This post was going to be a review of the best sites on the Internet where you can learn Italian free.
My young colleague made me a nice list of the most visible “learn Italian free” sites in Google, and I sat down this afternoon to write a review of each one.
Except that they mostly seemed to be either a.) rather weak or b.) charging to access most of the lessons or resources.
Shame.
The only two I found that I could recommend you look at are:
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/ The BBC has been doing this sort of thing for decades, usually to promote its own programmes and the books that go with them. Their strength, not surprisingly, is in high quality video content. It’s definitely worth browsing through. For example, check out their “La mappa misteriosa” which seems to be set in Bologna (find out why Bologna is such a great city to learn Italian in on our sponsor school’s website)
- http://www.oneworlditaliano.com/english/home.htm Lots of stuff to explore here, though the high level of advertising can be rather intrusive at times and it’s not always easy to see if you’re clicking on a paid link or on the free content. Nevertheless, it’s better than 99% of what’s out there, and completely free, so do take a look.
Am I being unfair in selecting just two “learn Italian free” sites? Are there other really useful websites out there that offer great, free resources for learning Italian?
You tell me!
It would be fantastic to get a conversation going amongst OnlineItalianClub.com members about where to go to find the best stuff.
So, take a minute or two to tell us of any sites that YOU think are useful. It’s easy to do – just fill in the form at the bottom of this post to share your recommendations.
P.S. We’re about to start a project to improve what we offer on this site. Could you tell us what you think of the resources that we offer?
- your likes
- any dislikes
- anything we should add
- or stuff that’s just a waste of time that we should delete?
That would be great. Thanks!!
kersti says
Ciao,
oltre OnLineItalianClub consiglerei a tutti coloro che stanno studiando l’italiano questi siti.
Eccoli:
http://www.scudit.net/mdindice.htm
http://www.iluss.it/
http://www.zanichellibenvenuti.it/wordpress/
http://webs.racocatala.cat/llengua/it/
http://www.italien-facile.com/
Ce ne sono anche tanti altri ma … fermiamoci qui.
Allora, buono studio a tutti!
Daniel says
That’s a good tip, Neil. I could do with improving my understanding of accents, which is something I have difficulty with.
Talking of podcasts, did you see this old post about free audio books? My mum thought they were very helpful…
http://onlineitalianclub.com/learn_italian_online/learn-italian-with-jane-eyre/
Neil Barnett says
I find the free podcasts from learnitalianpod.com to be good for improving pronunciation, though they start and end with plugs for the subscription service. Some can give you a chance to pick up idioms that you seldom find in books.
I have also enjoyed the “Inspector Montalbano” programs on BBC4, currently broadcasting on Saturday evenings. The actors play Sicilians, which makes it realistic, though occasionally hard to understand, though I suspect that they have less of an accent than real Sicilians. You can also pick these up on iPlayer for a week and you may be able to download them.
Mary Kieran says
Si Neil,sono d’accordo con learnitalianpod.com come un sito buono. Mi piace ascoltare a Massimo e Jane, uno da Bologna e l’altra da Venezia con gli accenti diversi. Loro hanno una collezione grande–tutto per ascoltare gratis.