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Buondì.
A few days ago someone emailed the club to say that they were a beginner in Italian, to thank us for the free A1 – Beginner/Elementary materials on our site (see the links above for other levels), but to say that they had no idea where to start.
My immediate thought was ‘Yep, that’s a problem, I know. But we’re not an app’, followed by ‘Just do something, then do something else, then – if you can keep up your motivation – you’ll no longer be a beginner, so will have other problems’.
Many times in the past I’ve replied to such ‘please help’ emails, often at length. This because I was, for decades, a language teacher. It’s the nature of the beast – teachers must teach.
And yet, often I’d get no acknowledgment of my carefully-crafted replies, or worse, there’d be an immediate response of the ‘Yes, but…’ kind, suggesting they’d not read, or not appreciated, my advice.
You’ll understand how wearing this gets after a while. OnlineItalianClub.com is a free resource, and I run it for free (though in part it’s marketing for our Italian school in Bologna and various online activities – see below).
So recently I’ve ceased replying, especially to very brief, unsigned emails such as “I want to learn Italian”. Sometimes I’ll send a link to this long article, which no one ever reads. But these days, rarely even that.
Pondering the ‘no idea where to start’ lady, I considered replying that she should get herself an Italian teacher, who would decide for her. Problem solved!
But to be fair, people come to OnlineItalianClub.com BECAUSE it’s free. If I didn’t believe that club members could teach themselves a language, without paid resources or help, then I wouldn’t be running the site. It wouldn’t be honest.
So, signorina, here at OnlineItalianClub.com we have the resources you need, or at least most of them. They’re free. We have other services and products that aren’t free, but you could make reasonable progress with just the free materials if you’re so inclined.
How to begin? Reading the long article would be a good start. It’s long because learning a language isn’t easy, fast, or necessarily simple.
If that sounds off-putting, well at least you’ll know the difficulties BEFORE you commit time – and potentially money – to the project. Money? Well, at some point you’ll need someone to practice speaking Italian with, and paying a native-speaker for their time is the simplest way to do that.
Back to me and my own language-learning, which is half-hearted right now but will hopefully get a boost as I get used to having free time (the last five years we’ve been fostering babies, so haven’t had a minute to ourselves.)
My Italian has more or less got to the point where I’m as happy reading and listening to Italian as I would be in English. I’m currently reading C.S. Forester’s ‘Il tenente di vascello Hornblower’ on the library app, and Herman Melville’s ‘Moby-Dick’ in English with Google Books. I alternate according to my mood, but Hornblower in italiano is easier (and much shorter) than Melville’s odd story-telling.
I get my news mostly in italiano, too. Daily or hourly from Rainews.it, and sometimes also from other sources such as ‘Il Fatto Quotidiano’ (thanks to the library app) or Milano Finanza (ditto).
But let’s put aside Italian, as I’m sure you’ll be thinking something like ‘well, easy for him, he lives in Bologna’.
Each day I also listen to half an hour of news highlights in Swedish (which I taught myself – to approximately intermediate level) and might browse the Swedish news headlines, too. And I totally don’t live in Sweden, a country which I’ve visited only twice in my life. So there.
The French have a good rolling news radio station, which I listen to often, though not every day. The website and app have plenty of articles to browse, and sometimes I do. The current headline is (apologies to GOP readers) ‘”Je serai monsieur Veto” : que pourra faire Donald Trump jusqu’à la fin de son mandat face à un Congrès démocrate, après la défaite des républicains aux midterms ?’
The Spanish TV/Radio website is a well-funded and reliable guide to what’s going on in the world. As I type this they’re reporting that ‘El demócrata El Sayed gana en Michigan y se convierte en el primer senador musulmán de EE.UU.’ Hurrah to that. Technically I’m a muslim myself, having married a Turkish girl in my youth and promised her mom that I’d put on a good show for the relatives. And our next-door neigbours are from Egypt, and haven’t exploded or rioted yet.
My other language is Turkish, which I spoke for several years with my ex-wife but have neglected for decades since marrying an Italian. Given a push I can still speak and understand Turkish to a conversational level (maybe A2+?), but I find it impossible to read. And because of the ‘rescue animals’ in recent years I’ve had neither time nor energy to get past that. Maybe one day I will.
Back to, ‘I have no idea where to start’.
Neither did I, I promise you. I studied French until what Americans call ‘junior high’, then quit and have never done formal language-learning since. When I did get interested again (in Turkey, in the early ‘nineties), back then there was no Internet, there were no online resources, it was just bookshops or courses.
Language-learning, I realised, is an inefficient, confusing and slow process. When you’re just starting out, that can come as a shock. After a while, you get used to it. Or you don’t, and quit.
If you have time and money, join a course and/or get a private teacher.
Diplomats learn languages quickly and well. In part that’s because they’re usually smart, motivated people. Mostly it’s because they’re paid well to attend employer-funded language training, provided by professionals.
If you’re not a diplomat, don’t have money, or – like me – have no patience with teachers, then just start. Do something. Learn from the experience, then make better decisions. Forza. You’ll get there!
Also, do loads and loads of reading and listening. Like now, not later. Don’t wait.
Today, incidentally, is a fantastic time to start reading/listening in a foreign language, at least it is for anyone interested in the American mid-terms.
Check out https://www.rainews.it/ (or download the free app to your smartphone or tablet) and find out what’s been happening. The strapline at the top of the app right now reads:
“Chi è Gina Hinojosa, la prima persona di origine latina a governare il Texas”
Context helps a lot, obviously. I find reading about the mid-terms in Italian/Spanish/French/Swedish (not Turkish) much easier than reading about political happenings in any of the countries where those languages are spoken. That’s normal. Spanish/Italian/French politics is impenetrable. Swedish is easier, but still rather weird.
But anyway, a lot of headlines/straplines/photo captions have familiar words. If you can work out what ‘el primer senador musulmán de EE.UU.’ (Spanish) and ‘la prima persona di origine latina a governare il Texas’ (Italian) mean, then you have every chance of being able to teach yourself those languages, and others.
If not, get a teacher.
N.b. There’s a Free Trial Lesson Offer next week. The details are below, and I’ll be emailing about it multiple times from Monday onwards.
Alla prossima settimana!
Next week they’re giving away 150 free online language lessons
It’s November, so soon time for the semi-annual ‘Free Trial Lesson’ offer!
Next week NativeSpeakerTeachers.com will be giving away 150 FREE ONLINE LESSONS (the offer is for new students only.)
This is a promotion they do twice a year when things are otherwise quiet, in November and February.
On these occasions they aim to give away a hundred and fifty free online lessons, normally priced at £22 each.
Try an online lesson with one of their native-speaker teachers, at a cost of exactly ZERO!
You don’t have to buy a lesson to get one free, they won’t even ask for your card details – all they need to organise your lesson is your email address, so their teaching management team can contact you.
It’s a genuinely-free, free offer!
N.B. This promotion is for new students only. The free trial lesson offer is limited to one per person.
To claim your free trial lesson, watch out for the links and details I’ll be mailing out early next week.
Once you’ve completed your online order form, the teaching management team will contact you to find out what your needs and preferences are and, importantly, WHEN you’d like to do your free lesson.
It could take a day or two for them to write to you, so be patient. Also check your spam/junk folder to make sure emails from the teaching management team don’t get missed!
There’s no rush to do the free trial lesson, which doesn’t have to be next week – the offer ends on Sunday 15th November 2026, but that’s just a promotional deadline, not a limit for actually doing the lesson.
- The Free Trial Online Lesson offer begins on Monday 09/11/26 and ends on Sunday 15/11/26
- No need to actually DO the lesson next week, just ‘book’ it
- Remember: this offer is for NEW STUDENTS ONLY
- If you booked a free trial last time but didn’t take it – do try again!
- But if you’ve already done a free trial in the past, sorry…
- After completing your lesson, you’ll be sent a 15% discount coupon
How much do online lessons with a native speaker teacher cost when they’re NOT free, you might be wondering?
Buy 5, 10, 20 or 30 lesson credits at a time (they don’t expire, so you’ve nothing to lose), and you’ll get a discount!
Check the prices here:
Online Italian lessons | Online Spanish lessons | Online French lessons | Online German lessons
P.S.
And of course, don’t forget 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.
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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OnlineItalianClub.com | EasyItalianNews.com | Shop (ebooks) | Shop (online lessons)
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