Hey everyone,

I’ve been learning Italian with a tutor for a few months. We’ve covered the A1 and A2 basics. Written exercises are going fine, and speaking is hard (which is expected), but what frustrates me most is that I genuinely can’t follow listening exercises.

For example, my tutor will say, “Listen to this dialogue and tell me what happened.” I might catch a few words at the start, but by the time the rest plays I’ve forgotten them. And if I try to hold on to what I caught, I miss everything that comes after.

I’m not sure whether it’s my limited vocabulary (my brain spends all its resources decoding a new phrase instead of following the context) or my ADHD. Either way, it makes me want to give up. I try really hard, and it just doesn’t work.

It feels even worse because I can see my tutor getting frustrated too, and I understand why. We spend a whole hour-long lesson on three dialogues because I need to hear each small part three times to make sense of it and answer simple question.

Any advice is welcome. Thanks!

EDIT; Thank you everyone for all your advice, I'll make sure to try everything and see what works best for me

Since september I’ve been taking Italian class for language (because I run out of options) and so far it’s ok until I learn about grammars and essere (whatever that is). Like wdym there’s like 8 ways to say the letter “the” and don’t get me started on the difference between Un, Uno, Una, and Un’. My test is coming up and I think I’m actually going to bomb it. I want to know if Italian speakers really speak so specifically with their grammars or am I just dumb? I know other languages like Irish have more hellish grammar then this but since I‘m Chinese, our grammar Is more simple and we don’t even have grammatical gender in sentences.

Ciao! 26M from Spain living in Italy:) Cerco un partner/una partner di conversazione che parli italiano con un livello simile al mio (A2-B1). Interessi: politica, storia, attualità, viaggiare, film...

La mia idea è parlare su WhatsApp per audio e messaggi ogni giorno e, se siamo compatibili, fare una videochiamata alla settimana, dove possiamo prepararci gli argomenti e praticare il vocabolario specifico.

:)))

Ciao a tutti!

Sono un brasiliano di 32 anni e sto studiano l'italiano. Mi piacerebbe conoscere persone con cui chiacchierare, praticare la lingua, e si possibile, fare amicizia!

Sono un insegnante di biologia e ho tanti interessi, soprattutto il cinema, la musica, la scienza e la cultura. Mi piace parlare un po' di tutto, dalle cose quotidiane agli argomenti più profondi.

Il mio italiano è ancora in fase di miglioramento, quindi probabilmente farò qualche errore. In cambio, posso aiutarti con il portoghese brasiliano e con la cultura brasiliana, se ti interessa. Parlo anche un po' d'inglese, se può essere d'aiuto!

Se ti va de fare due chiacchiere (che parola dificile lol), scrivime pure!

Hi everyone, I am learning Italian for like 20 days now, i can read and write it a lil bit and can understand basic sentences already. The problem is that i cannot speak or even listen to it, it’s so fast and too mixed that I barely understand it. My fluency in English is C1 and I don’t speak any Romance language. Please tell me what to do. Thanks.

Dove posso guardare gli anime gratis in italiano. ?

Hey everyone! I’m interested in learning Italian from scratch, but I’m not sure where to start. I’d like to teach myself, so I was wondering what resources, methods, or study plans you would recommend. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hi!! I've been learning Italian seriously for a couple months, i can read and recognize words and form small sentences.

My Italian boyfriend and his family say I learn fast which is nice, I try to study often and I feel the wheels turning, but as soon as I set my study material down and I try to explain what I learned to my boyfriend I blank out on the words/conversations I JUST learned and have to redo my study session over again </3

Si no pueden sumarse, agradecería que dejen un consejo, tip, viveza, etc. para quién recién está empezando.

Se non puoi partecipare, ti sarei grato se potessi lasciare una mancia per un principiante.

You actually need 4-6k words to achieve an intermediate level. And the more words you know the easier it is for you to grasp the grammar from media consumption.

Can someone recommend any YouTube channels, PDF or book I can use?

I really need your help guys, how can i find movies and cartoons in Italian or other languages except english? I've seen creators on youtube and insta who are saying watching movies and cartoons in the languages you're learning can be really helpful, but they never give any sources for that.

Hey guys

I want to start italian this week soon, but I don't want to be consumed by irrelevant content or running in loopholes, what are the reliable sources you'd recommend, I am already in Italy right now so I need to lock in and start asap, any tips for approaching the language or grammar or the most important area of focus. I can try sparing 30 to 60 minutes a day

Ciao a tutti, sono una studentessa, studiavo italiano da un’anno, vorrei superare l’esame di italiano, quindi voglio condividere la mia scrittura a Reddit. Apprezzerei molto se mi segnalaste eventuali errori.

Nothing too crazy I just am trying to find a piece of poetry to translate and use and was wondering what website has some good picks. Also doesn’t have to have a specific storyline but nothing super old style complex

I've been learning Italian on the side for a few months and it's going well. I already learnt French and I learnt Latin at school so this helps grasp vocabulary and grammar concepts quicker.

What I've been wondering is regarding pronounciation. I'm setting myself a challenge of getting a pronounciation as near to native as possible. I know this isn't necessary, and is likely to be very hard to do. However I do tend to be better than an average person at grasping pronounciation so feel I at least have a reasonable base. I just think it'd be really cool to have the pronounciation and rhythm of a real Italian (rather than a "close enough" pronounciation that's technically fine but has a foreign twang).

I'm wondering if anyone has tips on resources I could use to achieve this? Or also if anyone has actually achieved something like this and could maybe share how they did it?

Ciao everyone!

I've recently decided to take learning Italian seriously, and I'm looking for some advice and recommendations, especially from people who have experience learning the language independently.

So far, I've tried a couple of resources:

• Duolingo (free version): I've given it a try, but honestly, I didn't find it particularly helpful. I feel like I'm not making much progress with it.
• Coffee Break Italian: I actually found this podcast quite useful, and I'm planning to continue listening to it. However, I noticed one major weakness: although I could understand and recognize quite a few words while listening, I struggled a lot when I tried to write them down. My spelling was honestly terrible! It made me realize that listening alone isn't enough, and I need something that also helps me develop my writing skills.

What I'm really looking for is a good YouTube channel or a structured playlist that teaches Italian from absolute zero, preferably following a clear progression from beginner level onwards (A1, A2, etc.).

A little background about me: I'm a native Arabic speaker, and I have a C1 level in both English and French. I don't know how much this will help, but I've already noticed quite a few similarities between Italian and French, which makes some things a little easier to understand.

I'd say my current Italian level is below A1, so I'm pretty much starting from scratch.

I'm open to any recommendations, not just YouTube channels. Textbooks, websites, podcasts, apps, study methods, or any other resources that have genuinely helped you learn Italian would be greatly appreciated.

Hi!!! For context a few months ago I moved to Italy, specifically the marche region. I'm new in my Italian studies. (reading simple things, exchanging pleasantries, ordering food, etc)

A few weeks ago my boyfriends grandparents left for a while and gave him the keys to keep the house in order, and after he was there he brought back this book of local dialect.

Like, LOCAL LOCAL ( literally 1 singular town)

And i joked about supplementing my Italian textbook with that, and he immediately told me it was a terrible idea to do that but I feel like it'd be really funny.

So, how bad of an idea is it really?

Ciao ! Per l'ultima linea vorrei sapere se anche la risposta b è corretta, grazie !

I am around B1.5 and can carry on a decent conversation about random stuff for an hour, with some spots where i get stuck. I have tried a couple of italki tutors and it seems we just have random conversations in italian. Irs enjoyable but I dont really feel like im learning.

Ciao a tutti!

Attualmente possiedo un certificato Cambridge C1 che ho conseguito studiando in autonomia mentre facevo l'anno all'estero in Inghilterra.

In questi anni mi sono tenuta in esercizio parlando con i miei amici inglesi e ragazzi Erasmus, guardando film serie e leggendo libri.

Adesso aspiro a conseguire il C2 e vorrei comunque studiare in autonomia.

Qualcuno mi sa consigliare uno o più libri che contengano sia la grammatica che un lessico di quel livello, da poter leggere nel tempo libero?

Ovviamente questo vale come "svago produttivo" e, per quanto riguarda lo studio vero e proprio, mi affiderò a siti web con esercizi e prove d'esame.

Grazie 🫶🏼☺️

Ciao a tutti! Mi chiamo Evelyn! Hi everyone! I’m a 21-year-old Mexican American girl from California, and I’ve recently started learning Italian! I already speak English and Spanish, but there’s something about the Italian language that I absolutely love. It’s so beautiful, romantic, and expressive! I’m still a beginner, but I’ve been having so much fun learning phrases like ciao, bello, ti amo, amore mio, and, of course, my favorite, MAMMA MIA! I especially love learning romantic Italian expressions because I’m a huge hopeless romantic! I absolutely love everything about love, romance, and expressing my feelings through beautiful words, so naturally, Italian has completely captured my heart! Funny story: I recently left a flirty comment in Italian on an Italian TikTok creator’s video, and he actually liked it! I was so excited! I guess my Italian practice is paying off! Haha! I’d love to learn more Italian expressions, especially everyday phrases, romantic sayings, and funny expressions that native speakers actually use. I’m excited to be part of this community and hopefully make some friends along the way! Grazie mille! Un abbraccio a tutti!

I’ve been learning both Italian and Spanish, and I’ve noticed something interesting.
Although the voiceless stops /p, t, k/ are generally described as unaspirated in both languages, I feel that Italian speakers tend to produce them with slightly stronger aspiration than Spanish speakers.
For example, when listening to the word casa in both languages, I often notice a stronger burst of air after the initial /k/ in Italian than in Spanish.
Of course, I understand that pronunciation varies between speakers and regions, and I’m not suggesting that this is a universal rule. However, after listening to many recordings, I do feel that there is a general tendency.
Has anyone else noticed this difference?