Want that? Do this.

Want to feel fitter?

Walk for thirty minutes each day.

Want to enjoy a comfortable retirement?

Save as large a chunk of your monthly income as you can, from as young an age as possible.

Want a happy marriage?

Be willing to compromise.

Insomma, identify what you want, then figure out what action or actions you need to take to move towards achieving that goal.

Then, if you’re not getting the results you need, look around for a better way.

Want that? Do this.

It’s not rocket science, is it?

So how come, when it comes to learning a foreign language, normally intelligent adults abandon this approach entirely?

Want to understand Italian when you hear it spoken?

Study grammar, memorise long lists of words, take a course, maybe.

Want to be able to express your thoughts in Italian?

Study grammar, memorise long lists of words, take a course, maybe.

Want to read an Italian newspaper without too much strain?

Study grammar, memorise long lists of words, take a course, maybe.

Want to be able to write letters to your penpal (or lover, or tax accountant) in Italian?

Study grammar, memorise long lists of words, take a course, maybe.

The ‘want this, do that’ approach suggests that different objectives will require different actions to achieve them.

And that there may be a certain amount of thinking required when deciding how to go about getting where you want to be.

One size does NOT fit all.

Isn’t that obvious?

Want to understand Italian when you hear it?

You’ll need listening practice. Lots and lots of it. But best start with something easy and achievable, then build up gradually over a number of months, until you’re working on faster, more complex speech.

Want to be able to express your thoughts in Italian?

Get plenty of speaking practice, ideally one-to-one or in small groups. Twenty or thirty hours would be a good start, a few hundred hours would be better.

Want to read an Italian newspaper without too much strain?

Start with simplified texts if you can get them. Work through the levels until they start to bore you. Begin reading newspapers in parallel, at first only the headlines, captions and shortest articles on familiar topics. Push the envelope, until you get where you want to be.

Want to be able to write letters to your penpal (or lover, or tax accountant) in Italian?

Start by finding some examples to copy, modifying them as necessary. Learn useful expressions from the example texts. Write often. Recycle learned expressions as often as you can. Don’t worry too much about accuracy.

Whatever you want, there’s an important thing to remember.

There’s the ‘here’, where you begin from.

There’s the ‘there’, the point at which you’ll have achieved your goal.

And there’s the part in-between.

You want to be fitter, so you start walking each day.

But for a while it’s just hard work.

You want a financially-secure old age, but that means sacrificing spending power today.

That might take some getting used to.

This ‘meta’ phase, the part between ‘here’, when you can’t, and ‘there’, when you can, can be discouraging, especially at first.

But if you think about it, you’ll realise that, apart from for absolute beginners who are learning their first ever words in Italian, ALL OF THE REST is ‘meta’, ‘in-between’ time.

You’ll never ‘finish’ learning and improving, you’ll never be perfect.

No one is, not even native-speakers.

The more Italian you learn, the more you’ll notice how much you still don’t know and can’t do.

Tell me that’s not true.

But don’t let it get you down. The trick is to get used to it.

To understand that there’s no end (or at least, not in a good way…)

It’s a truism, but it’s the journey that matters.

In language-learning as in life.

I had a good Swedish lesson this morning.

My teacher told me what she did at the weekend, I moaned about my dodgy arm, and then we really got going..

The rest of the lesson flew by as we talked about language learning, and writing, and how many years it’ll be until we can retire, and so on.

By the end of the lesson I was happier than I had been at the beginning, I’d heard and hopefully understood the teacher’s corrections, I’d learnt some new words, and I’d notched up a good chunk of ‘practice’ at saying what I wanted to say using unfamiliar grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation.

It wasn’t a bad way to start the week.

P.S.

A hundred and twenty-three of you signed up for a free online Italian lesson.

Bravi!

Lucia will be in touch, if she hasn’t been already.

And when the moment comes to meet your teacher online, just relax and enjoy it.

Remember what I said about ‘meta’, too!

If you’re trying to get fit, you’ll feel puffed out at first.

When saving for retirement, it takes time to adjust to having less ready cash to spend.

I admit, I was nervous (very) before my first lesson as a student, despite having been a teacher for decades.

And it took me a while to tolerate being corrected, to learn to recognise when the teachers were trying to help me, and to appreciate it.

But you’ll be fine!

A mercoledì.