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Buondì.
IT NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE ME how many people employ time, effort, and perhaps money, with the idea of learning a foreign language – Italian, for instance – while having no apparent interest in what the communities of people who actually use the language day-to-day are talking about.
At a stretch I can undestand that someone might want to learn Italian for, say, completing their college degree, speaking to very distant relatives, or just avoiding the onset of degenerative brain diseases, so have no particular interest in Italy or people who speak Italian.
But what I can’t figure out is how anyone can expect to successfully learn a language, even in the relatively short term, even at just a low-ish level (A1, A2 or B1 – find out what those level designations mean here), without spending the bulk of their learning time on communicative activities, such as practising listening, speaking and reading.
Anyone who’s observed the marvellous process of a human newborn transforming into an insolent three-year-old in just a few dozen months (coincidentally, approximately the time it takes to complete a college degree in a foreign language) will know that acquiring a language is all about understanding what others are saying and communicating your own needs and preferences, though not necessarily in that order.
From the soothing effect of your mother or father singing, through screaming in hunger, pain or frustration, to shaking your head and hurling food to the floor, pointing, nodding, bringing someone the remote, a toy or a book to signify what you want them to do for you, and finally the first words (we think Bug said ‘Daddy’ this week, though he might have been referring to Daddy Shark), it could not be more obvious to me that:
NEEDS COME FIRST, then SKILLS FOLLOW.
Adult language learners who have no ‘intrinsic’ need to acquire skills in the actual language (i.e. they never have to listen to someone speaking it and understand what’s being said, or express themselves and be undestood), but rather have the aim of getting a course credit, a qualification, or just passing the time, are making things hard for themselves.
Sure, you can ‘study’ Italian – in the same way you might study Latin, or Ancient Greek, or math, or phllosophy – without priortising actual skills.
My kids did Latin at high school for multiple years. Each year I asked them how an ancient Roman would order a flask of wine and some snacks in a bar, but they never could tell me. I always suggested they ask the Latin prof. but, “It’s not like that, Daddy. It’s all conjugations and translating…”
Exactly.
Study Italian, or any living language, as a ‘subject’, and you might ‘know’ the language well (conjugations and translating), without being able to ‘use’ it in real life.
And vice versa. You can get to the point when you are familiar enough speaking and understanding a language to more than get by, while ‘knowing’ little or none of it. My Italian grammar is horrible. Bug doesn’t care.
Most people will say, do both!
So study the basics, while at the same time working on the communicative skills (practising speaking and listening, etc.), which is perfectly reasonable. That’s the way good, professional language courses are designed, and it works just fine, most of the time, for most people.
The problem is that putting together the communicative side of the language-learning ‘syllabus’, perhaps on your own, is beyond most non-professionals (and beyond many language teachers).
The result is that people focus on the tasks that are easier to sequence, understand and evaluate, such as conjugating verbs and memorising vocabulary.
The solution?
Focus on finding and participating in ‘communities’ of people who are using the language you want to learn (and, at a stretch, a community could be just you plus one other person).
Focus on interacting in the language in a way that satisfies your needs, and theirs.
For instance, reading/listening to the news in Italian (the ‘community’ in this case is you and the world at large), chatting with an online teacher, or if you’re learning the language in a class, working with other students in pairs or small groups IN THE LANGUAGE YOU’RE LEARNING.
No idea where to start?
Take a look at https://www.rainews.it/ It’s free, and probably has no ‘geo-blocking’, though the adverts are bothersome.
Scroll down the page, just glancing at the headlines and the images. See anything that you recognise?
Perhaps you will, perhaps you won’t, but either way you’ll see what’s in the news in Italy TODAY, so what at least some Italians are reading, listening to, and perhaps talking about.
It’s likely that that will be unfamiliar to you. For the moment.
EasyItalianNews.com is one of our projects that does something similar, but for learners, so it should be easier. Find out more in the P.P.S. to this article (scroll right down).
Not into news?
Then your first job is to find ‘your’ community, so a person or people who are using Italian, or whatever language you want to learn, to communicate about stuff that matters to you and to them, be it Taylor Swift, Inter, Italian recipes, knitting patterns, or whatever.
If you have no ‘community’ to use the language you’re learning with, then learning will be harder. Because you needs are not directed, as the baby’s needs are.
But anyway, if you have no ‘community’, what are you learning for? Why bother?
Finding places where you can use the language you’re learning, and people to use it with, will ideally be an ongoing and AT LEAST EQUAL strand in your language-learning journey.
Practise is not less important than grammar. The opposite, in fact.
Simple solutions are online media, online conversation partners, and so on. Start with those.
Then, once you’ve prioritised the basic reading/listening/speaking skills, the world is your oyster!
At which point, if you still have no one to talk to or nothing to say, I totally give up.
Go conjugate verbs, translate something, why not?
Have fun!
On your own.
Alla prossima settimana.
P.S. Half-Price Ebook of the Week ‘Giallo a Capodanno’ just £4.99
Last week’s very seasonal, half-price, ‘easy reader’ eBook, the B2 (upper-intermediate)-level ‘Natale a sorpresa‘, was promoted very late – on Thursday – so could have ended up in many people’s ‘trash’ folder, along with all the ‘Black Friday’ offers…
Because the story is about Christmas ,we’re leaving it at half-price until the holidays: ‘Natale a sorpresa‘.
And this week we have another seasonal Italian eBook offer, also half the usual price!
‘Giallo a Capodanno‘ is perfect for more advanced students to practice reading/listening over the holidays.
It’s a little harder than ‘Natale a sorpresa‘, so check the free sample chapters for each before you buy:
- https://easyreaders.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Natale-a-sorpresa-SAMPLE.pdf
- https://easyreaders.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Giallo-a-Capodanno-SAMPLE.pdf
Read/listen to one or both of these over the next few weeks and you’ll improve your Italian comprehension skills, consolidate the grammar and vocabulary you’ve studied, and get into the festive mood!
“Sbrigati Alida, o arriveremo in ritardo alla festa di Capodanno!” ripete nervosamente Martina alla sua compagna di stanza. Alida sta sdraiata sul letto con un libro di Agatha Christie fra le mani. Si toglie pigramente gli occhiali da lettura e guarda fuori dalla finestra: “Nevica ancora, che incubo!”
It’s New Year 1970 and Martina’s all dressed up for the party, determined to enjoy it! But her roommate, Alida is more cynical:
“Ascolta: siamo bloccati dalla neve in un collegio in cui viviamo tutto l’anno. Dei duecento alunni che frequentano la scuola, solo sette (sette, porca miseria!) hanno dei genitori che non li vogliono tra i piedi nemmeno durante le feste. E noi siamo tra questi sette. Quindi puoi anche vestirti come Marilyn Monroe… ma rimani una disgraziata!”
Alida would rather read detective thrillers than pretend to have fun with just six fellow students. But who knows? Perhaps something interesting will happen?
- .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
- .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
- 8 chapters to read and listen to
- Comprehension questions to check your understanding
- Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
- Suitable for students at upper-intermediate level or above
- Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)
Remember, this week ‘Giallo a Capodanno‘ is 50% discounted, so just £4.99 rather than the usual ‘easy reader’ ebook price of £9.99!
Buy ‘Giallo a Capodanno‘ just £4.99! | Free Sample Chapter (.pdf) | Catalog
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P.P.S.
And here’s the usual reminder to read/listen to Tuesday’s FREE bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news.
The regular text + audio bulletins are a fantastic, FREE way to consolidate the grammar and vocabulary you’ve studied, as well as being fun and motivating!
If you’re not already familiar with the material, take a look at their website.
Once you’re there, don’t miss the chance to get all three text + audio bulletins of ‘easy’ news emailed to you each week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays – subscribe (for FREE) by entering your email address on this page and clicking the confirmation link that will be sent to you.
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