Online Italian Club

New Italian listening material (with transcript)

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Just a quick article to present the first of our new series of Italian listening tracks.

This comes out of some articles I did in January this year about improving your listening.

Plenty of people told me at the time that there isn’t much decent Italian listening material available out there on the Internet, which seems a shame.

So, we decided to hire a writer to create a series of practice exercises at different levels. They’ll be available completely free over the next few months.

Click the link below to listen to the first one. It’s A1 level, but good practice for any level.

Once you’ve listened, scroll down to the bottom of this article for the transcript.

(Gee… I hope this works… If you’re reading this in an email, it probably won’t, though. In which case click here to visit the site and try again.)

OK, before you start, here’s a learning tip:

  1. First, listen to the audio file first without looking at the transcript (yes, I know it’s harder that way)
  2. Then if you want, listen WITH the transcript, which will help. Do it several times, why not?
  3. If you have time, do it once more without the transcript. That way you get the maximum value from the material..

(Remember: don’t cheat and look at the transcript until you’ve listened at least once!!)

1.PRESENTAZIONE – Ciao, io sono Lucia

Mi chiamo Lucia e ho 36 anni. Vivo a Roma da cinque anni ma sono nata a Madrid, in Spagna. A Roma vivo in un quartiere chiamato Rione Monti che è vicino al Colosseo insieme a mio marito Paolo e al nostro gatto Mimì.

Mio marito è italiano e lavora come parrucchiere al centro di Roma.

Sono alta, ho i capelli neri e lisci e gli occhi marroni. Sono una persona simpatica e divertente.

A Roma lavoro come impiegata all’ambasciata spagnola. Per questo per andare a lavoro indosso sempre un paio di pantaloni neri, una camicia bianca e una giacca nera.

A lavoro devo rispondere al telefono, mandare e-mail e dare informazioni ai turisti spagnoli in Italia. Inoltre per lavoro viaggio molto, vado soprattutto in Inghilterra e in Spagna.

E’ un lavoro molto interessante ma un po’ faticoso.

Quando non lavoro esco e faccio una passeggiata. Di solito passeggio per il centro e vedo le vetrine dei negozi: ogni tanto mi fermo e faccio acquisti.

Ogni tanto mio marito ed io andiamo a dei concerti di musica classica e ci divertiamo molto.

A Natale torno in Spagna per passare le vacanze insieme alla mia famiglia. Facciamo una grande cena tutti insieme il giorno di Capodanno e a mezzanotte ci facciamo gli auguri di buon anno.

So, what did you think? Useful? Not useful?

Is this the sort of thing we should be doing to help you learn Italian?

Leave a comment below. (The stupid dog name wasn’t my idea, by the way…)

Comments

  2. Great stuff, Daniel. Keep them coming.

    I’m looking to take B2 this summer in the UK, so the more listening practice I can do, the better!

    • Thanks for the feedback, Nick. I have seven more ready to upload, so watch this space.
      And good luck with your B2 exam!

  3. In quanti modi diversi posso dire ‘fantastico’
    Secondo me questo e cio che abbiamo bisongo di aiutarci
    ho capito molte parole e piu importante.non ho letto il testo

    grazie mille Daniel

    Spero che stia bene

    John T

  4. Great! I was disappointed that it only let me play it once for some reason. On subsequent attempts it stops after 15 or 20 seconds. :-/

    Great work…..but I suspect the speaker is Francesca, and not Lucia. Am I right? 😉

    • Hi Matthew,
      Yes, you’re right. This time the speaker was Francesca.
      Sorry you had trouble playing this twice, though. I’ve just tested it myself and had no difficulty running the whole thing through twice from beginning to end.
      Anyone else had the same issue?
      Daniel

  6. Fantastico!! Grazie, grazie, grazie!
    Delle capacita’ comunicative, ascoltare e’ il piu’ difficile. Percio’ questo e’ perfetto!
    Nancy

  7. Fantastico, Daniel! Grazie mille.
    Delle capacita’ comunicative, ascotare e’ il piu’ difficile per me. Percio’, questo e’ perfetto.
    Nancy

  8. Sorry for the duplicate post earlier — chalk it up to internet incompetence.
    I did NOT have trouble playing it more than once after I downloaded the soundcloud application.
    Nancy

  9. Grazie! E verament difficile trovare materiali da ascoltare sul internet. Mi interesserebbe anche della musica da ascoltare –
    un’altra idea – dialoghi sarebbero di aiuto!

    Mille grazie ed a presto!

    • Prova Youtube, Jacqueline. C’è molta roba in italiano, spesso anche le parole.
      Per noi, mettere materiali che sono ‘copyright’ è un po’ difficile…

  10. Grazie Daniel e` molto utile, e quando ho fatto ‘home-stay’ a Bologna c’era un cane, si’ un cane con il nome ‘Mimi’!!!

  11. Per tutti:
    C’e’ un “app” si chiama “Radio Italy.” Quella stazione radio suona le canzone italiano tutti il giorno.

    Nancy

  12. Track 1 was excellently recorded re clarity and pace. The speaker did a good, professional job. The other tracks were not as clear – the voices were muffled and difficult to hear.

    • Ho fatto un errore. The only track I found muffled and distant was the one recorded by *Lucia*. The others were fine.

  13. Ciao Daniel!
    Ho ascoltato questa registrazione col gran piacere, grazie mille!
    Sono sicuro che tali esercizi siano molto utili per imparare la lingua Italiana.
    Molte grazie ancora una volta!
    A presto,
    Sergei.
    P.S. Non ho capito la ultima frase del tuo e-mail circa il nome stupido del cane. Tra i personaggi della registrazione non ho trovato nessun cane, c’e’ un gatto di nome Mimi’. 🙂

  14. Fantastic Daniel!
    I listened the first time without the script and hardly understood any of it. After listening another 4 times without the script I realised I knew nearly every word and understood most of it. Keep it coming. Thanks

  15. Mi Piace, I like this a lot; your suggestion of listening before reading then reading as you listening worked well for me. I also then re-read the lesson aloud to myself, so yes it works for me.

    From a technical perspective the sound was fine and it streamed well, no pauses/waiting.

    Thumbs up from me

  16. This is great! I listened to the audio first to see how much I would understand. The first time, I understood maybe 50% so I listened again and again until I was able to understand most of it. Then, before looking at the transcript, I decided to write down what I heard/understood from the audio (I had to re-play the audio probably a hundred times as I do not know shorthand, hahaha) until finally I had everything that I understood written down. Then I compared what I wrote with the transcript and I found I actually had about 90% correct! La ringrazio molto per questo esercizio. Credo di essere abbastanza coraggiosa da partecipare in il prossimo online lezione di conversazione – come vedi, il mio italiano non é buono, mi dispiace. Grazie mille ancora!

    • That’s great, Leonor! Well done.
      Great approach, by the way. That’s a method I’ve used in class in the past. It’s very helpful not just for improving your listening but also for picking up doubts about grammar and lexis too.
      There’ll be another listening published in a day or so. Make sure you’re on the mailing list!
      Daniel

  17. Most of the access I do from my windows 8 tablet, but I also use a windows 8 phone and on the phone the audio doesn’t play, any suggestions, apart from ditch the phone 🙂

    Grazie

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