Buondì.
When I was an English teacher, struggling to unteach Italian adults all the nonsense they’d memorised in their school days about their foreign language, and how to learn it, one thing I used to hear a lot from advanced students (there weren’t that many) was that their objective now that they were adults was to ‘understand everything they hear’, for example, ‘English movies without subtitles’.
A couple of weeks ago, you might recall, I was promoting an ‘eBook of the Classic Italian Movie’ easy reader, and suggested that people might want to watch the actual film, which is available on YouTube.
As part of my marketing duties, I’d watched the whole thing, and rather enjoyed it. But it was rather hard in places, I admit. The language was occasionally dated, there were some strong accents (mostly at the beginning), and now and again some dialect.
I was reminded of my largely unsuccessful decades of teaching English this week when a club member commented on this article – the one linking to the movie – expressing some frustration that she had barely understood even the gist of what she was watching.
That’s unsurprising, given that she wrote that her level is A2, so pre-intermediate, the second level out of six in the CEFR system (read about levels here.) Remember, my moaning Italians? The ones that couldn’t understand ‘everything’ they watched on Netflix?
They were C1 or C2, so advanced- or proficiency-level learners, with years or decades of study behind them. And they STILL didn’t get all the details. What could I do to help? Err… nothing really, beyond helping them adjust their expectations, and reassuring them.
Read the club member’s comment and my reply here (you have to scroll down to the bottom of the article to see them).
If you can’t be bothered, the gist of it was that – well OF COURSE you’ll find an original movie with no subtitles difficult, especially if you’ve only been learning Italian for a year or two. But that needn’t depress you, it doesn’t mean you haven’t made progress.
The trick to staying motivated with language learning is to look back at how far you’ve come, not forwards at how far you still have to go. Take a look, for instance, at the first chapter of the first Italian course book you ever used – I bet you’ll be amazed at how easy it is!
Go back and try some of the listening material that baffled you six months ago. Likely it’ll now seem unchallenging.
Years ago, I took an international Swedish exam, having prepared thoroughly (teaching for exams used to be one of my specialities, so that wasn’t hard), and scored 96%! Which I was very pleased with, considering my grammar was all over the place.
The place in Milan where I took the exam stopped offering them, or I would have aimed for one a year, stepping up through the levels, to infinity, and beyond! Probably by now I’d now be B2, at least. Though I will need to look at some grammar, sooner or later.
Exams are a good way to measure progress, but not the only way. Try, for instance, reading and listening to the free sample chapters in the catalog of our ebook store (no need to spend any money), starting from the lowest level and working up to where you estimate yourself to be now. That’s a motivating and effective way to judge your progress.
And/or you could just tot up the hours you’ve spent on Italian. Include everything (except Duolingo) – the reading, the listening, the conversation practice, the actual lessons if you take any, even the grammar study, if you really must. No need to be precise – it’s not a tax audit. Just reckon the number of hours you’ve invested, to the nearest hundred.
If you’re self-teaching, then a hundred or two hours PER LEVEL should be about right. That’s a big variance, to take into account how effective or ineffective people’s choices can be. Done 400 hours? Then you should be at least A2 (or your money back!) Maybe you’re closing in on B2, who knows?
Done over a thousand? As I surely have with my Swedish? Then I guess I SHOULD be fairly advanced after all these years, with me being a language-learning professional, and all that. And yet, if I watched a Swedish movie right now, especially one from the ‘fifties, I guess there’d be a lot I wouldn’t understand. Perhaps most of it.
That’s not a reason not to do it, though. Watching movies is fun, and you can get a lot from them EVEN IF you don’t get all the dialogue.
Think me and Roomie, for instance, watching Shrek, or Mulan, or Frozen, some of our go tos. I get the jokes, the cultural references, and appreciate the skill of the animators, writers, and voice over artists. I could watch some of these again and again, they’re so much fun. Which is just as well, as I have watched them all again and again…
Roomie likes Shrek using his earwax as a candle, the kick-ass princess, the bothersome talking donkey (that’s her when we role play – I’m the gruff Shrek), and the fearsome but lovestruck pink dragon.
She doesn’t get all the ins and outs, I’m sure, but has just as much fun as I do. For understanding comes at different levels, especially in your foreign language.
Why watch ‘Io la conoscevo bene‘?
For the clothes, for the sets, to see just how different movies can be beyond the genres we’re most familiar with, to show off to your spouse and your children… Oh, I can think of lots of reasons! And none of them require understanding everything that’s said.
About understanding the ‘gist’, by the way. The gist of the MOVIE, not of every conversational exchange.
I won’t give away any spoilers, but I totally challenge you to sit though the film from beginning to end and NOT be able to explain, in broad terms, what it was all about.
Here are some spoilers, though – Shrek and donkey rescue a princess from a tower, make friends with a dragon, who helps them out by eating the horrible king, so making the princess single again so she can marry Shrek instead. And everyone lives happily ever after.
You could watch it with the sound off, and you’d STILL understand what was going on, exactly as Roomie does.
Measure progress in listening to Italian with international exams, graded material such as our ebooks, by looking back at materials covered some time ago, or just by ready-reckoning the time that’s passed, and the work you’ve put in.
Watch movies for fun, for the movies’ sake, for cultural knowledge, because they’re there.
A lunedì!
P.S. Final Reminder – 4 Half-Price eBook Easy Readers from 2020
This week’s half-price ebook offer on four titles from 2020 ends on Sunday 5th March 2023.
The £3.99 ‘easy Italian reader’ ebooks, in level order, are below. Get them while they’re cheap!
Zio Ciro e la pizza (B1) 
Against her conservative father’s wishes, a nineteen-year-old Italian-American, buys a plane ticket to Napoli, in Italy. The plan is to discover the city her family originated from, and to get to know zio Ciro, the black sheep of the family!
Join Angela as she helps her Neapolitan uncle prepare pizzas for a special lunch, while learning the fascinating history of Napoli’s most famous dish!
- .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 any level
- Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)
Buy Zio Ciro e la pizza just £3.99 | FREE sample chapter (.pdf) | Read reviews! | Catalog
Dante, un’altra marachella (B1/2) 
Dante, the black and white feline protagonist of ‘Dante, gatto vagante‘ is once more out and about, roaming the sestiere of Venice where he lives, his earlier misadventures having faded from memory. These days he always finds his way home, safe and sound, to the loving Anna and a delicious bowl of crunchy ‘croccantini’. So why would today be any different?
- .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 any level
- Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)
Buy Dante, un’altra marachella just £3.99 | FREE sample chapter (.pdf) | Read reviews! | Catalog
Chi è per me Cecilia (C1/2) 
“Grandioso! Licenziato dopo due mesi… E adesso che faccio?!” pensai. Il primo impulso era stato quello di prendere il cellulare. Avevo scorso la rubrica fino alla lettera “C”, poi mi ero fermato a fissare lo schermo. Infine avevo sospirato e lo avevo riposto in tasca. Preso dallo sconforto, mi guardai intorno e chiesi, questa volta ad alta voce: “Che diamine posso fare?”
Milanese twenty-something Matteo loses his first real job after just a few months, and despairs he’ll ever find another. His parents don’t understand how bad his prospects seem, and he hasn’t spoken to his best friend, Cecilia, for several months. Should he call her? But can true friendship between a man and a woman really exist?
- .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/Italian glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
- Suitable for students at advanced level
- Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)
Buy Chi è per me Cecilia just £3.99 | FREE sample chapter (.pdf) | Read reviews! | Catalog
La carriera – dietro le quinte del Palio di Siena (C2) 
“E mancano solo quattro giorni al Palio, la corsa di cavalli più famosa d’Italia!” sebbene la radio gracchiasse, si distinguevano piuttosto chiaramente le parole dell’esaltato commentatore: “Siena freme e si dipinge dei colori delle contrade, agghindate per la festa. Come ben sapete, cari ascoltatori, tra le dieci contrade che gareggiano vi sono alleanze e rivalità secolari. Per ogni contrada è stato già estratto a sorte un cavallo. I migliori di quest’anno sono il giovane Trifoglio, che è al suo secondo palio e corre per la contrada dell’Istrice, e la veterana Caruccia che vestirà i colori della Lupa. La Lupa e l’Istrice sono due storiche rivali, che fatalità, signori! Se ne vedranno delle belle!”
Follow Il Guercio, the diminutive one-eyed Sardinian jockey, as he’s hired to ride one of the year’s best horses, bareback, in Italy’s most famous urban race, the Siena Palio!
- .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 glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level (no English!)
- Suitable for students at upper-intermediate/advanced levels
- Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)
Buy La carriera – dietro le quinte del Palio di Siena just £3.99 | FREE sample chapter (.pdf) | Read reviews! | Catalog
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P.P.S. 
Don’t forget to read/listen to Thursday’s bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news…
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