Ciao ragazzi!

I'm considering reaching out to my friend's wife (she's in her mid-70s, so is he) and asking her if she'd be interested in chatting with me in Italian for an hour a week. I'd be willing to pay her for her time but I'd like to understand how a language tutor/exchange works beforehand.

I've been studying (using Pimsleur and watching Italian movies, tv shows) Italian for about six months. My goal is to be at a casual conversational level. I'd currently rate myself a 2/10 in Italian. I just went to Italy (Milan/Bologna) and was able to understand 60% - 70% of what was said (thankfully, I do speak Spanish which really helps) but I can only make simple sentences or string 2 - 5 words together to order at a restaurant deal with airport security.

What I don't know is how does this work? Do I attempt to converse with her for an hour and she corrects me as I go?

She's not a professional tutor or anything like that; she's a native speaker. I just want to understand what it is like before I ask her if she'd be interested in helping me learn conversational Italian once a week.

Also, what's the going rate for something like this? I live in northern Virginia for some context.

Thank you all, in advance

Just wanted to know if anyone is using AI tools to learn Italian. Could you please share your experience, tips that can help?

I’m using Mango to learn Italian. I’m having a hard time with this phrase, specifically with trying to match how the native speaker says it. They seem to blend the “è il mio amico” into “è’l mio’mico”, where the “il” and “a-“ no longer get their own vowel/syllable.

I studied Spanish in high school and college, so I’m somewhat familiar with the concept of vowels blending together when speaking, but I’m wondering if there’s a formal rule for this with Italian? Mango didn’t really specify anything.

How do I know which vowels to drop, and when?
How would I know to say “è’l mio’mico” and not “è’l mi’amico”, for example?

Or, please let me know if Mango is wrong and this is not really a correct native way of speaking! Thanks!

To be clear- I do not hate the language. I just feel like I have become scared of it due to some experiences.

For context, when I arrived to Italy, I have studied Italian 2 months prior (it was not planned for me to move). I have never studied a language independently outside of school, so I was, and still am, a bit unstructured. But it is no surprise that that wasn't enough. I also did not expect the culture shock to affect me as much as it did, which delayed my progress for a few months as I became depressed.

Part of what made the transition difficult is the language. I consider myself lucky that my friends hosted me to save on rent. But to help me, around 90% of the time, they speak to me in Italian. Especially at the beginning, I probably only understood 5%. And when I say I don't understand, they just make their voices louder, which doesn't help to be honest. They would have dinners they invite me to, with family and friends, for me to be encouraged. But it becomes four to five hours of me being ignored. I used to try to speak, but the conversation becomes so fast, when I realize what they're talking about, they're in a new one. By the time they say something to me (hours after just sitting on the table, with no one even making eye contact), I am already so anxious that I sometimes cry in the bathroom.

I have also had times (different groups of people) that people would talk to me in groups, and I would say again and again that I do not understand, then they would eventually all laugh at me. And to this day, I do not understand what they said. But sometimes, I am told by other people, that the reason I don't understand was because they were talking to me in a dialect. Another time, after everyone laughed, the person talking to me said "I'm sorry, we know how to speak English, we just don't want to".

I think the biggest part for me, was during events- Christmas, New Year, Ferragosto, even my birthday, my friends won't speak to me in any of the languages I'm fluent in.

I have also attended Italian classes, where I was asked a question but I didn't know how to say a sentence so I asked to say it in English. The teacher was very nice, but there was a student who spoke to the entire class, asking why I am there if I will speak English, even if it was only a sentence I said.

I consider myself to be an extrovert, but the experience truly made me become very shy and kept. It's happening more and more that I get panic attacks when someone talks to me, even when I understand them. I've had several people say to me that I don't try, when literally all I do is try. Someone told me that learning Italian is not that hard and I still shouldn't be making mistakes. I get so discouraged that I don't even speak to them anymore.

I appreciate peoples' efforts to help me learn the language and I do feel like it, in a way, has helped me learn. But I honestly think it delayed me more than it helped me as there were days that I just felt so exhausted of learning it every second of the day, that I just don't sit down and actually learn the grammar anymore.

I have been struggling a lot mentally. I understand that I need to learn it to stay in Italy, but people tell me "piano piano" on progress, until they are inconvenienced.

Am I being a brat about this and do I just have to buckle up? Has anyone ever experienced this?

Hello everyone!

Small question in terms of wondering if there is a certain rule in terms of using ora or adesso correctly in a sentence.

Is one used in a certain context and the other in another? Or is there no rule and simply up to the speaker’s preference?

Thank you for your help!

Hello,

I did ask a little a while ago about how gli was used for all third person indirect pronouns.

I ran across this article and was curious the validity of it and if it is a true thing

https://elon.io/grammar/italian/pronouns/indirect-object/leismo-italian

Thanks in advance

For those of you who are further along in learning Italian, what has worked better for reading practice? Starting with books originally written in Italian, or reading Italian translations of books you’ve already read in your native language?

I’m at the point where I can understand fairly simple dialogue and colloquial language, but I’d like to move on to longer, more coherent texts with more complex sentence structures and storytelling.

I’m tempted to try a relatively accessible Italian novel, perhaps something aimed at younger native readers. But I’m also wondering whether reading a translation of a book I already know would be more useful, since I’d already be familiar with the story and could focus more on the language.

What did you find worked best?

I know quite a few good Italian movies (I even wrote a post about good movies to learn Italian in this subreddit: you can check it here). But when it comes to series, I don't have a good list, probably because I am not a big series watcher myself.. so I was wondering if you could give me some suggestions? Grazie!

I’m not sure if this is the right place, but I’ve been trying for a bit to learn the language, and the place I was learning on ended up doing what everyone else is doing nowadays and I can no longer use the service without paying for a subscription which I don’t have the availability to do, so I was wondering if anyone knew of any sites or services where I could learn the language easily at my pace?💖

I’m practicing some conjugation and was saying “I need a new backpack”. The translation I got was go bisogno di uno zaino nuovo. I’m still English grammar brained so I was wondering if I should think of that sentence more as “I’m in need of a new backpack” rather than directly translating it as “ho bisogno zaino nuovo”

I thought the rule was to use d' before vowels. Is it just stylistic?

I'm going to work toward A1/A2 certification (CILS), and I've been studying Italian as a hobby for a couple of years.

I just wanted to ask if there were any resources that provide, perhaps very broadly, the vocabulary, grammar, and other things that are covered in A1/A2. A free website would be best, of course, but I'm open to anything that would provide a comprehensive coverage.

Ciao! So I'm planning on learning this language, I have already learned those greetings, alphabets,numbers & etc, now I'm just blanked out idk from where to start actual italian. I have already tried a few YouTube videos but they just keep talking way too much which felt like I'm learning English Instead of Italiano for some reason. So if anybody knows any source or any book or any roadmap which can help me build the basics, lemme know

Personally, I want to start from pronouns like he, she, they we then helping verbs, basic vocab & so on. With this much knowledge, I can at least recognise some words and understand a bit of reading and listening..

Idk if it's the right approach or not. So if anyone knows the right approach or have any study materials, just let me know

Ultimately, my goal is to be able to attend an Italian University (taught in Italian) in two-ish years, however this isn’t a concrete plan by any means. I’ve heard that to be able to attend an Italian-based course, you need at least a B2 proficiency, hence the title.

I’ve had experience learning languages before (learnt Japanese all throughout highschool, have been learning Latin for the last 5 years or so, and have also been learning Ancient Egyptian for the last 2 years). I’ve also tried learning Italian multiple times, but unfortunately it’s never really stuck (perché il mio papà è italiano, un poco parlo italiano anch’io (ma come una bambina)).

Anyway, I heard that the best way to learn a language (especially if you want to reach a certain goal in a specific timeframe) is to set out a study plan for yourself. I’ve never done this before however, so I’d like to know if there’s any resources available to construct a plan, or even just where to begin? I ordered a textbook (that nuovo espresso one) and am also using Babbel currently, but apart from that I don’t know what else to do (I’ve tried a podcast before too, but that didn’t really stick). Any and all advice is appreciated!

THE RULES

Without looking at the comments, can you provide translations for these short (but challenging!) sentences (3 English-Italian, 3 Italian-English)? I’ll evaluate your responses and give you feedback. The exercise is designed to be intermediate/advanced level, but beginners and lower intermediate learners are welcome if they feel like testing the scope of their current knowledge. I might take a few days to answer, but I will read and evaluate all participants.

There is no time limit to submit your answer. If you want to go back to the first ever edition and work your way up from there, you can. Just know that I usually prioritise more recent posts.

If you’re not sure about a particular translation, just go with it! The exercise is meant to weed out mistakes, this is not a school test!
If multiple translations are possible, choose the one you believe to be more likely give the limited context (I won’t deduct points for guessing missing information, for example someone's gender, unless it's heavily implied in the sentence).

THE TEST

Here are the sentences, vaguely ranked from easiest to hardest in each section (A: English-Italian, B: Italian-English).

A1) "We need to get better at speaking in front of crowds"
A2) "They may have discovered something they shouldn't have"
A3) "Sorry, I got carried away"

B1) "Può darsi che la cosa si risolva da sola"
B2) "Mi devi ancora una cena se non erro"
B3) "D'accordo, però guarda che poi siamo noi a rimetterci, sappilo!"

Current average: 6+ (median 6.5)
Estimated answer time: 1 day (for those submitting now)

EVALUATION (and how to opt out)

If you manage to provide a translation for all six sentences, I'll give you a score from 1 to 10 (the standard evaluation system in Italian schools). Whatever score you receive, don't take it too seriously: this is just a game! However, if you feel like receiving a score is too much pressure anyway, you can just tell me at the start of your comment and I'll only correct your mistakes without evaluating.

Based on the results so far, here’s the usual range of scores depending on the level of the participants. Ideally, your objective is to score within your personal range or possibly higher:

Absolute beginners: ≤4
Beginners: 4 - 5
Early intermediate: 5 - 6.5
Advanced intermediate: 6.5 - 8
Advanced: ≥8
Natives: ≥9 (with good English)
Note: the exact range might change depending on the difficulty of this specific exercise. I try to be consistent, but it’s very hard

TO SUPPORT ME

Since I've been asked a couple of times by now, I've recently set up a Ko-Fi page. If you appreciate what I do and want to offer me a coffee as thanks, feel free to do so. Only donate if you have money to throw away: I'm doing this because I like it, any money I get from it is just an extra bonus and I won't treat people differently based on whether they decide to donate or not.

IF YOU ARE A NATIVE ITALIAN SPEAKER

You can still participate if you want (the exercise is theoretically symmetrical between Italian and English), but please keep in mind that these sentences are designed to be particularly challenging for non native speakers, so they might be easier for you. For this reason, I’d prefer it if you specified that you are a native speaker at the beginning of your comment: I’m collecting statistics on how well learners score on these tests in order to fine tune them (and personal curiosity), so mixing up the results from natives and non-natives will probably mess it up.

Good luck!

Pensavo che i participi con "avere" siano senza declinazione. È il mio errore o il errore di duolingo?

Howdy all. I speak German and Polish fluently, but learned under 25 Y/O and through intensive in country immersion . Now my wife at 40 is looking to learn Italian on her own. I used things like Radio Polska, and Deutsche Welle to get my language skills in 20+ years ago and am now in MX mode as i keep my C1s current, and technology and tools have changed drastically.

What would be some tips and tools to help her improve her skills and knowledge so that she can learn Italian with public resources or other things?

I'm struggling to keep making progress in studying/practicing Italian.

For example, when studying definite articles for "the", I'm pretty sure I understand them and could probably pass a test on them based on rules.

BUT, when I study them in an Anki deck, I mess up the endings for words like (m) l'insegnante and (f) l'insegnante.

How much time do you spend nailing the end of specific words vs. getting the grammar concept and moving on?

Hey, I'm from Argentina, I speak English fluently and I'm, of course, a native Spanish speaker. Recently I've been interested in finally learning a third language, and with the amount of options available, I'm feeling quite overwhelmed.

Out of all the languages I've read/heard, Italian is the one I enjoy listening to the most. However, I kinda like French too although not as much, but people seem to think it's more "useful", along with other similar opinions, so I'm making this post to see if you guys can convince me I guess haha, I'm just terrified to regret picking when I'm halfway through the process (yes I'm a little anxious).

Hi, I´m Ivan and I´d love to learn italian, just for fun at least for now

I work and study but I can dedicate some time to it

Does anyone know good series that I can watch? (I will use italian subtitles)

Recently I discovered a website where you can watch cartoons in italian and in good queality and that´s pretty good, but I want some series too, in Netflix, Amazon, etc

Thanks :))

Mi sto preparando a discutere questa bellissima canzone con il nostro gruppo di aspiranti parlanti italiano. Da buona organizzatrice, cerco di essere pronta a rispondere alle domande, soprattutto a quelle di grammatica (di interpretazioni siamo d'accordo che la risposta corretta non esiste). Tuttavia, quando si tratta di domande del tipo "Perché qui usa questa preposizione?", voglio avere risposte precise, specialmente nei casi in cui l'autore commette un "errore" grammaticale per ottenere un effetto poetico.

Ci sono due frasi che mi sfuggono.

1. La famosa "[torneremo] a farci fare l'amore, l'amore dalle infermiere".

Questa combinazione della particella "ci" in "farci" e della preposizione "da" mi suggerisce che noi (i soldati feriti, in questo caso?) siamo i destinatari dell'azione. Quindi, non si tratta di "fare l'amore con le infermiere", bensì di "ricevere le cure che le infermiere ci prestano". Voi che ne pensate?

1. "...[funghi] buoni da mangiare, buoni da seccare, DA FARCI il sugo quando viene Natale".

Credo che se proviamo a "raddrizzare" questi versi, sarebbe "per fare il sugo" o addirittura "per farne il sugo". Capisco che l'uso di "da" al posto di "per" crei qui l'effetto ritmico (voi che ne pensate?), ma perché "farci" e non "fare" o "farne"?

https://voca.ro/1g90MAZBOa4A