What is the best way to learn practical Italian in a short period of time?

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Steve

First of all, beati voi - lucky you (all your family)! Italy is a beautiful country and the people are superb as is the food, the culture, the way of lfe . . . you'll love it!

As others have said, Italian is quite a difficult language grammatically but don't let that put you off. To begin with, the BBC have produced 2 excellent books called, simply "Talk Italian" - book 1 starts at the very beginning and presumes no previous knowledge at all. It teaches at a 'digestible' pace using language that you are likely to need (greetings, asking for directions, shopping, food & drink etc and explains the grammar along the way. Each book comes with 2 CD's (or tapes).

Enquire at your local FE college language department - they should have courses - some colleges run 10 week 'taster' courses starting after Easter - this would be very useful if available. Failing that, try to get a private teacher to help you with pronunciation and conversational practice.

You may also find the BBC languages site useful - they have some interactive excercises there - anything to get you practicing would be a plus. I've posted the link below.

Finally, don't be afraid to make mistakes - 'sbagliando si impara' as the Italians say - 'you learn by your mistakes'!

In bocca al lupo! (Good luck!) . . . there, you've learnt 3 Italian expressions already!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/

Dario87

(Dont' worry, i translate later =P)
Ciao, sono italiano...20 anni, da torino beh, imparare l'italiano non Ã¨ una delle cose piu' facili di questo mondo... Ã¨ molto diverso dall'inglese, i verbi cambiano in modo molto diverso da persona a persona... ci sono molti piu' articoli che nell'inglese e i nomi si dividono in maschili e femminili, e ci sono diversi modi di fare il plurare dei nomi, non basta aggiungere una "s" alla fine della parola ehehe..questi sono solo alcuni esempi.. comunque Ã¨ una lingua affascinante, al momento non so consigliarti come fare per impararla in fretta, ma se vivrai ti sarÃ molto piu' facile... se hai bisogno di traduzione o robe varie sono sempre disposto a darti una mano!! spero che ti piaccia qua..!
ciao

Hi, I'm italian,,,20 y.o. from turin, well, learning italian isnt' one of the easiest thing of the earth...it is really different from the english language, verbs change according to the person,, there are many more articles than in the english, and the names are divided in female and male and there are different ways to do a plural, add an "s" at the end of a word isn't enought.. =P these are just some examples... anyway, it's a fascinating language, right now i can't advice you a way to learn it quickly, but if you will live it won't be so hard learning it.. if you need a translation or anythings, i can give you a hand!! hope you'll like here,,!
ciao

dario

andrew s

First the good news is that Italian is easy to learn and I learned it so well that I now live in Italy.

Before going to Italy I did perhaps the best Italian course with Rosetta Stone and I followed this with a course at the Dante Alighieri School. I am now completely fluent. Perhaps you should consider the same. I have also put together a list of the best self-learning courses and books for you - http://www.my-italy-piedmont-marche-and-more.com/learn-italian-cd.html

Tania

i would say the the best way to learn is to try to take some italian classes....or try to by one of those CD's that teaches u how to speak italian....there are some on iTunes...and most of them are free.....also, what helped me a little bit was to listen to some italian music.....or what i would do was read italian articles online, and then try to translate it into english (i would always go to www.yahoo.it , it is the italian version of yahoo)....also, a good italian-english dictonary website is www.wordreference.com. ....or, u should even check at ur local library for books, or CD's that teach italian....they should have them there....i know that they have it in my library, and it is a very small library.....but anyways, good luck learning italian...in bocca al lupo ( that litterally means "in the mouth of the wolf", which is an italian expression meaning good luck....its kinda like in the U.S. when we say "break a leg")

Uncle Joe

Italian is a very difficult language so the only way to learn italian is to stay here in Italy... If you are young you won't have any problems to learn it fast!!! However you have to know that italians are pretty and polite so don't worry everybody will help you without any problems even if at the beginning you don't know the language... It's funny because on june I will go to Usa for working for two years and I will have to learn english... The same problem but in the opposite way :-) Ciao e vedrai che ti divertirai un mondo qui in Italia, specialmente se vieni a Milano!!! Se ti serve qualcosa contattami pure...

Emily

It's not cheap, but there's this software called Rosetta Stone that actually immerses you in a language and works great. Lots of companies and even the U.S. government use it.

micky_8383

which city your parents have chosen for the move?
i'm in Naples if you need :D
if you need to learn the language as fast as you can you have to speak with a lot of people! people that speaks in english too...

mycorrispondenza

I'm italian and I can sy that my language is quite difficult,
I can suggest you to attend a course of Italian and try during this course to read in italian and if you can to see some tv program or film in italian.
Then I'm strongly convinced that a little know of my language living in italy will be the best teacher!
You will hear around you all day italian and everything will be easy

raky2804

i'm italian...i can say that italian language is very difficult...probably the best way to learn it is came hare and use it a bit more every day...i do not think that it is possible to learn it quickly...good luck...

andyguenthard

Get yourself an italian boyfriend, no easier and fun way to learn italian! ...

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