How did you learn the language?

[dior1]

You can hide this advertisement by registering.

I want to know your experience and hints and tips for learning Italian.
At the moment I'm doing yr 11 and really want to improve my language skills, but I can't go overseas (but damn i wish i could)

So im after what you can reccommend for me to do that will help me basically get awesome at italian hehe.

Do you speak it to your parents (if they are italian)?
Do you have convos with your teacher when you can?
Do you have convos with other lote students?
Do you listen to sbs/watch sbs?
etc
TELL ME HOW I CAN IMPROVE MY ITALIAN AND SPEAK FLUENTLY!

Grazie mille

[russianROULETTE]

start now and practise practise practise. write up possible questions and prepare answers, try to always add more to what you've come up with. also think of whether something you say could lead to a different question, then prepare answers for that. i also watched shows with italian audio, but that helps more with listening....

[dior1]

thankyou for the reply russianROULETTE. they are some really good tips that i will use. i try to watch the italian news every now and then, its just on at bad times, not to mention they speak oh so fast!!!

[autumbabe1991]

why not try to incorporate the language into everyday conversation...
yea people may think you could be a bit odd... but what helps, helps....
as russianROULETTE said, practice.... try writing essay papers from english lessons in italian instead.... if you know any italian people make convos with them as much as you can... maybe get a penpal.... but that is a bit extreme...

goodluck

[dior1]

has anybody done this:
written out heaps of common words , put into a glossary and memorised them. does this make you fell alot more confident when reading italian and speaking?
does it help at all?
i need methods

[russianROULETTE]

thankyou for the reply russianROULETTE. they are some really good tips that i will use. i try to watch the italian news every now and then, its just on at bad times, not to mention they speak oh so fast!!!

you're welcome don't worry so much about the speed, if you've ever heard a past listening paper they're a LOT slower. what you need to get used to is listening out for keywords.

ooh, actually, tip for listening - make sure you DO use the candidates' notes section. i got cocky and was like 'i can hold it all in my head', but my marks improved once i started jotting notes and keywords (this is with past papers - i went from getting 19/25 to 23/25).

Originally Posted by dior1

has anybody done this:
written out heaps of common words , put into a glossary and memorised them. does this make you fell alot more confident when reading italian and speaking?
does it help at all?
i need methods

usually i do past papers and if there's a word i don't know, i look it up in the dictionary, write it down and memorise it. i wish i had more tips for speaking, but to be honest our class didn't speak consistently, we spoke for about a month straight before exams and that proved sufficient.

some obvious things that need to be reinforced:
- make sure everything you're saying is agreeing, i.e. if you say 'sono un tipo' you MUST refer to yourself in the masculine (i.e. simpatico).

- make sure you know all your tenses. because we didn't do much on it, i was the only one in my class that really understood the conditional, and it came up in the speaking exam.

- make sure you're really clear on which past tense to use, i.e. avevo or ho avuto (and make sure you know the irregulars i.e. sono andata - once again be sure it agrees with your gender, or that of the person you're talking about!)

- another simple thing, know your verb conjugations well because when the nerves set in, it's the basic things that go first - i could shoot myself for it, but i said 'vadano' instead of 'vanno' and 'avrono' instead of 'hanno' <--- these are the most infuriating mistakes because they're so simple.

that's about all i can think of, if i come up with anything later i'll post it

[dior1]

Wow thankyou so much!! everything you posted iis a great help

I'm quite confident with the conditional tense at the moment, but really need to brush up on the common irregular verbs (and learn them off by heart!)

As simple as it is, I find I always make mistakes with endings So this is something I must try to improve on.

Keep the great posts coming

[autumbabe1991]

Originally Posted by dior1

has anybody done this:
written out heaps of common words , put into a glossary and memorised them. does this make you fell alot more confident when reading italian and speaking?
does it help at all?
i need methods

this my sound wierd but im doing drama and for my ind. performance i had to do a monologue...

we learnt it by beating then chunking.... beating is just breaking all the indivdual ideas up, enabling us to learn smaller parts....

chunking however, is where an actor repeats three words of a beat three times then the next three and puts the together slowly...

so it would go something like: chunking however is, chunking however is, chunking however is.... where an actor repeats, where an actor repeats, where an actor repeats... chunking however is where an actor repeats, chunking however is where an actor repeats, chunking however is where an actor repeats.......

so you could apply the theory of chunking to your theory of glossary memorisation.....

and as most teachers say, repetition is the key

[dior1]

Originally Posted by autumbabe1991

and as most teachers say, repetition is the key

indeed it is! practice makes perfect
other handy hints would be greatly appreciated

[dior1]

bumpp! =]

[TehAzner]

Sorry if people consider this a bump, but hopefully this gives some insight as to how to prepare for the wonderful italian language! Anyways here are some tips of mine which helped me:

-Past papers are a must. The listening section can be so hard sometimes esp. when you can't hear the male speaker clearly (as in HSC 2007 Italian Continuers Exam... speak louder per favore!!). Just do as many as you can, it'll definitely help.
-ALWAYS use the notes section, without it your paper will be a guaranteed failure.
-For speaking, write out your planned responses and memorise them by heart... no matter how boring it may become.
-Creative writing, attempt all past paper options and show them to your teacher. The only way you learn is if you keep on revamping your old creative writing styles and coming up with new and innovative ways (lol sounds like I'm advertising some new I.T. product)
-Reading Comprehension, um... just do more extra reading, like magazines or newspapers if you're keen. It works, not only does it enhance your vocabulary but it'll definitely help you in the exam when analysing those pesky passages with some word you don't know.
-Oh yeah one final thing, try to refrain yourself from using the dictionary often, it eats up your time so quickly.

Anyways hopes this helps you out!
Best of luck with your HSC!
Ciao!

[lou071]

I learnt Spanish, but i think my experience can help you learning Italian.
All those above posts answered your question really well.
I really agree that it is the best way to learn language.

well, this is what I did.
1. Whenever I had time during school hour such as lunch time, I always had lunch with my Spanish teacher and we talked in Spanish. Doing this for about 3 months, my speaking and listening skill improved so much.

2. I asked my Spanish teacher to recommend me some books in Spanish, of course thin and easy ones at first. and after about 2 months, i got much more confident in reading and writing exam.

Talk to your Italian teacher a lot and practice!