Buona domenica a tutti.
Wednesday’s article, Language-learning habits checklist provoked an emailed question from Jonathan, mentioning that he found listening to Italian “mentally exhausting” and asking for “tips about dealing with the frustration of not understanding anything at first”.
I enjoy responding to learners’ questions (I was a language teacher for three decades, so just as well), but it’s a lot more efficient if they’re posed on the club website, as ‘comments’, rather than directly to me in an email.
That way everyone can read them, see? And many people do.
Jonathan was kind enough to repost his email as a ‘comment’. You can read what he wrote about listening to Italian as a “beginning listener” here (the third comment): https://onlineitalianclub.com/language-learning-habits-checklist/#comments
My reply begins like this:
“A year is a very short time in language-learning, Jonathan. If you read at B1 already, then that’s great, though as a self described ‘beginning listener’ it does rather suggest you spent TOO MUCH time “building vocabulary, learning sentence structure, etc” You don’t mention speaking, either…”
“For most people, speaking and listening are priorities, though it’s common that inexperienced learners focus on grammar and vocabulary, thinking that once they have the basics the communicative competences (i.e. actually having a conversation) will just follow naturally.”
“Unfortunately that’s wrong.”
And goes on for rather a long time, as I always have plenty to say on that particular topic…
Read the whole exchange here: https://onlineitalianclub.com/language-learning-habits-checklist/#comments
And of course, you’re more than welcome to add your two cents’ worth. Scroll right down to the the bottom of this page https://onlineitalianclub.com/language-learning-habits-checklist/#comments, to where it says ‘Leave a reply’ and fill in the box.
You’ll be asked for your email address (though we have it anyway, and in any case, there’s nothing to stop you using a fake one…) but that won’t be published.
Comments are ‘moderated’ before being published (to weed out spam), so don’t be surprised if your contribution isn’t visible immediately. As it’s Sunday, I’ll be taking Bug to the park, cooking lunch, making pizzas in the evening, and so on, therefore ‘moderating’ comments only occasionally.
But do join in!
Oh, nearly forgot…
(Copied/pasted from our ebooks store website)
Don’t forget – the 2025 Spring Sale on ebooks ends tonight!
Don’t forget – the EasyReaders.org 2025 Spring Sale ends tonight, Sunday March 30th.
Coupon code 2025-Spring-Sale-25%-Off is still valid on EVERYTHING in our online store, which specialises in ebooks for learning foreign languages, in particular Italian, but also French, Spanish, German and some other languages.
Browse our extensive range of ebooks for learning Italian:
Italian Easy Readers | History/Historical | A Day in the Life of… | Italian Literature | World Literature | Italian Cinema | Opera
Easy Reader Multi-Packs! | Italian-English Parallel Texts | Self-Study Workbooks
And/or other languages:
You’ll find FREE sample chapters for just about everything, so you can get an idea of the level and format of the material, and decide what may work best to keep you learning in 2025.
For example,’Easy reader’ ebooks, which are simplified texts and accompanying online audio at 12 different levels!
Or ‘parallel text’ ebooks (simplified texts + translations) at different levels – the language you’re learning along with a line-by-line translation into English.
Depending on the way you prefer to learn, either could be ideal for supplementing a more traditional language course.
An ebook ‘easy reader’ might normally cost £9.99, but until midnight tonight you can use coupon code 2025-Spring-Sale-25%-Off to reduce that by 25%, to just £7.49.
Stock up on the study materials you need today, before the 2025 Spring Sale ends. The next similar promotion won’t be until June…
Italian | Spanish | French | German
Don’t forget, the coupon code to save 25% on the published prices is 2025-Spring-Sale-25%-Off .
Paste it carefully into the box in your cart, where it says ‘Coupon Code’.
Then presss the ‘Apply Coupon’ button. Finally scroll down to check that your order total has been discounted by 25%, before proceeding – it’s the order total that is discounted, not the item price which you see on your screen, though that amounts to the same thing.
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