Learning a Foriegn (to me) language

[James Burton]

Buy DVDs of Commissario Montalbano (Inspector Montalbano) and watch it with the subtitles off. Fantastic show. Trying to follow the news in Italian will drive you nuts, but I find that TV shows are often spoken quite clearly.

I've been trying to learn German, its not that bad. Makes a damn site more sense than English. We have lots of European TV available to us here including news broadcasts from just about everywhere. Maybe a similar service is available to you on cable or something.

I was initially studying at night school but the courses don't go for very long. The teacher offered to continue at her house for a very low fee and perhaps 4 or 5 of us continued. For a retired lady, probably with not much of a pension its as much a social thing as anything else.

The other thing I would suggest is to go through the course with a friend so that you have someone to practice with at the same level. Ordinary people who are native Italian speakers in the U.S. probably won't have the huge patience required - unless they have already chosen to be a teacher.

Good luck,
James

 

[clarence]

My friend uses Pimsleur to learn Russian, and so far it has been useful.

I've been learning Japanese through the years mostly through self study and more recently, watching stuff online on youtube. These days I often hang out with the Japanese at university, which has really accelerated my learning.

Clarence

 

[Kin Lau]

Does the Pimsleur lessons provide the Italian (in my case) and English translation? I bought a series today which will require I sit and read along with the the tape to see the translation. I think what I bought will be a fine start, but not for when I am driving.

Pimsleur is all audio. It will be in Italian and English as it explains what you're saying.

Pimsleur works quite well when you're driving.

 

[akptc]

I'd suggest that you surround yourself with things Italian, i.e. watch Italian movies w/out subtitles, listen to Italian songs and radio, get lang. educational videos (like those put out by the embassies - the French ones are great), after a while get Italian newspapers and book and read them out loud even w/out understanding,.. in other words, make your world sound and look as Italian as possible. Ah, and get some Italian speaking friends and spend lots of time with them. It would help even more if your wife did the same, at the same time. Basically, pretend you are Italian all around. I call it learning by osmosis 🙂, worked for me in the past.

 

[rover]

My son was listening with me today, he was remembering everything and quizzing me. My wife saw the books I bought and she wants to learn too. Maybe will will make this an English as a second language house.

 

[John Camp]

I just noticed that if you have satellite TV (DISH network, anyway) there are a whole bunch of foreign language broadcasts; so that if you're learning French, for example, you can get a French TV station with all the news, features, etc....

 

[MadMan2k]

Sounds like it would be fun. I kind of want to learn japanese, or german, but there's so many other things I have to do with my time that it'll probably be a long time from now, if ever.

 

[nico]

Buy DVDs of Commissario Montalbano (Inspector Montalbano) and watch it with the subtitles off. Fantastic show. Trying to follow the news in Italian will drive you nuts, but I find that TV shows are often spoken quite clearly.

... thats a good idea and a very nice and funny serie (it's inspired by a great serie of books written by Andrea Camilleri, a sicilian novelist).
Listening to italian "commercial" songs is quite a pain and tv programs quality - I guess - is quite similar to the Usa commercial tv, but Rai TV has some (not many) interesting and correctly spoken program. The best thing you can hear from Italy is Radio Rai 3 (I'll post the link later), very interesting with lots of good programs (about literature, politics, music) and very good music (if you love classical, opera and jazz music) and the speakers use a perfect italian.
Ciao,
Nico

 

[Mauro]

Dear Rover,
I am pleased to read about your interest for the language of Dante!
It is a good idea studying a new language, it opens your mind to different cultures and traditions.
I invite you to visit the following website:
http://www.italica.rai.it/eng/
it is the website of the Italian broadcasting company; go to the "Language" section and you will find a language course for foreigners.
I will be pleased to help you further, if you like!
Buona giornata!

 

[wordpress]

You should check out this book, it's hilarious:
Learn Greek in 25 years

 

[rover]

This is cool, thanks for the continued replies.

 

[Avotius]

I moved to china, it was that simple.

My spoken Chinese is great now! My writing sucks still. Written Chinese is so difficult...

 

[micromontenegro]

I learned English, Italian, French and Latin by reading. It is quite easy if you find a subject you MUST learn about and is only available in such and such langauge. So I'll throw my two cents in: find something that you really love to read in Italian, and do it. Soon you will be reading Italian. Speaking will come along later almost without you noticing. Doesn't work with Chinese, as far as I can tell. That's why yesterday I went to the chinese market and bought "Mandarin method for native Spanish speakers". Wish me luck!