I decided to make this post to look back, after two years of studying italian, at what I think I got right and wrong throughout my journey, in the hopes of helping anyone who’s just starting out.
A little context: I’m Sam, the same person who, a year ago, made a post explaining my step-by-step process for learning italian in 6 months.
Disclaimer: when I say “I learned Italian in 6 months” I mean being able to talk about a lot of different things and basically hold a good conversation. I don’t mean sounding native or speaking perfectly. In my opinion, that’s pretty unrealistic in such a short amount of time. Besides, I‘m a Brazilian woman, so already speaking a language more similar to italian than english helps a lot. So don’t feel discouraged and don’t compare yourself.
Today, looking back, I realize that my Italian now isn’t even comparable to what it was back then. I’ve improved it so much. For comparison, I think that after two years, I’m closer to reaching C1 (I hope I’ll get there someday!)
Anyway, without further ado, let’s get into the post.
1. Learning grammar from more than one “official” source: mistake.
Many times I would alternate between the grammar book I had officially chosen to study (una grammatica italiana per tutti) and other books.
The problem is that each textbook follows its own progression. Pick one book whose teaching style you like and stick with it. If you happen to not understand a particular explanation, then it’s worth looking online for other explanations.
2. Waiting a few months before talking to native speakers: mistake.
This one was a double-edged sword for me. It “saved me” from “embarrassing myself” (which isn’t really a thing because I was learning, but I had a huge fear of making mistakes in the beginning. I don’t care about that anymore). But, on the other hand, I genuinely think that trying to “save myself” from “embarrassment” is exactly what prevented me from reaching the level I had at the time even faster. So, have you learned greetings, how to introduce yourself, and how to talk about your hobbies, dreams and daily life? Start having conversations.
You don’t need to put pressure on yourself. It’s totally fine to mix in some english at first or even make up words you don’t know. Just ask the native speaker to correct you when that happens.
For the portuguese/spanish speakers out there, it’s better to have a conversation saying corazione instead of cuore than to be so afraid of making mistakes that you don’t interact with native speakers at all hahaah.
3. Watching shows dubbed in italian instead of shows originally made in italian: right choice.
Waitttt. Let me explain.
Don’t get me wrong. You absolutely should have exposure to authentic Italian content.
But when we’re talking about movies, for example, watching Italian movies can be really discouraging when you’re just starting out.
Why?
Because in some of them, there are scenes where a character suddenly starts speaking in a dialect (it happened to me when I was watching Sole a Catinelle hahah) And no, dialects are not usually that similar to standard italian. They’re basically like another language in my opinion.
On top of that, when you’re a beginner, it feels like Italians speak so fast, right? Today, two years later, I don’t have that impression anymore because I’ve gotten used to it. But in the beginning? It was rough.
After watching some dubbed shows, you can move on to Italian Youtube videos, like vlogs, and then challenge yourself with movies.
Personally, I’d follow this progression: Dubbed shows -> vlogs -> movies.
4. Making countless conjugation tables for countless verbs: partially a mistake.
For the most common verbs (to read, eat, do/make, have, be, watch, see), I think it’s worth doing, as long as you don’t frustrate yourself trying to memorize everything at once.
However, during my first few weeks, whenever I came across a new verb, I would become obsessed with trying to memorize the main conjugations of very specific verbs (example: colpire. As a beginner, I wrote a full page for this verb. Help) or irregular verbs that aren’t particularly common.
The truth is what made me memorize all those conjugations wasn’t repeatedly writing out tables. It was exposure to the language. Reading and listening a lot, and also trying to form my own sentences.
For example, if I needed the subjunctive form of fare, I would look up that specific conjugation, use it in my sentence, and move on with my life. At some point of my trajectory, I knew I was going to get enough exposure to that tense and eventually I’d naturally remember it.
And guess what? It worked.
5. Using opinion articles as my main source of reading instead of dialogues: Mistake.
I used to spend one to two hours reading an article and breaking down every sentence to learn the grammar and vocabulary. It definitely gave me a great vocabulary range. I even got complimented by an Italian friend for using the word sinossi, because according to her, the average Italian person doesn’t really know how to use that word. However, because I focused so much on immersing myself in this kind of reading at the beginning, for a long time I felt like I spoke very “formal” Italian, almost like an old lady.
It was only after chatting with Italians that I learned abbreviations, slang, and more casual ways of expressing myself, and started sounding like someone my own age.
So my advice is: should you read articles in Italian? Absolutely.
But during your first few months, prioritize reading and breaking down dialogues.
You can always ask AI to create conversations between two characters about topics you’re interested in.
Speaking of which, I used AI when I first started learning italian. And there are actually many different ways to use it (the right way). I can make a post about that if anyone’s interested.
Anyway, that’s it for now! If I remember anything else, I’ll add it in the comments.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. And I’m open to suggestions too :)
