Buondì.
Like a lot of ‘big things’ in life – building a career say, or sustaining a happy and committed realationship with a signifcant other – learning a foreign language involves paying attention over a period that may last for many years, even multiple decades.
It’s a reasonable assumption that most adults will have had at least some exposure to language learning over their lives, even if only at school.
And yet the number of people in English-speaking countries who could hold a conversation in a foreign language is vanishingly small, excluding those who speak a different language at home for reasons of migration or whatever (hispanics in the USA, south-east Asians in Britain, to mention just two examples.)
Here at the club we’re more interested in those who have chosen to take up language-learning again, in some shape or form, as adults, and so can be assumed to have their own motivation.
Migration again, perhaps (retire in Italy? You’ve got to be kidding) or more likely some form of self-actualization, put more simply, a desire to prove something, if only to ourselves.
And yet, even in this self-selected group of motivated adults, the drop-out rate in any form of language learning activity is akin to that relied on by the fitness industry, where it is assumed that most people who buy an annual gym membership at a discounted price won’t then use more than a few months of it – or by the publishers of diet books – which rarely work, so demand for faddy new regimes remains high.
I’d hope that the language-learning industry was less cynical in its approach, that educators desire the best for their students, but I fear the personal trainers and the authors diet books are similarly well-disposed to their customers.
The reality is that most of us will not sculpt a beach body before the summer comes (if ever), will eat and drink more than we should, and will not keep at our course/app/grammar book long enough to make a difference, except for the depressing effect on our motivation.
To maximise chances of success over time, whether it’s keeping off the kilos or building Italian communication competences, it surely helps to focus on habits.
Think biting your nails, spending hours each evening with Netflix, or snacking. Habits are the things you do regularly without consciously deciding to. The ones that stay with you over time will have the most effect, whether bad or good.
Last year I developed a set of good habits (and eliminated some bad ones) with the aim of losing weight, which I did.
It took four months of vegetables and mineral water but, in the end, I was seven kilos/fifteen pounds lighter.
And then Christmas, New Year, the depths of winter, and Bug.
So here I am, good habits mostly forgotten, bad habits back again, waistline expanding daily.
E così, la vita.
Today then I thought I’d renew my language-learning habits for your edification/inspiration/consolation.
Below I’ve included only the things that I do more or less automatically, and excluded anything that I’d like to do, or have maybe done a few times but which can’t properly be called a habit:
- On the home from driving Bug to the petting zoo, I listen to the news in Swedish on my smartphone
- as I do on the days when I have the time and motivation to take the cardiologist-prescribed thirty-minute daily walk
- and if I’m still walking when the Swedish news finishes, I switch to French
- Driving the other way in the afternoon, I mostly have the car radio on, so always Italian
- I browse for news on this site, this site, or this site (mostly daily, sometimes hourly) rather than reading English language websites
- I get local news by downloading CORRIERE DI BOLOGNA from my library app
- I’m up to page 300 (out of 450) of ‘Costa sottovento‘ which I have to finish and take back to the actual library by April 9th. I’m hoping for the next book in the series for my birthday…
- Every Wednesday, come rain or shine, I chat online with a Swedish club member
- And of course I chat in Italian to Bug’s many admirers, in the park, at the supermarket, and so on.
Quite a lot of Swedish, then – listening in particular, but also speaking and reading.
Lots of Italian reading and chatting.
Plus bits and pieces of French and Spanish. It’s been a while now since I’ve done any Turkish, so I’ve excluded that.
As you can see, there are no classes, no grammar books, and no homework included in my Language-Learning Habits Checklist, which I could, perhaps should, beat myself up about.
There are a lot of things I’d like to do – improve my Spanish, learn some German, make fewer mistakes speaking Swedish, and so on, but that’s not the point right now.
The point is to review the things that I do without having to force myself, the things that just happen in the natural course of events, the things that – over the long term – will have an impact.
What if there are no such activities in your checklist, just aspirations?
We all have to start somewhere, no shame in that. The trick is to choose activities that are easy enough that they’re likely to stick. Then to keep at them long enough until they just become a natural part of your day/weeek.
I learnt a lot from this book, years back. Much more than I ever did from teacher-training courses…
An easy place to begin building language-learning habits is listening to and reading the three weekly bulletins of ‘easy’ Italian news from EasyItalianNews.com.
They’re free (happy learners send donations) and take just ten or twenty minutes, three times a week. There are full details in today’s P.S. Scroll right down to the end to find it.
That site is based, by the way, on one I used when first learning Swedish. I got into the habit of reading/listening and here I still am, seven or eight years later. You get the point.
Another trick is to swop something you do each day in your own language for a similar activity in the language you’re learning.
If you drive to work each day, or to pick up your kids, or exercise, or do chores, there’s no reason you couldn’t be listening to Italian radio (smartphone again) while you do so, INSTEAD of English, or whatever your native tongue is.
You’ll find a selection of Italian state radio stations here, where it says ‘Ascolta in diretta’. They have an app, which I never use as my Fiat Punto has a radio and I live in Italy, but you could.
It’s called RaiPlay Sound. Download it from your usual app store and give it a try. Remember, though, it DOESN’T MATTER IF YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING (at first).
What matters is establishing a language-learning habit, and you do that by choosing something that’s easy and free to do, and which doesn’t take up time and mental energy that you’d reserve for something more important.
If you don’t already listen to something on your smartphone while exercising, commuting or doing chores, why not start with that? Get yourself some earbuds (not to be used when you’re driving, obviously), play about with the app, and via!
Ditto with whatever app you get your news from. Download the RaiNews.it app, then make it a habit to click on that FIRST, before you go read in your own language. What are Italians talking about today? Is the pope dead yet?
Could be that just a few seconds out of your busy life is enough to build a new habit that one day might pay back big time!
N.b. Smartphones are very, very habit-forming, which is great for language-learning!
For example, I always use the same half-dozen or so apps – news, weather, radio, etc. You probably have your own half-dozen.
So try shifting the ones that suck up most of your time and attention (social media, shopping, sport) off your home screen, to some place where your eye doesn’t immediately fall on them when you fire up your phone.
Then replace them there with Italian language apps – the news site, the radio, etc. Click those first, even if only to scan the headlines.
Così. There’s a lot to feel bad about when it comes to language-learning, loads of stuff we can’t yet do, an infinity of useful learning activities that we regret not making time for.
Counteract the gloomy, demotivating feelings by reviewing your personal language-learning habits checklist from time to time, to remind yourself of all the constructive, useful things you habitually do.
Remember what I wrote above about most people not getting very far with language-learning?
Get in the habit of using Italian, even just for small things, and you’ll be much less likely to quit.
Alla prossima settimana.
2025 Spring Sale: ‘easy reader’ ebook picks at your level!
(Copied/pasted from our ebooks store website)
Last week we announced that our 2025 Spring Sale had begun. Find out more here.
So today, as part of this promotion, I’m going to give you my top ebook picks for beginner, intermediate, and advanced-learners of Italian – I hope there’ll be something here that grabs you!
When I say ‘my top picks’, what I mean is the ebooks that I have enjoyed the most (I read them all, multiple times, during the editing and publishing process).
My criteria is just that: enjoyment. Why?
Because as a language-learner myself, I find that if there’s a story that engages me (whether it’s a news article, or fiction, like our ‘easy readers’), I’ll keep turning the page.
And if I can’t (metaphorically) put an ebook down, my reading comprehension skills improve, and with them my knowledge of vocabulary, and my confidence with the grammar of the language I’m learning.
As any teacher (or student) knows, boredom is the enemy! So a writer that knows how to craft a text so that it pulls you in and won’t let go, even if it’s ‘just’ language-study material, is indeed a useful ally!
Don’t forget, the 2025 Spring Sale is on! To get 25% off everything in your shopping cart, copy/paste the coupon code, which is:
2025-Spring-Sale-25%-Off
Bene, let’s get to it. I’m on the Catalog page of our online shop, starting a little way down, where it says ‘Italian Easy Readers’ (if you’re learning another language, you’ll need to scroll down the Catalog page and make your own selections, sorry!)
So we have seventeen easy reader ebooks for A1 and A2 students, six at A1 (the lowest level), eight at the ‘half-level’ A1/2, and three at A2 (the harder ones). If you’re not sure which level is right for you, use the Free Sample links and take a look. You should be able to get the gist of the story with only occasional use of a dictionary.
N.b. This article was written a couple of years ago. Since then we’ve published other ebooks, so the selection at your level is probably even more ample than described below. Our Catalog page is always up-to-date, so includes the most recent titles, and free sample chapters!
So honestly? I enjoyed all seventeen. but I’ve been strict with myself and whittled the total down to just two at each level, concentrating on the ones I liked the MOST – the stories that made me actually care about the characters, and about what happened to them next!
(These are extracts from our Catalog page, so you can also see the price, the available formats, and a link to the free sample chapter for each title…)
A1 
Colpo di forbici (A1) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
Rosa la cuoca disastrosa (A1) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
A1/2 
Il giocoliere (A1/2) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
L’ascensore (A1/2) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
A2 
Cielo libero (A2) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
L’amore ai tempi del supermercato (A2) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
What if those were too easy for you? Nessun problema. For ‘intermediate’ learners we have loads and loads of materials – twenty-two separate titles!
The hard part was choosing between them, but again, I’ve been strict and narrowed it down to two stories at each half level…
A2/B1 
2 giugno 1946 (A2/B1) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
Il campo di papaveri (A2/B1) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
B1 
Caccia all’autografo (B1) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
Dante, gatto vagante (B1) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
B1/B2 
L’imperatore e i giochi (B1/2) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
Segreti e polpette (B1/2) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
B2 
Natale a sorpresa (B2) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
Le italiane (B2) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
Hope there was something there that called out “Read me!”
But if you looked at the sample chapters and they were STILL to simple for you, firstly, well done for reading Italian for such confidence, and secondly, brace yourself now for the hard stuff!
B2/C1 
Prometeo e la guerra dei titani (B2/C1) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi)
Il bar (B2/C1) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi)
C1 
La commediante (C1) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi)
I racconti della vestale (C1) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi)
C1/C2 
Anselmo e l’omicidio di Giovanni Borgia (C1/2) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
Il vulcano (C1/2) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
C2 
La Via Francigena (C2) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
La carriera – dietro le quinte del Palio di Siena (C2) £7.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
Bene. Hope you found lots that will keep you reading in and listening to Italian in 2025!
The prices marked above are the usual, year-round prices but with the 2025 Spring Sale promotion (which ends on Sunday 30th March) everything in our online store (EasyReaders.org) is 25% cheaper!
Copy and paste the coupon code 2025-Spring-Sale-25%-Off into your shopping cart, then scroll down to check the cart total has been reduced by 25%.
Make your selections today!
Also, be sure to check out the ‘easy reader’ ebook MULTIPACKS, which get you a three-for-two deal, or better.
AND the 25% discount!
Assuming you remember to use the coupon code, that is…
2025-Spring-Sale-25%-Off
P.S.
Have you read/listened to Tuesday’s FREE bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news?
Subscribers get all three text + audio bulletins of ‘easy’ news emailed to them each week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
To subscribe (it’s FREE) simply enter your email address on this page and click the confirmation link that will be sent to you.
If you’re not a subscriber (it’s FREE), and aren’t yet sure you want to be, take a look at their website and get started on improving your Italian immediately!
+++
OnlineItalianClub.com | EasyItalianNews.com | Shop (ebooks) | Shop (online lessons)
This is a great column. I’ve been following your advice for about 10 years and it is truly good advice, particularly re EasyItalianNews -listen, read while listening, listen again. I’ve done that same thing with the Listening component of club articles. I started with B1 and spend about 15 minutes most mornings and my oral comprehension has really improved. My native Italian speaker, a marvel si chiama Irene, is a major part of learning because she helps me overcome performance anxiety, a real conversation problem for me. Thank you for onlineitaianclub and your weekly advice and also for sharing so much of your family life. It’s encouraging!
And thanks for taking the time to leave feedback, Patricia, which we appreciate, even more so as most people (we have twenty-six THOUSAND club members at the moment) don’t bother. You are faithful indeed.
And ten years of listening practice? You must be really good by now!!
Magari! I have a lot of trouble understanding spoken Italian, even by the native Italian speaker I converse with once a week.
I’ve been studying Italian on my own for just over a year, and I’ve spent a lot of time building vocabulary, learning sentence structure, etc., currently at a B1 reading level. In this article you recommend listening to Italian news or radio in the car (or online) — I love this idea and I’ve tried it, but it’s mentally exhausting. I have to be totally focused, no distractions, and in the right frame of mind.
At my level, here’s how it goes: In the first few minutes, I barely understand anything. After a few minutes, I recognize a lot of individual words, but it goes by too fast and I’m still translating in my head too much. I get stuck thinking about a word and I miss the next two sentences. If I listen to the same story a few times, I start to get the gist of it. It starts to come into focus after the third listening, but I still miss so much. (Reading it at the same time doesn’t help, because then I’m reading, not listening.)
In your experience, when is someone ready to start listening to Italian radio or watching Italian movies?
As a beginning listener, one trick I’ve discovered is that instead of getting frustrated at what I don’t understand, I try to just count the words I recognize, even if don’t know what they mean right away. No translation, just listening in real time and trying to recognize words. I’m sure you have other tips about dealing with the frustration of not understanding anything at first. Thank you in advance for your advice!
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.
An analogy for you: Wikipedia explains that the discipline of economics “focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work”, which if you think about it is two very different things, which I remember from school being described as ‘micro’ and ‘macro’ economics.
As a small-business owner, I’m certainly interested in the micro aspects of ‘economics’, for instance the interactions of demand and supply. How much are people learning Italian prepared to pay for a course, for instance. What are our competitors charging? What effect will increasing (or reducing) course prices have on the year-end result? And so on.
But were I minister for the economy, I’d ignore such things, instead spending my time puzzling over inflation, growth, productivity, how to pay for social services, what the correct level of capital investment might be, and of course, how to keep my job.
Micro and macro, see? There’s a similar analogy to be made from science. Some practitioners look through microscopes at very small things. Others look through telescopes at very large things. Which optical instrument you use depends on what you’re trying to achieve.
Language, at it’s most basic, is a series of grunts and scribbles, an in-depth knowledge of which which may be fascinating to some people (linguists) while being irrelevant to everyone else.
Who knows, for instance, what vowels and consonants are (in speech, not as letters in the alphabet), how they work together to create syllables, how those syllables allow communication through patterns of intonation, and so on? Few of us, for we don’t NEED to know in order to be competent communicators.
You asked “In your experience, when is someone ready to start listening to Italian radio or watching Italian movies?” The answer depends, of course, on your objective, on what you’re hoping to achieve.
If you aim is to understand what people say to you, then the more exposure to the sounds and rhythms of Italian you get, and the sooner you begin, the better. So ideally right from day one, leaving grammar and so on for later on, if ever.
Listening ‘from the word go’ builds confidence and the necessary ‘skills’ that you’ll need to communicate. But what do we mean by ‘listening’?
You mention ‘understanding’, and describe ‘focusing’ and ‘translating’… OK, so a final analogy.
Small kids like TV. When you’re just twelve months old, you can’t speak at all, and probably understand little to nothing of what people say to you, though you’ll know your parents voices well, and understand the varying tones of voice – loving, frustrated, pleading, and so on.
TV for very small people comprises bright colors, movement, music, very simple plots, but above all, fun! Just like TV for large people. As I said, very small people love TV, no matter what language is being spoken. Teletubbies are Teletubbies, whether in English, Italian or Double-Dutch.
Language is FOR something, Jonathan. Focusing on it, trying to understand it, counting the words you can recognise – so the things you say you do, well OK, that’s FOR learning, though those activities rather miss the point. What is the language you’re hearing being used to communicate? What is this word, sentence, conversation, poem, argument FOR?
If you don’t care what a text is FOR, besides being a language-learning activity, then getting good at listening is going to be much harder, if only because you’ll get demotivated quickly, it all being pointless, and very hard. It has to matter somehow, see? Then, if it somehow matters, you’ll be more interested in continuing to listen, despite the difficulties. And tbe more you listen, the better you’ll get at it.
OK, here’s what you should do. Swap your micro-economics for your macro, put down your microscope and pick up your telescope – at least for the time being, until you establish some good habits (topic of my article…)
Listen to authentic materials (radio, films) if you wish, but do it from ‘above’, the bird’s-ear so to speak, listen ‘holistically’, listen to the whole thing and understand it as a whole, or not.
Think, am I listening to a news broadcast, a radio drama, a commentary on a football match, or a weather forecast?
If it’s a panel-discussion, how many people are involved? Are they male or female, young or old, senior or junior, respectful or annoyed? You don’t need to ‘understand’ to understand, see?
Focusing on ‘understanding’ authentic materials, at a micro level (for instance, by trying to follow the subtitles), means taking your eye off the ‘macro’ ball, so missing out on the bigger picture.
Try watching a soccer/football match in Italian (or a film, or listen to a radio program, or anything) having told yourself before beginning that you expect to understand NOTHING of what is said, but plan to enjoy it all the way through anyway, right until the end.
Open a cold beer, a packet of nuts, and enjoy the soccer match. Focus on who’s playing (it’ll say so on the screen), who’s winning (ditto), who’s stronger/weaker, and what the commentators think (tone of voice – are they excited, bored, frustrated, hysterical?)
Focus on the macro FIRST, ignore the micro. You’ll never understand every word you hear, so why not get used to that as soon as possible, and work on building your comprehension skills?
There are two people in a shop. One’s asking for something, the other is shrugging, the first one looks annoyed and raises her voice, the assistant shows her a packet (oh, we’re in a pharmacy), the customer shakes her head, and turns to leave, the assistant calls something, the customer turns back to the counter (it’s clear her dog would have preferred to leave) etc.
Get comfy with the ‘big picture’ skills, and the micro bits and pieces will sort themselves out, eventually, more or less. Or not, but that’s normal.
Instead, if you start by focusing on the ‘micro’, in an illusory search for understanding, the effect is the opposite: however much you try, it’s always too fast – normal speech IS too fast if you try to hear and analyse every word, even in your own language. Could you take dictation (in English) at normal speed? Almost certainly not.
Learning a language only by listening to authentic materials is possible – kids do it, after all – but it’s frustrating for an adult, and takes a very, very long time.
But not ever listening to authentic materials is damaging, too, for as soon as you find yourself in a situation in which you have no other choice, you’re completely unprepared.
“They speak too fast” is the most common complaint I hear. “You’re listening wrong” I reply.
A middle-way, which is incredibly common in language teaching (but rare amongst those who teach themselves, or try to) is to use ‘graded materials’, so A1 texts for beginners, A2 for second year students, B1 in the third year, and so on. With the aim of building reading/listening experience and so confidence.
If I were learning a new language, I’d totally, definitely, seek out skills practice material aimed at beginning students, though I would ALSO listen to/read authentic materials. I’d just know to expect completely different outcomes depending on where I was on the micro/macro scale. I’d reasonably hope to ‘understand’ the graded materials, while not expecting much from the authentic stuff, but knowing it’s doing me good anyhow.
Pratical suggestions:
1. Go here https://easyitaliannews.com/how-to-use-easyitaliannews-com/, scroll down to where it says ‘How to use EasyItalianNews.com’, read it, and resolve to follow that good advice religiously for a few months. Go here https://easyitaliannews.com/subscribe/ to subscribe. It’s free. Listen to each of the thrice-weekly bulletins, exactly as instructed in ‘How to use EasyItalianNews.com’, without using a dictionary. Macro, not micro. If, in a couple of months your listening problem remains unsolved, come back and complain. If, on the other hand, listening is no longer a major worry, send them a donation https://easyitaliannews.com/support-easyitaliannews-com/
2. Read and listen (together, as instructed above) to the free sample chapters of the A1-level ebooks here: https://easyreaders.org/italian-a1-beginner-elementary-ebook-catalog/. No need to buy the ebooks, just listen to the sample chapters. And if you find one that you particularly like, then listen to the other seven chapters, which are available free online (only the .pdf costs money). Given that you’d be saving money by doing audio-only, your only real choice will be to listen (knowing you probably won’t understand much) with the aim of finding out what happens next. Does the guy get the gal? Who was the murderer? When you’re done with the A1 samples, try the A1/2 level, and so on, to infinity and beyond!
Hope that helps.
Wow, this is incredible and extremely helpful — thank you for all the time you took to write such a detailed reply. I’ve been thinking about it all day. It’s a huge paradigm shift for me, but one that will be much more productive and engaging, no doubt. I can’t thank you enough for all that you do.
Wow. Che risposta!
We will all be grateful to Jonathan and his question for eliciting this response.
Even after learning for some time (and travelling from the other part of the world 🇳🇿 to study at Madre Lingua in Bologna) there were so many good points to take on board from this response.
Thank you Daniel for your insights in all the newsletters.
(Also: there’s a newish restaurant in my city called The Hoi Polloi and I think of you Daniel and have a wee chuckle about the fact that the “The” shouldn’t be there! That’s proof your newsletters are taken on board!)
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I too have performance anxiety when it comes to listening, especially if I try to consciously translate as I’m listening. I discovered that it’s best to just listen and let the subconscious part of my brain take it in: amazingly I find that I have understood without actually translating. Strangely, this takes less concentration and less focus. I discovered this when I decided to listen to an Italian program while exercising! I found myself following along effortlessly and understanding much more than if I were “really trying”. It sounds counterintuitive but it worked!
Well, what a couple of weeks ! The safe arrival of our first grandchild, progression on our building project after living in temporary accommodation for over 2 years , a moving in date is in sight and a trip in an ambulance turned out to be a reaction to stress and not a stroke.Just happy to be alive. Time to take it easy and enjoying life.
“Time to take it easy and enjoying life.”
Esatto!
Great question and great answer, I remember you saying this before( in fact you say it a lot 😂) I listen to both authentic and slower Italian most days while walking my dog. I don’t understand it all but get an idea of the conversation, I also go into a local Italian cafe where the owner humours me and lets me try and speak in Italian. His replies are fast but because I know what he is replying to., I understand how to answer
What a fabulous response to Jonathan! So helpful and I will re-read this several times! Many thanks to Jonathan too for asking the question. and for making me realise it’s not just me! I too have Irene as a teacher. She is fabulous – perceptive, creative, supportive, and funny – she has me practising the stuff I like least without even realising it!!
I’ve been listening to Easy Italian News off and on for about two years., It was pretty frustrating, because it was so hard to understand it all, so I didn’t listen often. A couple of months ago, I finally took in what Daniel has been saying about listening without trying to understand it all. I tried it. Evviva! Now, I listen to practically every issue, and I enjoy it. I just let it flow over me without straining, recognizing words, sometimes even sentences, but not trying hard, not straining. It’s made a huge difference in my overall listening comprehension which make it a pleasure to support it financially; I want it always to be here for us.
Now I’m going to try doing this with a whole movie!
I also second what Daniel advises about listening to and reading Easy Readers. Such a pleasurable way to learn!
Thanks for the positive feedback, Deborah. It’s always good to hear the message is getting through.
About movies… because they’re structured so as to start and finish in a limited time, and except for franchises, don’t repeat, the ‘easy news’ effect (so familiarity easing understanding) is much less likely.
For that reason, assuming you have the technical means to watch the Italian version, I’d strongly suggest a TV series, the more seasons the better. Also, one which you haven’t already watched in your own language. Imagine the effect of twenty seasons of Italian ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ on your listening comprehension.
I don’t watch Italian TV at all, so don’t have anything to suggest, but I expect other club members will. The problem, as always with TV and film, is the geoblocking tecnology. RAI ( https://www.raiplay.it/ ) has a good selection of films and series, as well as all the usual stuff, but they’ll block anyone outside of Italy from watching.
For those who aren’t troubled by the ethics of it, VPNs offer a possible workaround.