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Buondì.
As every week since July, this week there are three more episodes of the FREE Summer Series, which will be ending in a fortnight or so.
Click this link to find them. Scroll right down to the bottom of the page. The grey non-links are the yet-to-be-published episodes, the red ones are live and ready to read/listen to. They’re free, so don’t hesitate to click around and take a look.
OK, so this week’s topic was going to be about the various choices that adult language learners need to make.
For example, whether to sign up to a course with a teacher or to self-manage your learning, whether an eventual course should be part-time (evening classes in your home town) or full-time (for example at our Italian school in Bologna), whether to pay for study resources (such as our ebooks) or go with free stuff, such as the resources on the club website, EasyItalianNews.com, and, basically, the whole Italian part of the Internet.
That’s already a lot of choices, and there are more I could dwell on – study alone or with others? Aim for what result, exactly? Evalutate your progress how and when?
In short, even if you hire a teacher, or join a group, managaging your language learning, over a time scale that could range from just a week or two to many years, is potentially complex.
I tried to sum up what I know about the process – from more than thirty years of teaching and learning – in this article, which most club members never read: How to learn Italian (or any language)
It’s basically about the choices you need to make.
This week Bug is back at the petting zoo, so finally I’ve had time to work! On Monday I began working through the jobs mountain. On Tuesday I was tired, so decided to get through some of the simple, fast ‘must dos’.
Almost immediately I came up against a problem, one that I’d not realised existed, one that I had not the slightest idea how to resolve.
I won’t go into details, but imagine the sort of simple technical thing that anyone who knows it exists would know exactly what to do about, so not need to spend more than a few minutes on.
When I was trying to explain the problem to my wife, she listened politely for several seconds, looked blank for a while longer, then shrugged and suggested I pay someone else to fix it for me.
Ah! The old ‘get someone who knows to help’ suggestion! Would that it were ever that simple!
For instance, finding someone who knows, knowing that that someone actually knows, knowing that they know your particular problem, knowing that the price they plan to charge for resolving it is reasonable, knowing what to do when they leave the job half-finished, and so on.
If you’ve every tried to find a builder or plumber (our roof has been leaking for decades), you might have some idea. Getting someone else to do it for you can be a lot more complicated than it seems. And expensive.
Anyway, I figured out what the problem was – the vendor I was using no longer offered the same service, so it wouldn’t be possible to simply switch the technical doo-dah from one website to the other, before closing it down on the first website, which I absolutely need to do, soon.
I knew what the widget was supposed to do, but not how it worked, so next I Googled that, until I understood it better, at least in theory.
Then I Googled various configuarations of my problem, until I found a Reddit thread in which someone was cursing said vendor for having stopped offering the service that I was trying to switch from one site to another. Good to know I wasn’t the only one, at least.
And the Reddit thread, along with my prior research on how the widget probably worked, helped me to redefine my Googling until – da-da – Google started showing me ads for precisely the service I needed!
Several of which were free. One of which looked reputable, and simple to use. And available immediately.
Which was when the fear kicked in.
All I had to do was to uninstall the old thingy, then install the new one, which looked simple.
But if it then didn’t work?
The old widget would no longer be an option once removed (as the vendor no longer vends it) so if the new widget didn’t function as hoped I’d be left without a CRITICAL FUNCTION!
That was super-scary. so I decided to go make lunch for my adult kids and worry about it in the afternoon.
After my siesta, I decided to get on with some other ‘must do’ job, instead.
Today I have to write this article, after which I need to exercise and listen to Swedish before my Swedish conversation at noon, then it’ll be lunchtime, then siesta time, and then I’ll go pick up Bug from the petting zoo.
So maybe tomorrow?
That’s the way with scary decisions.
There’s a lot of not knowing, but when you’ve done the research, or followed the teacher’s instructions or whatever, at some point you’ll be better informed.
But there are always decisions to be made… Lots of them, some significant, often on multiple occasions, over an extended period (see How to learn Italian (or any language))
If we engage with the process of doing whatever we’re trying to achieve, with practise we’ll likely get better at deciding how to get nearer to our goal.
I could keep hoping to bump into my wife’s mythical ‘expert in everything’, the one who has nothing more lucrative to do than to solve my problems, right now, and for a reasonable fee.
Or I could recognise that the work is not so much making the decision as dealing with the fear.
Fortunately, decisions are only scary when they’re unfamiliar, which they mostly aren’t.
As I moaned to Stefi, this is the sort of thing I have to figure out maybe once in a lifetime, there’s no one to ask, and if it goes wrong, we’ll be in pickle!
But most of the other decisions I made yesterday took just seconds and didn’t faze me in the least.
One way to make a decision less scary is to include the downsides in your calculations.
OK, so I’ll go with the free widget. If it doesn’t work, I can try reinstalling the old one, and if that’s not possible (as I suspect it won’t be) then – worst case scenario – I can try signing up for the paid service that the vendor now offers. Which will involve more work and messing about but which should serve as a temporary stop-gap until I have the time to find a better way.
OK, so I’ll go with the free language-learning material for, say, a month, and if it’s then obvious I need something more, I might have a better idea what would help, and how much it would cost. And anyway, I’ll cross that bridge if I come to it.
OK, so I’ll buy an ebook, just to see how the store works and whether the material seems helpful. Worst case scenario? I’ve lost the price of a meal for one in a fast-food restuarant, and learnt more about what I need and don’t need.
OK, so I’ll do some online lessons, for the speaking practise. Best case scenario, the teacher’s nice and competent, so after a few meetings I’ll feel at ease and be making progress. Worst case scenario? I’ll feel humiliated and stupid, but then I already feel humiliated and stupid, which is why I need to practise speaking. And at least, after having tried, I’ll know what to avoid, and what to seek out instead.
OK, so I’ll take an Italian course at Daniel’s school in Bologna. Worst-case scenario, I’ll hate it. It’ll be too hot, everyone else will be better than me, I’ll get food-poisoning and bring home bedbugs, my husband, children, and all my friends will say that they warned me, and that it’s my own silly fault.
Best-case scenario I’ll have a good time, make new friends, improve my Italian (a bit or a lot – depends on how long the course is) and feel really, really proud of myself!
While making decisions can be scary, not making decisions is sort-of impossible, as not-deciding is simply deciding not to decide, if you see what I mean.
The problem with the less scary option of not making decisions – or deciding not to, if you prefer – so either way, avoiding anything with potentially negative consequences, is that goals remain unexplored, and certainly unachieved.
The old widget is still in place. The job of replacing it is still on the list, which isn’t the result I’d hoped for when I sat down at the computer yesterday.
Want to learn Italian? You will have make decisions.
By all means, avoid the scary ones. Baby steps are called baby steps for a reason. Babies have to learn how to walk somehow. Small animals, too. Better they toddle before they can walk properly, and walk before they run. Bug already smashed one TV…
But if you don’t decide – this or that, now or later, free or paid – then it might be the fear of messing up that stops you getting far.
I expect you know other people who are learning Italian. If not, then either you have no friends, or you are a unique and adventurous spirit. In which case, well done!
But how many people do you know who don’t know Italian, or any foreign language?
If you live in an English-speaking country, such as the UK, Australia or New Zealand, I bet the ‘don’t know any foreign language’ group is bigger. Much bigger!
A lot of people will see no reason to bother. Life is short, there are other priorities.
A lot of people try to learn a foreign language but don’t get very far. Personally, I’ve completely failed to learn a bunch of them.
But a lot of people would really, really like to be able to speak Italian (and/or other foreign languages) but don’t do what it takes, or not consistently, and not over enough time.
Think about that – it comes down to choosing.
And choosing can be scary.
Alla prossima settimana!
Half-price Ebook of the Week, ‘Ashraf, l’arciere dell’imperatore’, £4.99
This week’s half-price eBook ‘easy reader’ offer is the B2/C1 (upper-intermediate/advanced) level ‘Ashraf, l’arciere dell’imperatore’, an original story that will keep you turning the pages and so improving your reading/listening comprehension skills, grammar, and vocabulary.
In the early thirteenth century, Frederick II became Holy Roman Emperor and King of the southern parts of Italy. But in Sicily, a large muslim community rebelled against his rule, so were brutally deported, a safe distance away, to the mainland city of Lucera.
An educated man, the Emperor could speak multiple foreign languages, including Arabic. He enjoyed mixing with the wise men of his day, many of whom were muslim scientists, philosophers or political advisors. With their advice and support, he went on to make peace with the Sultan and to become King of Jerusalem.
Fredrick’s relationship with contemporary popes, at the time the ultimate spiritual authorities and so rivals for power in the Italian pensinsula and elsewhere, was much less positive! Perhaps suspicious of the conflicted loyalties of fellow Christians, the emperor recruiting muslim archers, cavalry and even his personal bodyguard from the exiled Sicilian muslim community, men who would be loyal only to him.
Meanwhile, back in Lucera, a muslim young boy is being schooled in archery by his unsmiling, one-armed father…
- .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 ‘Ashraf, l’arciere dell’imperatore’ is 50% discounted, so just £4.99 rather than the usual ‘easy reader’ ebook price of £9.99!
Buy ‘Ashraf, l’arciere dell’imperatore’ just £4.99! | Free Sample Chapter (.pdf) | History/historical Italian ebooks | Catalog
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P.S.
Don’t forget to read/listen to yesterday’s FREE bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news – a great way to consolidate the grammar and vocabulary you’ve studied, as well as being fun and motivating!
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Patricia Barber says
Bongiorno Daniel, Can you address difficulties in achieving listening skills, please. In the 7 years I’ve been learning Italian I’ve pretty much followed your advice and thanks to Easy Italian News, Easy Italian Readers, the summer history series (my absolute favorite), weekly conversations with a native speaker and using the education material on the OnlineItalianClub site, I read and speak Italian well but hardly understand Italian when I hear it. I would appreciate any advice. Thank you.
Daniel says
I’m always happy to give advice, Patricia, if I have something useful to say. However, you write “but hardly understand Italian when I hear it”, which seems improbable and certainly lacks objectivity.
Why not begin by using the CEFR checklist (it’s here: https://rm.coe.int/CoERMPublicCommonSearchServices/DisplayDCTMContent?documentId=090000168045bb52 ) to give yourself a ‘score’ from A1 to C2 in each of the five criteria, and write the results here?
We might then see, for instance, that your reading is B2 (the approximate level of our summer series) but your listening is weaker at B1 (which would be fairly typical.)
With that more objective evaluation of the situation, knowing how to put things right isn’t hard. It could be a simple matter of adjusting your expectations and experimenting with different approaches to using our materials.
If your listening skills are weaker – which as I said, is typical – then you’d need to focus more on them, which might mean not using the text support at first try and doing only the listening a few times. That could be frustrating if your reading skills are strong so you’re used to understanding everything from the written texts, but changing the emphasis (listen first, accept that you’ll understand less, look at the text later) will very likely solve your problem.
As would shifting your listening practice to authentic materials which have no text support, such as Italian radio (which is what I do with my Swedish and other languages). You’ll never understand everything, but that’s not hard to get used to, and the extensive ‘only listening’ practice makes real life interactions much easier.
Patricia Barber says
Grazie mille, Daniel, For taking my concerns seriously and giving me sound problem solving advice. I have been working on that advice since. I’m a retired English teacher and tend to believe teachers have the experience to know what they’re talking about. Testing myself, I’m between A2 and B1 in listening and spoken production, between B1 and B2 in reading and spoken interaction and solidly B1 in writing but the grammar is sketchy. I have been listening without following the text to former EIN broadcasts and the links at the end of most episodes of this year’s summer series. Now I will look for a straight Italian news broadcast I can plug into. I’ve been working on getting over my performance anxiety when conversing in Italian. I use your teachers and am working now with the marvelous Irene Canovari. Again, thank you for helping me take a good look at what I’m doing and teacherly advice for proceeding
Daniel says
It doesn’t have to be authentic listening (though why not?) Any graded material that’s higher than your current CEFR ‘level’ should do the job. The free sample chapters for our easy readers, for instance. No need to buy anything as the audios are all online and free. We only charge for the texts, which you don’t need in order to focus on listening.
Start from A2 stories and work up through, level by level, doing as many at each level as necessary to feel comfortable. N.b. the link for the audio is in the free sample chapter.
Martha says
I am in a similar situation and I’m happy to hear it’s so common after I have heard many say the opposite (They understand it spoken but cannot speak). I was slow to speak simply because I didn’t want to have a conversation and not be able to say anything, lol. As my Italian grew, I began to speak and I no longer have any real problem speaking, even if I sometimes lack the vocabulary. I understand language partners (most of the time) easily but natural conversations involving several people are difficult. I know I have been avoiding listening to Italian without subtitles but here and there, I try. So, as I regularly do, I have been changing my “program” to emphasize listening. Sometimes I think I am not improving but all I have to do is go back to some program I’ve previously watched and rewatch it and the progress becomes obvious. I keep track of the things I do so it’s obvious when I start straying from my plan. Sometimes I simply accept that as a needed break, other times I regroup and move forward again.
So, follow Daniel’s advice and concentrate on listening material, take some breaks if you need them, and then go back to it. Every once in a while go back to something you’ve watched before, and watch it again to see your improvement and give yourself a pat on the back!
Daniel says
Good advice, Martha. I always tell students to look back to see how far they’ve ascended the mountain, not to look ahead at how far there still is to go! It’s much more motivating.