Never use that word!

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Buondì.

The article from two weeks ago (Who are you and what do you want?) keeps on generating comments, which you can read through if you have the time and voglia, as I have just done.

Some are from competent, satisfied language-learners, but many of you seem less than entirely happy.

– Speaking is so frustrating!
– I can hardly put a sentence together.
– Conversation is my weakest area.
– I find reading Italian a lot easier than speaking it.
– I can read and understand far better than I can speak.
– Speaking Italian is still difficult.

Well, yes, speaking is certainly difficult, that’s true. For a start, it’s ‘real time’, unlike say writing, where you can plan ahead how to express yourself.

Moreover, in conversation you’re also busy doing other things besides speaking. Listening, obviously, but also observing all the niceties of interacting verbally with another human.

Your expectations play an important part, too. A lot of members who left comments are retired, so may have been speaking their native tongues for six or seven decades. Hardly surprising then if they find themselves more tongue-tied in a foreign language they’ve only been learning for a few years…

But people imagine that there’s a simple cause and so a simple solution:

– I have no opportunity to speak Italian.
– I’m not sure I can become fluent without actually using Italian every day.
– I hope to spend a longer period of time in Italy so I can become more fluent.
– One day I will make the leap to an online tutor or move to Italy for a year.
– If I could just get to A2, I would try online lessons.
– I need to spend some time somewhere in Italy where no one speaks English.
– I’d like to live in a small town where no-one speaks English.

I’ve heard all that thousands of times in my thirty-five years plus spent in language education, but I still remember what a professor of French told me at a college ‘meet the faculty’ party.

I was nineteen at the time and just back from a week-long holiday romance with a girl called Pascale – who spoke no English – in a camping somewhere in the west of France (she and her friends had set out without a tent so needed to use their wits…)

I was telling the professor how ‘fluent’ I now felt, unlike at any point in the many years of French at school, and he replied that my French probably wasn’t much better than it had been before. It was just that I now felt more confident using it.

That sounded like a bit of a snub (he’d have had every right, snotty little sod that I was at that age) but the guy was correct. A week of chat with Pascale on the beach, in bars, and in a tent had done little more than reveal the limitations of my language education (how to ask about contraception…) But I felt great all the same!

More or less the same thing happened with Turkish when I spent three years in the Turkish capital Ankara, then several more years married to the girl I’d met there, who also didn’t speak English.

But by that time I was an English language teacher so had learnt to be much more realistic about what is and isn’t possible.

In those five or six years of daily practice I became CONFIDENT in my ability to communicate in Turkish, though I knew that my language skills were limited, perhaps intermediate at best.

Another commenter had it right:

– I will never be fluent but if I can communicate when I need to, I’m happy.

‘Fluent’, yuk, I never use that word. And neither should you.

It’s so imprecise! What does it even mean?

Not making mistakes? Speaking without hesitating? Always having the vocabulary to express yourself? Speaking in the appropriate register (formal/informal etc.)?

All of those things? Some of those things? Different things at different times?

If you’re thinking, but, but… I want to be FLUENT, do yourself the huge favour of questioning what you mean, what you really want, and more importantly, why.

Some people, for instance, find making mistakes so humiliating that they waste their lives trying to perfect their grammar. For what? You’ll die at some point, then who will care?

Other language learners don’t care a fig about grammar mistakes but want – above all – to hold up their end of the banter in the bar.

Whoever you are, whatever you want, that’s fine.

But don’t hide behind ‘fluent’, which only serves to confuse things.

So anyway, how to improve your spoken Italian?

Going to Italy for a while might help you feel more confident, as long as it gives you the opportunity to practice interacting in the language with others.

But equally likely it won’t make much difference.

Bet there are plenty of migrants to the country you live in who haven’t mastered the official language, right? They live here but just get by with the language, never reached proficiency and probably never will.

The place in Italy where no one speaks English doesn’t exist, by the way.

But even if it did, spending a year there would be no guarantee you’d speak lots of Italian. Maybe no one would want to talk to you? Maybe you wouldn’t want to talk to them? Maybe you’d hate the whole experience?

An Italian language school in Italy (such as ours in Bologna) can give you some practice and help you feel more confident. Two or three weeks is a good start, and affordable for most people.

But easier and cheaper would be to do some online lessons, which can be just conversation if that’s what you want.

You’ll have heard that I’m learning (never studying) Swedish? My wife is half-Swedish (her mother’s side) but neither she nor her mom will ever practice with me, and they cut me down immediately if I try to start a conversation in their language.

Stefi and I have spent around two weeks in Sweden in the twenty-eight years we’ve been together, so that didn’t help.

I get my Swedish speaking practice online, with a club member who volunteered and gets Italian lessons from https://nativespeakerteachers.com/ in return. I have a conversation scheduled with him right after I’m done writing this, in fact.

How good is my spoken Swedish?

Good enough to get by if I need it, I’d say. Not accurate, not effortless, but enough to talk about the weather, mowing the lawn, and the latest stupidities from across the pond.

The fact that I do lots of listening practice helps, meaning I can manage any interaction.

Conclusion: it really is possible to learn a language without living in the country where that language is spoken, or even spending significant time there.

But it’s also totally OK – as for many happy club members – if your Italian reading/listening skills are much better than your speaking.

There’s no reason you have to be good at speaking. Listening more effectively is a much more useful (and cheaper) goal!

‘Good enough to get by’ is a reasonable objective, along with ‘understand a lot of what I hear’.

‘Flawless grammar’, ‘extensive vocabulary’?

Both are much less important for most people, most of the time.

Alla prossima settimana!

Two Half-Price Italian ‘Easy Reader’ Ebooks: Just £4.99 Each

This week over at our ebooks store there are two (!) half-price Italian ‘easy reader’ ebooks, ‘L’imperatore e i giochi‘ and ‘Diventare regina. La storia di Caterina de’ Medici‘, both of which are at intermediate/upper-intermediate level.

These original stories (text plus online audio) will keep you turning the pages – and so improving your Italian reading/listening comprehension skills, grammar, and vocabulary – but at HALF the normal price!

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‘The philosopher’, Marco Aurelio (121 – 180 CE), was the last of the ‘Five Good Emperors’ who ruled during the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace and stability.

Join him and his son as they head off to the Colosseum for an afternoon of ‘entertainment’ – watching gladiators fight to the death.

The boy can’t wait! But his father is less than enthusiastic…

• .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)

Remember, this week ‘L’imperatore e i giochi‘ is 50% discounted, so just £4.99 rather than the usual ‘easy reader’ ebook price of £9.99!

Buy ‘L’imperatore e i giochi‘ just £4.99! | Free Sample Chapter (.pdf) | History/historical Italian ebooks | Catalog

Find more ebooks, organised by level, then type: A1 | A1/A2 | A2 | A2/B1 | B1 | B1/B2 | B2 | B2/C1 | C1 | C1/C2 | C2

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Orphaned while still a baby, Caterina de’ Medici doesn’t have much going for her. Though there is one thing…

7 Agosto 1530. Corte Papale, Roma

“Avanti, avanti Caterina, camminate più veloce. E ricordate di inchinarvi davanti al Santo Padre! Il nostro Papa Clemente VII è un uomo meraviglioso, e ora avete un’udienza da sola con lui. Non siete emozionata? Siete fortunata ad avere… un santo in Paradiso! Proprio così, è un modo di dire molto appropriato.”

La vecchia suora, che ridacchia isterica, trascina Caterina per una mano e riprende: “Lo dico perché è un Medici come voi. E di certo è un uomo santo. Forza, forza, camminate. Non vogliamo fare aspettare Sua Santità” bisbiglia nervosa.

Caterina’s still only twelve years old, but her uncle, the Pope, is already busy reviewing possible husbands for her, with a view to strengthening ties between the Papacy and one or the other of Europe’s powerful royal families. Perhaps the time has come for her to learn French?

• .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 intermediate level or above
• Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)

Remember, this week ‘Diventare regina. La storia di Caterina de’ Medici‘ is 50% discounted, so just £4.99 rather than the usual ‘easy reader’ ebook price of £9.99!

Buy ‘Diventare regina. La storia di Caterina de’ Medici‘ just £4.99! | Free Sample Chapter (.pdf) | History/historical Italian ebooks | Catalog

Find more ebooks, organised by level, then type: A1 | A1/A2 | A2 | A2/B1 | B1 | B1/B2 | B2 | B2/C1 | C1 | C1/C2 | C2

How do I access my ebook?

When your order is ‘completed’ (normally immediately after your payment), a download link will be automatically emailed to you. It’s valid for 7 days and 3 download attempts so please save a copy of the .pdf ebook in a safe place. Other versions of the ebook, where available, cannot be downloaded but will be emailed to people who request them. There’s a space to do that on the order form – where it says Additional information, Order notes (optional). If you forget, or if you have problems downloading the .pdf, don’t worry! Email us at the address on the website and we’ll help. Also, why not check out our FAQ?

P.S.

And here again is a reminder to read/listen to Tuesday’s bulletin of news from EasyItalianNews.com.

Reading/listening practice will help you consolidate the Italian you’re studying, expand your vocabulary, and build vital comprehension skills.

EasyItalianNews.com is FREE to read/listen to, though this week they’re running their bi-monthly appeal for donations. Don’t be surprised if this one and the next three (Thursday, Saturday and Tuesday) include not-so-subtle requests for your cash.

Subscribing, and so receiving all three text + audio bulletins of ‘easy’ news via email each week -on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays – is also FREE.

Just enter your email address on this page and click the confirmation link that will be sent to you.

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