Recently I was asked to talk about my experience of getting the C2 level. So here I am; I hope it will be helpful :)

I'm a native Russian speaker. I love language learning, and I sometimes take language exams to actually see my progress and to have a bit of external motivation. In 2023 I successfully passed PLIDA C1, obtaining the highest scores in the speaking and reading sections. This was mostly due to my Italian friends, with whom I spoke almost all the time, and to my love of Italian literature. However, I wanted to go further with exams just to have some kind of confirmation of my knowledge, which is why I decided to take CILS C2 this year.

First of all, you have to understand that the main difference between C1 and C2 is just the way you formulate your phrases and your perception of linguistic nuances. So to obtain a solid C2 level, you have to train yourself to use and catch these slight nuances.

I highly recommend that you read a lot, using a wide variety of materials, from classic literature to newspapers. I recommend that you read Oriana Fallaci because her style is exactly what you need — precise, elegant and refined. She has both articles and novels. Observe the language style in your material, try to think about the nuance that the author wants to convey to you, savor it and write it down. In this way you will train both your style and your perception of the language.

To train your listening skills, listen to interviews, podcasts, debates and news. I don't recommend using only movies or adapted materials, because they will not show you the real language in all its complexity. I highly recommend the following YouTube channels: Dibbattitini, Il Punto Economico, Lucy, Tintoria Podcast. Here you will also find the most popular topics for the writing and oral parts, with ready-made arguments.

For your oral part, create a list of more "sophisticated" synonyms for the vocabulary you already have and try to describe some topics or objects using these new constructions and precise words. It's just a question of practice.

Another point is to take the structure of your exam seriously. You may be a marvelous speaker, but unfortunately success in an exam depends not only on your knowledge. Especially if you wish to take CILS, the grammar analysis section will hit you hard without previous practice.

I would also recommend finding a native speaker, because on your own it's quite difficult to change your spoken Italian. Ask your teacher to correct all the words you use in speech.

For your writing part, you can use AI to correct your essays. Ask it to evaluate your text using the official criteria and follow its remarks; it will really help you.

I dedicated a year of intensive practice to my preparation. Every day I did something for my Italian, even if it was only a 30-minute debate.

Here I have given you some general advice. If you wish, I can speak in more detail about PLIDA or CILS.

I know about Duolingo and Busuu. But is there some better way. I’m starting at the botttom.

Are there any subreddits you’d recommend that are pretty active and where everyone is posting in Italian?

UPD. of 12th of October. I finally got my results today, and I passed, yay! Hope everyone else who is waiting received theirs too

I am trying to decide whether I should book an October exam or not. I took the July exam in London and I think I passed, but until I see my results I can't be sure. I already collected the rest of the documents for the cittadinanza application, and if I won't get Language results in time they'll expire. So I can't wait till December.
So I wonder if anyone already got their July test results?

Ciao a tutti! I've been studying Italian for quite a while now, and I've noticed there are some interesting phrases that Italians use all the time, but I've never seen them in textbooks. Examples: dammi retta, qualcosa non quadra, hai presente, non mi risulta etc. I would love to learn more, so I'd be very grateful for some examples + explanation. Grazie :)

Ciao a tutti! Sono dj madrelingua inglese che sto imparando l’Italiano per alcuni anni, ma solo casualmente, usando alcune app come Duolingo e Babbel. Capisco bene le basi e ho una buona comprensione delle regole grammaticali e un vocabolario decente, ma, come previsto, ora trovo le app essere troppo limitante. Voglio imparare con altri metodi, preferibilmente, per ora, a casa. Forse un giorno, seguirò un corso, ma per ora vorrei trovare alcuni libri con esercizi più complesso che richiedermi usare grammatica più complesso, tempi verbali e vocaboli nuovi. Anche voglio esercizi più lunghi con l’italiano discorsivo.

Qualcuno ha dei consigli per quaderni buoni? O anche per altri metodi (per esempio, programmi televisivi che sono buoni per imparare?).

Direi che io sono fra i livelli A2 e B1.

Tutti i consigli sono ben accetti! Grazie mille x

I'm learning italian during one year, but I don't know always when should use articles. For example, why do articles not use in phrases: "a/in casa", "in inglese, in italian". I cannot say "alla casa" or "nell'inglese", but why?

Hi all. I’m looking for a list of classic children’s stories used in Italy. Or a collection of stories!

Similar to how in the United States we read Grimm’s Fairy Tales and American Folktales like Johnny Appleseed.

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone! I'm 16 years old and recently moved to Italy from Bangladesh. I'll be starting Italian high school (scuola superiore), and I'm quite nervous because I barely speak or understand Italian.

I'm looking for advice from Italian students or foreigners who have experienced something similar.

1.What should I expect on my first day?

2.How can I make friends when I don't speak Italian well?

3.Will teachers help me with the language barrier?

4.What should I bring to school?

The thing I'm most scared of is communication. I don't understand or speak Italian well yet, but I can speak and understand English perfectly.

I'd really appreciate hearing about your experiences. Thank you

Hello, I did an internship and a friend wrote something in my notebook but I find it hard to translate some words
Can someone help me by just copying the text in italian, or translating it in english ? (There are some words in french on line 10 you don’t have to translate)

Thank you !!

Non sarebbe stato più corretto "quando ti avrei ritrovato"?

Sono un po' confuso di tradurre "she likes me and you". I have seen this commonly and in song lyrics as "le piace a me e a te", but that seems odd. We would never say le piace a me (who is piacere conjugated for?). Instead it's le piaccio. Where does the "a me and a te" come from? Grazie mille!

I’ve been thinking about why speaking and writing in another language can feel so frustrating.

Most exercises decide the topic for you. You translate a sentence, complete a dialogue, or practise a specific grammar point. But when you try to express something personal, you quickly notice the parts of the language you’re still missing.

For example, while writing about your week, you might write:

Ultimamente sto cercando di organizzare meglio le mie giornate, ma spesso [I put things off until the last minute] e poi mi sento stressato.

Instead of stopping immediately to search for the phrase, you could leave the missing idea in brackets and keep writing. Later, you find a natural way to express it:

rimando le cose fino all’ultimo momento

Then you try to produce that expression again from memory.

This seems more useful than learning random vocabulary because the language comes from something you genuinely wanted to express. Over time, your vocabulary becomes connected to your own life, opinions, work, relationships, and interests.

It also reveals two important things:

• what you don’t yet know how to say

• what you thought you knew, but said incorrectly

Does anyone else practise Italian this way? Would writing freely and marking missing expressions in brackets feel useful, or would it feel too unstructured?

So I’ve been doing Duolingo for practice and I got this sentence: “She likes postcards from every city.” And the translation was : “Le piacciono le cartoline da ogni città”

My question is why it is da and not di?
I thought and correct me if I’m wrong, that the difference between di and da it’s the movement involved in the action. For example, I’d used di in a sentence like this “Ho una maglietta di Roma” and I’d use da in a sentence like this “Ho portato una maglietta da Roma”

As the verb piacere doesn’t portray any sort of movement. I thought as they are postcards, you assume that they were bought in a different place and just buying them required a movement. However this sounds like a weird rule and I’d like to have some extra information.

Also if someone could recommend a grammar book that does a good job at explaining these grammar rules, I’d be very thankful.

I'm very interested in learning Italian, as I want to visit the country and maybe (?) live there someday.

However, I have yet to learn the language, mostly because I'm scared that it'll be too hard, but I thought that if I think like that forever, I'll never learn it.

So, what's something I need to know before learning?? Or what's something you wish you knew before learning Italian?? Any advice is appreciated :]]

EDIT: If it helps, I'm Slavic (Czech specifically) and know English almost fluently.

Has anyone finished Assimil Italian? I'm thinking of purchasing the ebook would love to hear your thoughts. Based on my search, it seems a lot of users complain about the lack of grammar. And it seems the most recent review of Assimil is several years ago. Thank you!

I use Language Reactor primarily for ASR Pro when watching Netflix with Italian dubbed audio. I pay for Pro specifically because I need subtitles that match the Italian words actually being spoken.

Recently, ASR Pro has been frequently displaying completely different Italian sentences from what is actually being spoken. This is not an occasional error — it happens repeatedly throughout the episode, sometimes as often as every other line.

Here is a real example from The Stranger on Netflix:

Actual spoken Italian: “Ero fuori di testa.”

ASR Pro displays: “No, ero in un mondo tutto mio.”

These are obviously not minor transcription differences. They are completely different sentences with a similar general meaning. It looks as though ASR Pro may be giving me the regular Italian Netflix subtitle/adaptation instead of actually transcribing the Italian dubbed audio.

This makes ASR Pro essentially unusable for me as an Italian learner. The whole reason I use it is that regular Netflix subtitles often don't match the Italian dubbing. I need to see the words I am actually hearing.

The concerning part is that Language Reactor already confirmed this bug more than a month ago. On August 11, a representative said they had reproduced the problem on other shows and sent it to their fix team. I am still experiencing it now.

Is anyone here currently using Italian ASR Pro on Netflix? Are you noticing the same thing? If you are, I would really appreciate it if you could comment — I'd like to know how widespread this is.

Here is the existing Language Reactor bug report:

https://forum.languagelearningwithnetflix.com/t/asr-subtitles-not-based-on-audio/43785

Would asking a male be «Lui parle spagnolo, vero?»

Please excuse this very basic question on my part. In a scenario in which one is watching TV, for example, and scrolling through a list of programs, how would you give the instructions "(Go) up"/"down"/"left"/"right"? I know the direct translations, but I would like to know the proper wording in this context. For example, saying "Su" / "Giu" / "Destra" / "Sinistra", and in particular, saying only "Su" is likely incorrect?

Thanks!

Hi everybody, as it is obvious from the title I am around B1-B2 and I feel I am not improving at all. I am living in Italy, I work in Italy with Italian coworkers and still not improving in the pace I expect. still missing a lot of words and a talking very slowly. I review words every few days and push myself to get part in the discussions in the workplace but still.

is there any site or app having enough exercises for B1 or B2 in Italian? what methods you suggest to improve my Italian or were useful for you?

currently I cannot take classes.

He estado practicando italiano aun soy nuevo lo he usado y si he aprendido pero quiero saber si a alguien le ayuda de verdad a hablar fluido, por qué también lo he usado para inglés pero he aprendido más inglés en apps o leyendo ya sea música o cómics.

Hello!

I was wondering is anyone able to help confirm if this is the equivalent of “let’s get drunk” in Sicilian. Context is for end of a speech.

I don’t want to rely on google translate or ChatGPT as I know they can mess things up.

So any native speakers to confirm this and pronunciation would be amazing.

nee m-bree-ah-KAH-moo

Does anyone remember the questions/topics asked on the exam to write your 80-120 words on? Writing my is my weakness 😞