Posts Tagged ‘learn Italian’

Learning The Italian Language

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

The descendent of Latin, the language spoken in the Roman empire, Italian is now spoken by more than 60 million people. Unlike its ancestor, however, Italian has grammar that is considered much easier to learn.

You may be interested in learning Italian for a variety of reasons. Perhaps you are going on a vacation to Italy or intend to live there. Maybe you have Italian ancestry or plan on getting a job that involves work with Italians. Whatever the reason may be, learning Italian can be a very rewarding experience.

If you already speak another romance language like Spanish or French, you will find that Italian is very similar. Many linguists estimate that the lexical similarity between Italian and French is 89% while the lexical similarity between Italian and Spanish is 82%. Even if you have only studied Spanish or French in high school, you will find that the grammar is quite similar and easy to pick up.

Italian is considered to be a very beautiful language. English speakers know that Italian has much emphasis on vowels including the fact that many, many Italian words end in vowels.

Italian differs from English in that nouns are split into two genders, masculine and feminine. Also, English speakers will find that Italian has verb conjugations that are quite different depending on the subject of the sentence.

Word order, however, is quite similar between Italian and English. Both languages are subject-verb-object languages and because the syntax is similar, it will be very easy for you to start putting together your own sentences in Italian even as a learner.

Because so many people are interested in learning Italian, there is a great variety of Italian language learning programs for you to choose from. From audio programs to traditional textbooks, you will never be at a loss for materials to learn from.

If you decide to learn the beautiful Italian language, remember to make a serious commitment. Learning any foreign language can be a tough process but if you stick with it and make a consistent effort over a long period of time, you will continually improve your Italian abilities. That being said, don’t forget to relax and enjoy the language, as well! You can read a good Italian novel or listen to Italian music among many other fun activities. These practices will not only improve your Italian but can be some of the most fun and rewarding experiences for you in your Italian language pursuit.

Author Robertson Kunz has a language learning guide: fast language learning method. Italian learners: learn fluent Italian.

Achieve Fluency In Italian In Less Than 3 Months With This Plan

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

Many people desire to learn a foreign language like Italian as quickly as possible. In this article, I will explain exactly how you can achieve the goal of learning fluent Italian in 3 months or less.

Many people end up taking foreign language classes for years and still cannot hold a basic conversation in Italian. On the other hand, I know of many people who have become fluent in Italian and a variety of other foreign languages in less than 3 months.

Before I reveal this plan, I should note to you that if you already are fluent in another romance language like French or Spanish, you will find this much easier to achieve. Even if you have only studied a foreign language but not necessarily a romance language, you will still get an extra boost. On the other hand, if you have never studied a foreign language before, you may find this a bit hard at first because you are not used to learning foreign languages.

In the end though, you should remember that it is possible to achieve fluency in Italian in 3 months as long as you have a plan of action and stay with it.

Now lets take a look at some numbers that will help you understand what getting basic fluency in Italian requires.

Many language experts say that in most European languages including Italian, the 1000 most commonly used words make up 85% of common speech while the 3000 most commonly used words make up 95% of common speech. For our basic fluency goals in Italian, we will want to hit the 3000 word mark.

Additionally, many experts in languages say that in order to become fluent in languages like Italian, Spanish or French, 200 hours of active study time is required.

Given that you are going to study every day for 3 months, you have about 90 days which means that you will learn about 33 words per day. If you devote two hours of study each day that means you will get 180 hours of active study by the end of your 3 months which is basically the recommended 200 hours.

You may believe that learning 33 new Italian words per day is too difficult. However, remember that you have 2 hours of active study each day which means you only have to learn 16 new words per hour. This translates to 1 word every 4 minutes.

Also remember that there are many cognates between Italian and English. For example, the English word “international” is “internazionale” in Italian. I bet that only took you a few seconds to learn.

However, we should remember that you won’t have all 2 hours to devote entirely to the study of new words. Remember that you will want to review words that you have learned in the past and also make sure you are picking up important things like correct grammar. After all this, however, you should still have enough time to reach your goal of basic Italian fluency.

Basically, if you can study Italian for 2 hours every day for a 3 month period and learn 3000 Italian words during that time, you will achieve your goal of basic Italian fluency! Remember that in order to achieve this goal, you will need to stay committed and keep making progress day after day. If you can stick with your plan, then you will be insured Italian fluency success.

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Learning The Italian Language

Monday, June 1st, 2009

The descendent of Latin, the language spoken in the Roman empire, Italian is now spoken by more than 60 million people. Unlike its ancestor, however, Italian has grammar that is considered much easier to learn.

Reasons for learning Italian range from preparing for a trip to Italy to retiring on the Italian coast. Many others learn Italian because their ancestors came from Italy or because they want an advantage in applying for jobs. No matter what your reason may be for learning Italian, learning a new language is a very rewarding process.

If you already speak another romance language like Spanish or French, you will find that Italian is very similar. Many linguists estimate that the lexical similarity between Italian and French is 89% while the lexical similarity between Italian and Spanish is 82%. Even if you have only studied Spanish or French in high school, you will find that the grammar is quite similar and easy to pick up.

For English speakers, Italian is often remarked to have a “pleasing” sound to it, most likely due to its great use of vowels and especially its use of vowels at the end of words. Unfortunately, this stress of vowels also means that listening to Italian seems like an incomprehensible stream to most English-speaking Italian language learners just beginning their studies.

Tricky Italian points for English speakers include determining gender for nouns since words are either of the masculine gender or of the feminine gender. Additionally, verbs are conjugated with very different forms depending on the subject of the sentence.

However, comforting points include the fact that Italian word order is very similar to word order in English. Italian is also a subject-verb-object language like English so English speakers will find it very easy to begin creating new sentences in Italian.

Because so many people are interested in learning Italian, there is a great variety of Italian language learning programs for you to choose from. From audio programs to traditional textbooks, you will never be at a loss for materials to learn from.

Whatever your Italian language goals may be, remember that to succeed in learning any foreign language, you should make a commitment to learning the language everyday and continue to apply effort to your studies for as long as it may take to reach your goals, even years if you are aiming for fluency. But don’t forget to have fun at the same time! Make sure to enjoy Italian by listening to Italian music and watching Italian films. These cultural elements can be the most fun and most rewarding parts of learning Italian.

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