Buondì.
One of the nice things about running the club is getting emails from people around the world.
Everyone in Australia seems to be a member, which is nice.
Plus, we have lots of people from other English-speaking countries: the USA, the UK, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa.
Chastise me if I’ve missed any.
And there are enthusiastic students of Italian in an A-Z of other countries, too!
From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, via (to pick out just a few) Belarus, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Guatemala, and so on.
So it wasn’t a big surprise to get an email from Kathy in Juneau, Alaska, who has this to say:
Ciao, Daniel!
First of all, I am enjoying listening to Easy Italian News – thank you for starting that up! I especially like that it has several brief segments about non-American news. (I listen to News in Slow Italian, also, but it is such a different beast!)
Your comment about not knowing that Coffee Break Italian existed makes me wonder what other resources are out there for Italian language learners. Would you be willing to have readers write in with their suggestions? And maybe even compile responses onto a page?
I’ve got several podcasts that I listen to regularly, but I understand if it were a conflict of interest or you to list other sites’ works. Nevertheless, I’m curious what others have discovered that I don’t know about.I, like you, am a hare (No, I’m a turtle! Slow and steady… Daniel). Perhaps when I, too, retire, I’ll shift gears. In the meantime, I’m plugging away at an enjoyable pace, amazed at what I have learned so far. I am at the point where, just the other night, I realized that the book I was reading (“L’isola nel sole”, sulla isola d’Ischia) had become genuinely enjoyable. I still can’t speak very fluidly, but when I was in Bologna at Madrelingua, last spring (which I loved! But I don’t think I ever wrote a review for, now that I think about it), I realized that it didn’t take long for speech to bubble up. The base exists, it just needs use.
Thank you for all your hard work!
Kathy
Juneau, Alaska
Now, years back I did an article called something like ‘Where are all the good sites for learning Italian?‘.
If you click the link (don’t bother) you’ll see that, in 2012, there weren’t any.
Since then of course, the world has flipped on its head – a rush of venture-capital money has lead to the creation of all sorts of magical beasts, while the daggy years of the global financial crisis drove no-hopers like me onto the Internet in search of some way to earn a crust.
Insomma, there’s now masses of stuff to choose from.
I haven’t revisted the article because it seemed that club members managed well-enough to find alternative resources on their own.
And for the obvious reason that I don’t actually study Italian myself, and so tend to focus on what’s out there for the languages that I AM learning.
However, to Kathy’s suggestion:
Would you be willing to have readers write in with their suggestions? And maybe even compile responses onto a page?
Well of course! What a good idea.
If nothing else, it’ll save me some work, and will likely provide inspiration.
You guys send in your suggestions – with no limits, in the sense that if you son works for a startup and you want to help him out, send the link.
I’ll then take a look at all the ideas and compile some sort of list cum road map for club members.
So, what to look for?
Here are some ideas:
- WEBSITES, like the club
- APPS, Duolingo has a nice one. There are many others. Some are rubbish, some are good (which?)
- VIDEOS, Youtube has millions. Again, the quality varies. Help us find the gems!
- PODCASTS, a lot of people don’t know about these
- TRADITIONAL MEDIA, newspapers, magazines, TV channels, radios, etc.
- SIMPLIFIED MEDIA, like our very own Easy Italian News…
- ONLINE TEACHERS/LESSONS, and why not give our competitors a plug?
- BOOKS & EBOOKS, reluctant as I am to promote the mighty Amazon…
- COURSES, Moocs and stuff, things people may not have heard of
OK, I’ve thought of one restriction.
Maybe, given the A-Z thing, we should exclude anything that needs you to be in a particular place, such as a traditional course or language school, or meet-up-to-speak-Italian groups?
After all, we already have a ‘Schools‘ page…
So, wanna help?
Add your ideas as a comment to this post (so everyone can see them and we avoid duplication). Or, if you really must, then email them in.
But the comment thing is better – more fun for you and much less work for me – so do give it a try.
P.S. x 2
1.) Have you listened to Thursday’s Easy Italian News, yet?
Regular reading and listening practice will make all the difference to your studies. People send grateful emails to tell me so all the time.
That said, someone wrote in this week to say she tried once but didn’t understand anything…
Which was exactly where I was with my Swedish a year ago.
Compared to now, when I can understand about 80% of the simplified news on the easy Swedish news site (which inspired ours.)
What happened to make the difference?
Time passed, basically.
The trick is to forget about understanding, and just do the work, put in the hours.
At the start, understanding should NOT be your goal.
Instead, the objective should be to just read/listen, all the way through to the end.
Without stopping to look things up, because if you do, you’ll never finish…
Read and listen from start to finish a set number of times. I always do my Swedish news broadcast three times, for example.
The understanding part comes later, when your brain begins to tune in, when you start to recognise the style and the topics, when certain keywords become so obvious you can’t help but know them.
Build the habit first, to create understanding later.
It sounds back to front, but it isn’t really.
How do children learn?
Exactly like that.
Our job with Easy Italian News is to provide the resources, three times a week, for free, on which you can build a habit that will fast-track your learning.
And if/when you don’t understand, just chill, get to the end, repeat at least once, ideally twice if you have time, and you’re done!
Set a reminder to do the same for the following edition, and the one after.
Each Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday, you read and listen and don’t fret about not understanding.
Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday.
Then, after a month or so, write me to say how it really works!
I know that already, of course.
But it’s nice to get the emails, in return for the time and money I’m spending.
2.) And talking of money, here’s a final reminder regarding this week’s new Italian easy-reader ebook, Valeria, Michele e le maschere.
The special launch price, – 25% off the usual easy reader ebook price, ends on Sunday night.
After which, Valeria, Michele e le maschere will sell for £7.99.
A lunedì, allora.
Annie Carment says
I’m a kind-of-advanced, kid-of-intermediate learner. A while I ago I broke through with being able to read books in Italian and enjoy them. My breakthrough was two novels by Niccolo Ammaniti: “Io e te” and “Io non ho paura”. Both great stories, well written, and somehow I was able to keep reading and get enough of the sense to keep going without needing to stop and translate, except for a word here and there.
I’m looking for suggestions for my next read.
Annie from Australia.
Yulia says
try Elena Ferrante next?
Wendy says
I loved Mal di Pietre by Milena Argus. It’s not too long and I was soon so swept up by the story that it didn’t matter that I didn’t understand everything. It has been made into film in French, with the location moved to France but it’s not a patch on the original book.
Andrew May says
Here goes – what i hope might be a useful contribution. It is not quite what Daniel has asked for, but I guess all input is welcome,
I love the Easy Italian News podcasts (I wouldnt exactly call them Easy, as the style of the language is quite formal and different to the conversational format i am more used to). But I do eventually end up understanding most of it.
The way I use them is to download them as soon as i get the email telling me there is a new one (sign up if you havent already….). I have quite a long commute into work in the morning so I listen to them on a loop on my phone, probably about 5 times by the time i have got to work,. At some point i will try to also follow the transcript (on the train, and eg at lunchtime) and i find i then start really understanding them better.
On the way home I listen to them again on a repeat – as there are several stories, you dont get bored, you just start understanding them better. To me it is all about a simple routine that you ‘just do’ without really thinking about it too much. Hopefully Daniel will reassure me that this does lead to improvement!! If nothing else it makes my commute really good fun, which in itself is an achievement!
Since they are always being updated, and also relate to news that you are often aware of, they hold your interest, and i find them really clear. I do wonder if they could be a bit ‘Easier’, even if the language is sometimes quite tricky in a formal news style, i would personally prefer if they were just a little bit slower.
Andrew
Daniel says
Thanks for the input, Andrew. I’m happy you find the material useful and I’m sure you’ll find that after a few months your skills and confidence have improved significantly.
That said, I’d point out that, while all listening practice is good listening practice, the Easy Italian News material is specifically designed to be read AND listened to at the same time, which makes the issues of speed and complexity you raise less pertinent.
If you prefer to listen only at first, that’s your choice. But you have chosen the most difficult way to exploit the material.
Boh says
At varying times, I’m using:
Clozemaster: unsurprisingly Cloze sentences with audio and varying degrees of difficulty.( free and paid)
Apps Duolingo & Mondaly – good for beginner verbs ( free)
Coffee Break Italian podcast which is great for me. (Free)
Anki web and app: for my personal world list SRS (free and paid versions)
Vocabooster for basic vocab (paid)
Lang8 for writing (free and paid)
Olly Richards Italian reader as well as some OnLine Italian Club readers of course (paid)
Collins Paul Noble Italian audio books (paid)
Daniel says
Looks like a useful list. Feel free, people, to add the URLs, so people can take a look by clicking. It’ll be a lot of work (for someone…) otherwise, finding the resources mentioned and linking to them.
Claire says
Ciao a tutti!
I’ve been listening to this podcast and found it a very useful resource:
https://podcastitaliano.com/
This podcast has authentic Italian content with transcriptions in English and there are also transcriptions with just the difficult words and structures translated so that you can try and work out the rest by your self.
There are episodes for beginners, intemediate and advanced.
The episodes are on various topics such as Italian culture, colloquial Italian, how to learn Italian more effectively and interviews with people on various topics.
This is a link to the website which has more information about it, if you scroll down it has a description in English.
Roberta Verbyla says
I love Reverso Dictionary as my go to dictionary. It provides many sentence examples so you can see how words are used in context. I also used the HelloTalk app to meet three delightful people in Italy. We now have have Skype sessions when we practice English and Italian. The online teacher I had through Daniel’s club was excellent! We did quite a few sessions together… too many to remember. Her name is Irene and I HIGHLY and happily recommend her. I have tried many other sites for learning Italian, but Online Italian club has the most comprehensive list of activities and exercises. Also, being a teacher myself, I appreciate the systematic charts set up for each level so that users can make their own study plan. Well done.
jadwiga jarvis says
Daniel ─ it’s very public spirited of you to agree to promote other resources for learners of the Italian language. As you point out, there are numerous sites and I make use of several simultaneously. Each one has a different approach, so just hearing/reading the same phrase in a different context reinforces what I have already learned.
But to get to the point: in my experience, the undisputed champion is ‘Italy Made Easy’ which you can find on http://www.italymadeeasy.com
The site is run by truly inspired and inspiring teacher. It has everything; free courses, structured (paid) courses, lessons and master classes on Youtube and much more ─ but the things I love and appreciate most of all are the podcasts. It isn’t just the host’s excellent reading style; the subjects of his podcasts are enthralling. Apart from improving my Italian, I have learned so much about Italy’s less known (i.e. less touristy) history, its hidden architectural treasures, popular culture, traditions, superstitions… It’s a treasure trove.
Gill says
Many thanks for this site Jadwiga, I hadn’t discovered it before. I love the Italian Accelerator course on it – full speed Italian chats between friends with optional subtitles and then lessons on the phrases used. Hard going, but eventually it starts to make sense.
I too use Duolingo and Coffee Break Italian as have been previously mentioned (be careful with the latter, apparently there is an imposter on the App Store that they’ve had trouble with, you can find the real version at https://radiolingua.com/category/coffee-break-italian).
I really liked the podcast Licia Domanda, it seems to have disappeared from the App Store but is available on Lingq (I haven’t tried this at all, so can’t say whether it’s any good, but the podcast was great).
I use Quizlet (https://quizlet.com) for making lists of the things that just won’t stick in my memory like the use of “ne” or expressions that don’t translate directly. There are various ways of testing yourself available on the site.
I’m also trying to follow your suggestion, Daniel, of reading the news in Italian instead of English. I have the La Repubblica app on my phone and get a real sense of achievement when I manage to get all the way through an article.
Colleen says
I love videos:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLh4Z6aVuEMWEqVyLVcoN4w
Italianoautomatico- free and paid courses-also a Facebook group
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVc-IW8Q98qFmQcXla5FdQ
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVGo10hbyIyD6cbz3Jm3aoQ
Yulia says
Hi there
I would like to share with you my learning sources.
– first, this website (Captain Obvious?)
– EasyItaliannews of course (Captain Obvious again?) though I must admit that I discovered only today (from Daniel’s comment above) that you’re supposed to listen AND read them at the same time. I am subscribed from day 1 and every time I’ve been downloading an issue onto my phone, trying to listen to it at least 3 times (I’m a commuter as one of the commentators above), then during lunchtime opening the text and writing down translation into 2 languages of all the unknown words into a dedicated notebook (English’s not my first language but i live in the UK so having 2 translations allows be to better understand the meaning in the context of the news). And in the evening on the way back – if I’m not too tired – I would listen and read them from the phone for 1 last time. I must admit that at the beginning it was all white noise for me, with only a couple of familiar words that i could recognise. Now I’m able to understand every one of them (given that I do not follow world news at all this is quite an achievement!) In addition, the speed in my view is just about right. When you listen to it it may sound fast to you, but try to find Rai1 or the likes, you’ll change your mind about the pace of the easynews pretty quickly! When I ask my (Italian) husband to read me aloud the news from Corriere or La Stampa in the evening at the same pace, he rolls his eyes (too slow for him!) So Daniel, don’t slow down! It’s already slow enough, being even slower would make it sound completely unrealistic.
– podcast Italiano (very good for listening skills as it has also got transcripts of the audios) https://podcastitaliano.com/
– coffee break Italian reading club (52 texts of increasing complexity sent to you over 52 weeks) https://radiolingua.com/coffee-break-italian-reading-club/
Apps:
– Duolingo (free)
– Memrise (free)
– Il coniugatore (free)
– Italian words (vocabulary trainer)
– Italian grammar (good to read on a bus)
– Google Translate offline version (it’s getting better and better with time)
And finally, I would recommend buying/downloading books with simple contents in 2 languages. I did it with “Alice in Wonderland”. It’s an interesting and easy read in itself as it’s aimed for kids and I found the Italian translation quite precise, So it’s very good for trying to translate it by yourself and have a helping hand by using an English version when you struggle.
P.S. despite living with an Italian native speaker for nearly a decade I’m still a “turtle” :-)))
Daniel says
How to use EasyItalianNews.com
Linnea says
Hi
There is another Italian news programme, which has both normal and slow option on the Australian radio, with current Australian stories: https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/italian/slow-italian-fast-learning
Lynn Stewart says
Thanks so much for EasyItalianNews! I especially love the beautiful, clear Italian of the narrator. My other favorites for language learning:
busuu–busuu.com–part is free, part by subscription–grammar, vocab, writing. The most useful part to me (free) was the writing section, where you write about a photo and submit it to someone in the native country. They offer corrections, and you correct their English submissions.
Yabla–yabla.com–subscription–lots of video clips, grammar lessons, culture, fun soap operas with subtitles, all great for listening practice
Mango–mangolanguages.com–free through many libraries in the U.S., or by subscription–grammar, vocabulary, speaking practice
Duolingo–duolingo.com–free, grammar and vocabulary practice
wordreference.com–best multilingual dictionary, with example sentences to help you narrow down the exact sense you’re looking for
Karen Drage says
I would second the use of Italy made easy and Reverso, and add Learning Italian with Lucrezia on you tube
David says
Tandem is a great app I’ve used to meet native speakers.
Dave
Fran says
I’ve always got onelineitalianclub site open on my phone for easy access but the last thing at night or first in the morning I’ll listen to podcasts such as mentioned above as well as 30 Minute Italian/The Iceberg Project by Cher Hale.
Annie have you tried books by
Cinzia Medaglia
Maggie Clothier says
Hi,
I’m loving all these suggestions and will definitely look into lots of them. Here are the things I like and use:
– I find the Online Italian Club an excellent resource and really enjoy all your emails, Daniel;
– Easy Italian news is extremely useful, not just for listening and reading practice but also for picking up on news not reported here in the UK;
– I’m addicted to Duolingo and do sizeable chunks each day;
– I love Coffee Break Italian and listen to it while I’m running (and probably frighten the locals as I repeat phrases out loud!);
– I read Italian translations of novels I’ve already read in English. Knowing the plot helps me to stick at it and not constantly look things up;
– I go along to something called ‘MeetUp’ which exists in lots of cities and bigger towns in quite a few countries. https://www.meetup.com/topics/italian/ My local Italian group meets in a pub twice a month and we just have a drink and chat in Italian all evening. There are people of every level from beginners to real Italians who live here and they also organise things like walks, dinners and cinema trips.
Saluti,
Maggie
Carol Brady says
These are the resources I have found really useful:
Podcasts: Change of Pace – this is the advanced version of News in Slow Italian and is read at a normal pace. It is available only on subscription and comes with transcripts. The intermediate level is also good. Click save
OneWorld Italiano: over 83, free YouTube videos that cover levels A1, A2 and B1. A full B-2 course is available for a subscription.
Does anyone know of Italian television dramas that can be viewed from the UK?
RAI Play is the catch up part of the RAI website. There are quite a few documentaries and other factual programmes available to watch . The drama programmes on the website are not available to watch from the UK.
Annie Carment says
Hi Carol
I recently got myself a VPN which enables me to watch all the RAI channels from Australia. I’m using Express VPN and it’s working well.
Kathy Ward says
Ciao a tutti! Thank you, Daniel, for opening up space for this, and thanks, everyone, for sharing! (And un abbraccio forte a cugina Carla – si, ecco io!)
Starting out, I used duolingo daily and it really helped me establish the habit of doing something every day as well as give me a basic foundation. I’ve been working through the levels on this site and listening to Easy Italian News. I listen to podcasts much more than I watch videos, and my current favorites are: Italiano Automatico, Podcast Italiano, News in Slow Italian, Radio Arlecchino (sadly, no longer in production, but hits grammar points in a fun way – also, I hear something new every time I relisten), Al Dente (one of several Italian language podcasts from podclub.ch which has podcasts in other languages as well), and Equilibrio Digitale from Piano P, which has a number of interesting-looking podcasts on it. Also, I’ve looked at Radio Rai for podcast versions of their radio shows – currently I don’t have any in my rotation, but there are many news/current event podcasts there for news junkies.
For news, I subscribed to huff post.it and now get synopsis emails from them about the day’s news (if anyone knows of other Italian news sites that offer this, please let us know!). I also look things up on Wikipedia (especially useful if I’m looking for vocabulary to talk about something new).
I’m still looking for any online comic strips along the lines of Calvin and Hobbes (light-hearted, single day strips, or even longer stories, but updated regularly). I found two, but they have both stopped updating: Due cuori e una gatta; and Micissitudini) – it seems like the fumetti culture in Italy is much more serious than that in the States ( or perhaps I’m using the wrong search terms).
A suggestion for those who are finding the Easy News difficult… if you can, set aside some time to listen/read a few times, then use the listening as a dictation exercise (pause the recording when you need to catch up with your writing). Check what you’ve written against the transcript and take another listen paying closer attention to what you hadn’t heard properly the first time. This is really tough to do, and I rarely do it these days, but I found that doing this as an advanced beginner really dialed in my listening skills.
Martha says
Thanks for doing this, Daniel and to everyone for these suggestions. I’d also like to recommend Italiano Automatico by Alberto Arrighini. He offers nice music selections for listening practice, podcasts, chats with his mom and nonna, youtube, etc.
Thanks again
Colleen says
YES! I love Italianoautomatico. Alberto Arrighini is so generous with a huge amount of free material and his paid programs are well worth the prices.
martha says
PS to earlier post. EDX.org has other Italian courses, in addition to the Wellesley MOOC (courses in Italian on italian dialects, Latin literature and Dante at the intermediate or advanced level)
Martha says
and one more I thought I had already seen from other members, but now I can’t find it: https://www.cyberitalian.com. Excellent!!
Annette says
I enjoy a game called Freerice.com
It has many categories including Language Learning – select ‘Italian’ and select your level.
It’s great for learning vocabulary and for every correct answer they donate 10 grains of rice to World Food Program.
Also for a bit of fun look at Casa Surace on YouTube
Thanks Daniel, this is a great opportunity to discover fresh ways to learn.