you need a course that not just helps you to learn Italian, but also prevents you from being out of your depth.

There are plenty of free apps and courses out there (such as Duolingo), but to actually learn a language to a useful level you may well have to spend some money.

A lot of newcomers to language learning really benefit from the Michel Thomas courses, which are entirely audio, and help you learn how to build up sentences. This is a great skill to learn, since many beginners end up learned lots of vocabulary, and rote-learning grammar rules, but still can't say anything. The Michel Thomas Italian series of audio courses will get you over that.

One valid criticism of the Michel Thomas courses is that they only focus on speaking. They ignore reading, writing, and listening completely. If you want a course that is more rounded, and includes these other skills, I really recommend Fluenz Italian. It is probably too slow paced for experienced language learners, but the pace is just right for a beginner. There are 5 levels to the Fluenz Italian course, and I recommend you do all of them. The major downside of Fluenz is that it is quite expensive. Almost $400 if I remember correctly. Having said that, they have discounts quite often, where you can get them for much less. The lowest I have seen them priced is $118 for all five levels. If you see them for anything like that, snap them up.

If you can afford both the time and the money, it would probably be a good idea to do both of these course. Michel Thomas first, followed by Fluenz.

By the time you have finished Fluenz, you will no longer be an inexperiened language learner, and will have a solid foundation in Italian, but (more importantly) a good grasp of what language learning involves and an ability to evaluate language courses that suit you personally for the next steps in improving your Italian and for learning other languages.

[rdearman]

You can find a long list of Italian resources here

https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 19&t=2912/

[siouxchief]

For me personally I think this guy has got the correct steps to start and is pretty much what I follow. I must emphasize "for me" as I'm finding language learning is very personal and you may learn differently to me:

https://youtu.be/l8SrQDPuDBQ

In summary:

1. Learn the basics with Duolingo, Paul Noble or whatever basic tool interests you and get a feel for the language.

2. Begin learning through listening and reading. Build up to be able to listen to about 2 hours of audio with the text beside it in both L1 and L2 until you can listen and understand without any text. This helps your listening, reading and massively increases your vocab. The real bonus after understanding 2 hours of various audio is that it's easy to review. Just sit down and listen without needing flash cards. I use Yabla and Beelinguapp.

3. Improve your speaking. Now you have a sizeable vocab from step 2 and you will hopefully get the gist of what people say to you in a reply try to do some speaking courses or speak to people online or hire a personal tutor. Paul Noble Next Steps course might be good here too but haven't tried it.

4. Grammar. Dig into the grammar in more detail and it will just click as to why people have said certain things as you may have understood them saying it in step 2.

The only thing I would say about these steps is when I do step 2 I sometimes do at this point quickly check the grammar as I'm curious why something was said but I wouldn't get bogged down in grammar at this point as all the rules may dishearten you. I recommend the Dover books on Essential Grammar.

Anyway my 2 cents and tbh step 2 is the key one. I'd spend at least 4 months doing step 2 also.

Hope it may help some people but people learn in different ways so this may not suit everyone.

[Sayonaroo]

I recommend the who is she stories on lingq.com. you need to make an account to access it but you don't need to pay anything.

https://www.lingq.com/en/learn/en/web/c ... es-courses

[IronMike]

Pick a course, any course, and do the whole thing. I really liked Living Italian and Ultimate Italian.