Independent study of the Italian language. How to learn Italian from scratch on your own

Are you wondering how to quickly learn Italian so that you can easily speak the most beautiful language in the world? Here are 10 effective tips for you.

The phrase “How many languages ​​you know, so many times you are a person” I remembered from school.

Since childhood, I understood that knowledge of foreign languages ​​opens many doors for you, and simply adds self-respect.

Once abroad, you should not, like a monkey, try to explain yourself to the locals in an instant, which is what you need.

You can, as a white man, talk to them as equals.

I never cared about the question how to learn italian, because I took the simplest path: good, which is common in most countries of the world.

If you are striving to learn to speak fluently in the most beautiful language in the world, then the experience of my friend Yana will surely come in handy.

Why was Yana eager to learn Italian quickly?

I always understood that I simply had to learn at least one foreign language.

I settled on English because I once wanted to move to a developed English-speaking country.

But my friend Yana was too lazy to do this, parrying “We are well fed here too.”

And even my convictions that it is necessary not only for immigration, but also for travel, which Yana so dreamed of, remained unheeded.

Perhaps my friend would have remained a dunno if one day her parents had not given her a two-week trip to Italy.

In this country, Yana was fascinated by literally everything: architecture, people, cuisine, standard of living, culture.

She was delighted with the melodious language of the Italians.

And Yana also fell in love with the waiter of the restaurant, where she often dined.

The novel began to develop rapidly, despite the language barrier.

Valerio, in addition to his native language, also knew English, but this did not save the situation, because my girlfriend's knowledge was limited to Russian and Ukrainian.

After two weeks of rest, Yana, with tears in her eyes, got on the plane, thinking that she was connected with Valerio by an ordinary holiday romance, which would end with her departure.

The young man thought otherwise, so he called the next day.

He wrote her long e-mails, declared his love on Skype, and my friend was seriously preoccupied with the question, in order to finally begin to understand her beloved.

Looking ahead, I will say that it took Yana only a month and a half of intensive study to begin to communicate with Valerio in his native language.

By the way, their love story did not end with a wedding.

Six months later, both began to be burdened by a romance at a distance, but Yana's romance with Italy continues to this day.

Without the right motivation, you can't learn Italian quickly!

As you can see, my friend, who for 22 years has not been able to properly learn at least one foreign language, was able to easily master it in a month and a half, when she had a serious reason for this: the desire to explain herself to her beloved.

You can easily repeat her experience if you find good motivation.

Learn Italian because:

1. You can watch the immortal film classics without subtitles: "The Taming of the Shrew", "The Smell of a Woman", "Dolce Vita", "Life is Beautiful" and others.
2. Enjoy the opera (most of the works are in Italian), understanding every word.
3. while working as a translator in his country.
4. Leave to work in Italy, and later settle permanently in this wonderful country.
5. Travel around Italy, get acquainted with the best sights of Rome, Venice, Milan, Florence, without spending money on an interpreter.
6. To admire the songs performed by Celentano, Ramazzotti, Morandi and other Italian stars.
7. Fall in love with a hot Italian and marry him.

The Italian language cannot be called too difficult a language.

No hieroglyphs or incomprehensible differences between the spelling and sound of a word.

In addition, it is a pleasure to speak a language that has repeatedly won in various “Most Beautiful” ratings.

My friend Yana shared her observations on how to learn Italian as effectively as possible:

Get a tutor.

If your goal is to master this language as quickly as possible, then it is better to choose individual lessons, rather than group ones.

If you can’t go to Italy, then at least simulate immersion in the language environment:

connect an Italian channel, watch films in this language, listen to songs, etc.

Find yourself an Italian to chat with.

It is better to do this after you have accumulated at least a minimum vocabulary.

You can search for suitable candidates, for example, on a dating site or in social networks.

Use stickers with words written on them.

Paste them all over the house and, passing by, be sure to repeat the words written on the cards aloud.

Buy audio and video lessons.

Thus, you can practice both at home and in the office, for example, during your lunch break.

Visit a bookstore to buy one or more tutorials.

The tasks in it are quite simple, but effective for learning Italian.

Start learning the language with the simplest: the alphabet, counting to ten, the names of the months and days of the week.

Then you can move on to popular phrases: “Hello”, “Bon appetit”, “My name is ...”, “I came from ...”, “How to get to ...”, etc.

It's better to start with comics.

Learning grammar is indispensable, so you will need a special textbook.

As soon as you make sentences without errors, you can assume that the grammar rules have obeyed you.

Live the Italian language constantly.

Buy a pocket dictionary, carry it with you everywhere, and look in your free moments to find out how a particular word is translated into Italian.

Why else should you learn Italian? - will answer this question

polyglot Dmitry Petrov in the video:

If you take the job seriously, then in a few months you will set yourself a non-minimal task, how to learn italian fast, and go buy a ticket to Italy to finally chat with the colorful locals in their melodious and incredibly beautiful language.

Useful article? Don't miss out on new ones!
Enter your e-mail and receive new articles by mail

If you have an idea to learn one of the most romantic and beautiful languages ​​in Europe, then you should not neglect it. Learning Italian is absolutely not difficult, the main thing is to know where to start and what to strive for. In this article, we will talk about the rules for learning Italian and their application.

Rule one: Take a test drive

A lot of material has been written about how to learn grammar, alphabet and vocabulary correctly, but almost no one pays attention to one obvious thing: you can only learn Italian well when you are imbued with this beautiful language. Almost every method of learning Italian quickly does not take into account your attitude towards the language, it seems to imply that you are ready to give all your strength to learning and have a huge motivation to learn Italian. But, as practice shows, this is not always the case and people begin to learn a language without even having an idea of ​​what it is, which often leads to disappointment and conclusions in the spirit of: "I am not capable of languages."

To avoid such devastating conclusions and deep disappointments, take the step of the horse: test drive the language. This means listening, watching and trying to speak (repeat) Italian for several weeks. Listen to Italian music, download audio lessons or try reading the Italian press with a translator. In 1-2 weeks you will not only have a basic understanding of the language, but also form your own opinion about Italian and be able to make a more informed and thoughtful decision about learning Italian.

A sure sign that you need to continue learning Italian is the pleasure and excitement you experience while learning. If after 2 weeks you have not lost your fuse and are still determined to learn Italian, then there is no need to put it off indefinitely - start learning on the same day.

Rule Two: Lay a Strong Foundation

Once you have decided and are ready to learn, it's time to talk about the order of learning. In the first couple, it is very easy to get confused and start developing something that is not what you need. Learning Italian, first of all, you need to start with the basics: the alphabet, the correct pronunciation of sounds and simple words and phrases. Conventionally, training can be divided into three stages:

1. Foundation: simple words, phrases, alphabet and pronunciation; minimal grammar.

2.Designs: great attention to vocabulary and grammar; gradual increase in hours of practice.

3. Finishing work: a lot of practice, work on the accent.

Why is it important to lay a strong foundation? Because without it you will not be able to learn Italian fully. The more responsibly you approach learning the basics of the language, the less problems you will have in the next steps. So, for example, if you pay enough attention to the pronunciation of Italian words, then it will be much easier for you in a live conversation. It's the same with grammar: the more you put into it, the less problems there will be with writing texts, letters, statements.

To form the foundations of the Italian language, I would recommend learning the language in the following sequence:

1.Alphabet and pronunciation of letters

2. Simple words and expressions

3. Greetings and other everyday phrases

As mentioned earlier, at this stage you do not need to climb into the jungle of grammar or learn 100 words on the topic “Work”, it is important to learn a minimum, but very high quality, since the rest of the study of the Italian language will be built on it.

Rule three: Don't skimp on designs

The most complex and costly, in terms of time, stage is the formation of structures. During this period, you must learn a huge number of different topics, link them with grammar and learn to apply it all in practice. Although the stage is difficult, it is he who decides how well you learn Italian.

On your own or with the help of a tutor / courses, but you will have to work very hard and very hard, since the construction period is a period of accumulation of a critical amount of knowledge that will help you to use the language fluently in the future. Spare no effort and time to study the Italian language, be prepared that the language will take you all your free time: you will wake up and go to bed with it, you will go to work/study with it, and it will become your leisure time while studying.

But despite all the difficulties, the reward for this titanic work will not keep you waiting. And after 3-6 months you will already be able to correspond or even communicate on everyday topics with Italians. And in a year you will already speak and even think in Italian perfectly. It's like with a train: the most difficult thing is to move it, so don't skimp on building structures, devote yourself completely to learning the Italian language.

Rule Four: The facade must be beautiful

Strange as it may seem, but often people forget that there is the last stage in learning the Italian language - the development of communication experience and the correct accent. Many people think that learning Italian means knowing grammar and vocabulary, as well as being able to start and maintain a conversation, and it doesn’t matter how you speak, it is important that you are understood. It is very appropriate to compare this understanding of learning Italian with housing: you can live in a room where there are only walls and a roof, but it is much more pleasant and comfortable to live in an equipped, well-maintained house.

Same thing with language. It is not enough to learn all the rules and be well versed in Italian vocabulary, it is important to have a rich language base and not get lost in non-standard situations. And for that you need a lot of practice. The best way to do this is to go to Italy and live there. When you get a job, you will not only learn a lot of professional vocabulary, but also gain invaluable experience in solving non-standard tasks and a huge number of hours of language practice.

The complexity of this stage lies in the fact that in order to complete it and learn the Italian language for real, you need real actions related to changing the usual course of affairs, up to moving to Italy. After all, this is how you can use the maximum of the knowledge gained and get the maximum benefit. Even spending half a year in Italy will help you develop a huge number of non-standard situations, gain invaluable communication experience and even get rid of your accent (if you try hard).

Therefore, find an opportunity to go to this beautiful and romantic country for at least six months to consolidate all the knowledge and skills you have received. Take finishing work seriously and then you will be able to say with confidence: “I learned (a) Italian!”, but, by the way, you don’t even have to say it: your speech will say it for you.

Good luck learning Italian and all the best!

In modern life, people are increasingly required to know a couple of additional languages ​​\u200b\u200band fluency in them. One of the most commonly studied languages ​​is Italian.

It’s good when learning an additional language began in childhood or there is an opportunity to pay for the services of a professional teacher who can talk about the features, explain all the nuances and teach you how to speak in everyday conditions. But what to do if you don’t even have basic knowledge of the language, and you can’t find a teacher? There is only one way to learn a language - to get to know it yourself. Only at first it seems that the Italian language is complex and incomprehensible. Many began to learn it from scratch and independently achieved success in this matter.

How to learn Italian on your own from scratch?

Before starting the training, it is necessary to decide for what purpose the Italian language will be used. For a long trip to Italy, you need to know not only the key phrases that are usually published in all phrasebooks, but also elementary grammar rules that help you build sentences correctly and communicate more freely with native speakers. The grammar is quite complex, it is full of tenses and verb conjugations, so it is important to understand the formation of new words and phrases. On the other hand, if a scientific medical conference is planned, and the Italian language is studied only for the sake of it, then it is absolutely pointless to memorize words related to architecture or photography or to replenish the vocabulary with building terms.

It must be remembered that learning Italian, like any other, on your own, is much more difficult than under someone else's control. Without a sense of responsibility and self-discipline, it is almost impossible to obtain decent knowledge. In the Italian language tutorials, most often they offer a training program that should be adjusted only if you have your own plan and tasks.

But, as in the case of learning in a group or with a teacher, it will not be possible to do without language practice. Communication with native speakers will help to improve pronunciation, understand the peculiarities of oral speech and develop the ability to build coherent sentences and texts.

Communication with native speakers

There are several ways to communicate with foreigners and practice speaking with them. There are three main ones among them.

1. A trip on a cultural exchange program. This is the most interesting option for communicating with foreigners, which allows you to practice the language and at the same time learn the culture of an unknown country, traditions and customs, participate in events and national holidays, see life from the inside.
   For such a trip, you need to find people in Italy who provide their accommodation for a few days for visitors and tourists. In the future, no one will forbid in the same way to receive foreigners who love Russia in their home and show them their hometown.
2. Tourist trip. Traveling to the country on a valid tourist visa. Language practice is possible in shops, in a hotel, on the street during a conversation with a passer-by and in a taxi. Such a trip does not provide an opportunity to learn about the life of the indigenous people and experience its features for yourself. The learner of Italian has only the role of an observer.
3. Communication on dating sites and social networks. The easiest and most accessible way of language practice, both oral and written. You can find interlocutors suitable for the level of knowledge of the Italian language and communicate with them at any time. Unfortunately, there is no way to see the life of Italians with your own eyes and learn about their daily activities.

Online learning Italian from scratch

The Italian language is very popular. Many courses and articles are written on the topic of self-study, and training programs are created.
In the age of technological progress, it is not at all necessary to pore over books and dictionaries while studying in a quiet apartment. Many resources develop their own Italian courses, with lectures, exercises and assignments. The main advantage of learning Italian online at a zero level is that you can communicate with other people, share experiences, complete assignments and exercises together. This makes learning more fun and interesting.

Educational resources attract users in every possible way. On some, learning turns into a real game with rewards and levels, while others provide an opportunity to directly, without other sites, contact Italians and communicate with them directly on the topic being studied. Most of these sites are free, but each of them has paid services that, for example, will help you expand your vocabulary. However, the main course is mastered for free and is quite enough for a conversational level.

Features of the Italian language

The group of Romance languages ​​includes Italian, German and French. This explains their similarity to each other. Italian has a lot in common with Spanish, for the same reason. Of the European local languages, Italian is singled out as the leader in terms of the number of speakers, but at the same time, it is recognized as the main language only in Italy.

The translation of the Italian language complicates the abundance of dialectical turns that even literary speech is saturated with. However, translating the text is much easier than oral speech.

After getting acquainted with the rules of grammar, it becomes much easier to understand the texts, because there are not too many exceptions in Italian, and it is possible to operate with the learned rules.

← ←Do you want to hear your friends say thank you for sharing interesting and valuable material with them?? Then click one of the social media buttons on the left right now!
Subscribe to RSS or receive new articles by email.

One of the most popular types of questions on services like "Mail.ru Answers" or "Google Answers" are questions from people who are interested in learning certain foreign languages, but decide, before starting classes, to "test the ground" and find out what they need to mentally prepare.

With this article, I would like to address, first of all, precisely such people. However, it will be interesting in itself for those who wish to broaden their horizons.

The article is divided into 2 antonymous parts:

1. The main difficulties that arise when learning this language.
2. Language characteristics, on the contrary, simplify (sometimes significantly) its study.

Characteristics will be given in comparison with other major European languages ​​(mainly English) for greater clarity.

I'll start talking about Italian with a few interesting facts. Modern Italian can be considered an artificial language, which was developed after the unification of the country in the 60-70s. XIX century based on the Tuscan dialect. Even during the First World War, Italians from different regions could hardly understand each other, and it was then that the imposition of official Italian began especially actively.

Now I can say from my own experience that no one has problems with understanding. Dialets have not gone away, but now they are used mostly in the plane of personal, friendly (if friends are from the same region) and family relationships. The vast majority of the population speaks Italian without any problems, the only exception is provincial Italy, and even then it is mainly its elderly contingent, which communicates with each other almost exclusively in dialect (for example, the conversations of Trentino pensioners living in mountain valleys, an Italian from another risks not understand completely).

In fact, many dialects are essentially independent languages. For example, it is very interesting that the Sicilian dialect is a direct descendant of Latin itself, and has nothing to do with Italian. And, for example, the Sardinian language is completely independent language, having its own dialects.

Why is it easy?

How does one start learning any language? Of course, from phonetics. For those who know English, it will not be difficult to read Italian correctly - probably, in terms of phonetics, Italian is the easiest language in the world. Only 21 letters (which is 5 less than in English) plus combinations of letters that form sounds that are easy to reproduce in Cyrillic (gn - н, gl - л, sc - sh, etc.) and will never cause such despair for beginners, like the same English sound "th" or its Spanish counterpart "c" / "z" (without this word in Spain you will not be able to pronounce correctly, for example, the word "beer" (cerveza)), not to mention nasal sounds French, without knowing which you will not be able to correctly pronounce even the most elementary words like "bon" (good).

With regard to the relationship between vowels and consonants, the situation against the background of the Russian language with a gigantic host of phonetic rules seems simply elementary: vowels are pronounced exactly the same as on paper, consonants do not change or soften, and the reading of some of them is regulated by a few very elementary rules.

Why is it hard?

The incredible ease of Italian phonetics, unfortunately, goes sideways for native Russian speakers, whose speech is "captive" to a huge number of Russian pronunciation rules that are automatically put into action when speaking in Italian.

The Italian ear is very sensitive. Often, when changing one sound, they refuse to understand the word as a whole. This is especially detrimental to the acane, the significance of which in the matter of mangling Italian words can be overestimated:

"doloroso" [doloroso], but by no means [dALArozo].

"mortalita" [mortalita], nor not [martalita].

The softening of consonants sounds especially terrible in Italian:

"livello" [livello], here "l", sounds the same as in the word "scrap", but not like in the word "rainstorm".

That is, the difficulty for a Russian speaker, paradoxically, lies precisely in the ease of pronunciation, that is, in the absolutely accurate reading of each vowel and consonant of Italian words.

In addition, do not neglect the meaning of double consonants, of which there are a lot in Italian.

It is strongly not recommended to pronounce at the pace of a high-speed train. If the name of the famous musician Ramazzotti is spelled with two "t" and two "z" (Ramazzotti), then it should be pronounced like this: not [ramozotti], but [ramazzotti].

Why is it easy?

Italian language is analytical. This means the absence of cases, the function of which is performed by prepositions. Despite the obvious lexical similarity with Latin, Italian is nevertheless very far from Latin in terms of grammar: in Italian, as I said, there are no 6 cases that terrify students, there is no neuter gender, and there are many other differences.

The absence of a case system always makes life much easier. Those who studied German understand this. Although there are only 4 of them, even this number is enough to cause panic attacks in beginners when they see tables of case declensions of German articles, adjectives and numerals.

Let's make a visual comparison:

English: My brother's younger sister gave her mother 2 pieces of bread.

Italian: Mia sorella minore di mio fratello ha dato 2 fette di pane alla sua mamma.

As you can see, in the Russian version we did without prepositions at all, while the analytical structure of the Italian language means a very active use of them, which, of course, is easier to learn even for native speakers of the "mega-synthetic" Russian language.

Why is it hard?

Another initial theme, which, it would seem, should not cause problems is articles. The rules for their use are seemingly simple, but in fact, native speakers of Russian and other languages ​​who are not "burdened" with this language tool make a lot of mistakes here, which greatly disfigures Italian speech.

There is a lot to be learned just by cramming. Using English as a guide will not help matters - there are too many differences.

I'm going to the theatre: Vado a treatro (no article).

I'm going to the cinema: Vado al cinema (with the article).

Without going into details, we can especially dwell on the fact that in Italian articles are obligatory for possessive pronouns, which contrasts with most European languages. Compare:

English: I see my car.

German: Ich sehe mainen Wagen.

French: Je vois ma voiture.

Spanish: Veo mi coche.

English: I see my car.

Italian: Vedo la mia auto (la is the article, mia is mine).

As you can see, only in Italian, when using a possessive pronoun, is it worth paying attention to the corresponding declension of the article referring to the noun.

Why is it easy?

The derivation of many Italian nouns (in particular, household items) is a great example of how often the language does not "steam" and goes in the most straightforward way.

Many words are a banal "verb + noun" link in an almost completely modified form, which greatly simplifies their memorization:

portare (carry) + cenere (ash) = portacenere (ashtray).

portare (carry) + container (container) = portacontainer (container ship).

portare (carry) + bagagli (luggage) = portabagagli (trunk).

lavare (wash) + stoviglie (dishes) = lavastoviglie (dishwasher).

aspirare (inhale) + polvere (dust) = aspirapolvere (vacuum cleaner).

spazzare (sweep) + neve (snow) = spazzaneve (snowplow).

asciugare (wipe) + mani (hands) = asciugamani (towel).

And many other words.

In addition to the simplicity of word formation of such nouns, their ease lies in the fact that they are immutable, that is, the transition to the plural is grammatically displayed only by changing the article.

Why is it hard?

The subjunctive mood (congiuntivo), the use of which in Romance languages ​​is approximately functionally similar, presents difficulties for Russian speakers. Strongly (very strongly) generalizing, the subjunctive mood means that the information provided is either doubtful or emotionally colored. Sometimes Italians deliberately replace the subjunctive with the indicative in order to give their words more power and authenticity, but in doing so they make a grammatical error.

In practice, the use of the subjunctive means that you must always remember the appropriate forms of the verb when expressing hope, expectation, emotion, dissatisfaction, etc.

For example:

Information presented as fact:

Black car = L "auto e nere.

Now let's add a little "personality factor":

I think his car is black = Credo che la sua auto sia nera.

Both in the first phrase and in the second - 3 persons, singular. the number of the verb "to be", but as you can see, in the second version it has changed: it is not the fact that the car is really black, but only our opinion, that is, that we believe that it is black.

Complicating the situation with the use of the subjunctive is the fact that it is used in a huge number of the most used phraseological units, for example, after the words "although", "in order to", "in order to" and so on, and you need to get used to it, otherwise, the speech will not only be illiterate, but even "difficult to understand."

Why is it easy?

You study almost all other romantic languages ​​at the same time - they have such similar vocabulary. In addition, in learning Italian, knowing an English dictionary, which also contains many Latin elements, will be of great service to you.

Here are just a thousandth of such words:

Russian - English - Italian

allow - permit - permettere

stunning - splendid - splendido

huge - enorme

page - page - pagina

apartment - apartment - appartamento

terrible - terrible - terribile

accurate - accurate - accurato

casual - casual - casiale

diary - diary - diario

pen - pen - penna

powerful - potent - potente

and many, many other words.

What's even more interesting. In addition to vocabulary, you will also find a huge number of grammatical similarities with other romantic languages ​​as well. Their number is incalculable: from the most common to the conjugation of irregular verbs.

As you can see, learning Italian has several pitfalls, but the main thing is that, in general, it is not difficult and very interesting. Having mastered this language, you will be able to better appreciate, without exaggeration, the boundless richness of the culture and history of Italy and, which is very important for me personally, understand the meaning of beautiful Italian songs and sing along with them. Success in your studies!

Learning Italian from scratch. Easily!

I have always been fascinated by people who speak several foreign languages. By the way, I never dreamed of becoming a polyglot. However, when traveling to countries where English is not a native language for most residents, the "foreigner" factor comes into play.

You, most likely, will be perceived primarily as a tourist who came to gawk at their country and only visits strictly defined places of interest in a particular city.

The "foreigner" factor suggests that you will perceive information only in your native language / English, with absolutely no understanding of what is happening around. The likelihood of getting into stupid situations, cheating and limiting information also increases by an order of magnitude.

But if you know the language of the country where you are going, the attitude towards you will become noticeably warmer: you will understand more and better, you will be able to communicate about anything and, most importantly, you will learn how and how the people of this country live.

For me, the main point of learning a language is not the translation of “mom washed the frame”, not passing exams, not cramming tests, but communication.

Motivation

So I decided to learn Italian. Italian, IMHO, is a very beautiful and melodious language: one merger of prepositions with articles is worth something. But Italian also has difficulties in learning, first of all, conjunctions, articles, verbs. However, any other language has its difficulties.

My experience of learning Italian started about 3-4 years ago. Although this course was informal, that is, the emphasis was not on academic study, but on informal communication, I was defeated. First, I was embarrassed to speak. Second, I misunderstood the rules. Thirdly, at the initial stage, I spent too much time studying grammar. But one plus still remained - I learned the alphabet, learned to read and learned how the endings of the verbs of three conjugations change.

Benny Lewis
An Irish polyglot who travels the world and learns new languages. He sees his mission in showing people that languages ​​can be learned quickly and effectively.

It wasn't long before I got the idea to learn Italian again. I bought some textbook, and it lasted me exactly five days, after which I threw it on the far shelf, where it gathers dust to this day. I was devastated by endless boring exercises and rules, so it's no surprise that Italian became a pipe dream for me.

This summer, I was browsing the Amazon site and came across a book by an Irish polyglot Fluent in three months, where he shared his methodology. After getting acquainted with his story, in which he tells how he learned eleven languages, I took out the main idea for myself - a method in which there is no place for conversational practice from the first day of training is, by default, complete garbage and a waste of time.

Another signal of fate I received when I read the book "The exit point of the language or how to quit a foreign language." I boldly recommend this small but very useful book to those who have suffered during the courses and are still embarrassed to speak a foreign language.

Elena Shipilova
Creator of distance language courses Speak As Soon As Possible and website speakasap.com, whose mission is to make people multispeakers.

What motivated me? The idea that on a trip to Italy I can easily talk with the staff of the hotel, restaurant, cafe. That I can read and understand what they write about. And that if I succeed with Italian, in the future I will be able to swing at French, since they are similar. Motivation is difficult to maintain, but it is possible. After about 10-12 days of realizing and following your goal, a sincere interest in the language appears.

Benny Lewis claims that a foreign language can be learned in 90 days, which is exactly the period available to Americans who come to Europe as a guest. My goal was more modest - to understand the principles of the Italian language, learn to speak and explain myself in 90 days.

My experiment started on June 6th. Did I succeed? Yes, no doubt. During those 90 days, I learned a lot of things that would not have been given to me in expensive courses. And most importantly, I can speak!

General rules and guidelines before starting to learn the language what I understood in these 90 days

You won't know the language 100%

Yes Yes exactly. That's why you quit studying it, because under your vague wording "I want to know ... the language" anything is hidden: grammar, reading, fluency in phraseological units ... Surely you vaguely understand what it means to "know the language perfectly" , but are aimed at the result of C1 / C2, which in the European competence of language proficiency means "advanced level".

But you will never know the language perfectly, because the language changes and you have too little time. Wanting to master the language immediately, completely and completely, you will spend a lot of effort, and you will get scanty benefits. Much more important is to learn the basics of grammar and learn a lot of words that will definitely come in handy in communication and reading.

Therefore, at the very beginning, discard such motivation as "knowing perfectly." Let your goal be to "actively use the language"

Need to set a deadline

Parkinson's First Law states: "Work fills all the time allotted for it." Accordingly, if you have a blurred time frame when you should begin to speak more or less tolerably, you will most likely never use it. Instead, you will continue to study more and more textbooks and techniques.

Therefore, make only two decisions about the timing:

1. I will use the language for 90 days, and there it will already be easier and there will be genuine interest.
2. I will speak the language from the first day of training.

Your goal is to get the point across

The use of language is, first of all, communication. No matter what it is: personal or virtual. If you are learning a language to only translate or to read and never to communicate, you can continue to learn the language the traditional way.

As Benny Lewis emphasizes in his book, you should be able to speak the language you are learning from day one. Here you can succumb to panic and stop studying anything at all: “I can’t do anything at all and I don’t know!”.

You're right. You Bye know nothing. But let's understand why speaking is more important than the ability to read, translate and write fluently in a language. You probably know people who have studied the language at school or university or in courses for several years, but when they meet a native speaker, they become speechless. No wonder. After all, speaking a foreign language is almost never taught in our educational systems.

It is through conversation that most of the communication takes place - conveying your thoughts, opinions or questions to the interlocutor. It is through conversation that you feel the language, and it is through conversation that you instantly apply a language that is not taught in textbooks. Therefore, strive to talk as much as possible from the first day of study.

Be a child

Dear mothers, please remember how you taught your child to speak? Remembered? I give Bonk's textbook to cut off that you didn't stick Rosenthal's reference book or Ozhegov's dictionary under his nose so that he learns to speak.

How does a child learn a language? He just uses familiar words. He has no idea about cases, genders, compound and complex sentences, participles, verbs or tenses. So how can he speak Russian at the age of three, and by the age of four or five his questions make his head spin? 25 frame? Ilona Davydova?

Correctly! He just speaks. He speaks without paying attention to mistakes. Adults correct him, and he remembers what is right. He speaks every day. He asks the meaning of the words. Thanks to the absence of fear, complexes and embarrassment (“What if that little girl from the third floor laughs at me for saying “palahod” incorrectly?”), The child begins to use the language. The sooner he begins to read, at least in syllables, his vocabulary will inevitably be enriched. Then - conversation plus reading, and now the child already speaks the language quite well. But when our hero has already grown up, teachers intervene and turn him into a “literate person” (although, judging by how many spelling and punctuation errors you see on social networks, there is a suspicion that this did not help everyone).

So, you must drop all fears and embarrassment when you speak the language you are learning. If the process of reading and writing is more introverted, then communication inevitably leads to contact with another person. Therefore, you should not be shy. Two more rules follow from this principle.

Talk shitty

The first corollary of the "Be a child" principle is that you should speak without any hesitation and as badly as possible in the beginning. Don't worry, you won't be perfect the first time. Most likely, in the beginning your speech will be a scream, a grunt, simple words and a bunch, a bunch of mistakes! But it's great!!! After all, it is thanks to mistakes that a child, and other people, learn.

Your success and progress in speaking is directly proportional to the number of mistakes. The more you do them at the beginning, the easier it will be later. First you memorize how this word is said, how it is used at that time, and then each time the learning curve will tend to rise. Your memory will simply get angry at these mistakes and, in the end, it will remember how to speak correctly.

Fuck the rules (only at the beginning)

While talking, you will convulsively remember this or that rule that needs to be applied in a conversation. But at the beginning of training, this should not worry you. The rules are necessary, but only after you have already “talked”, that is, after 5-6 conversational lessons, you will already be able to learn the simplest grammar rules.

At the beginning, you can always learn the simplest words, pronouns and constructions, such as: “I”, “you”, “he”, “how are you”, “hello”, “good”, “I work”, “my name is”, "what's your name", "how old", "I'm studying", "I like" and feel free to use them. Then, when the confidence comes to you that speaking is not scary, you can immerse yourself in the fascinating world of simple grammar (at first, only simple present, past and future tenses).

There is always time

"I don't have time" is the best excuse. But there is always time. I learned the language in the evening, "stealing" 30 minutes from social networks and then when I returned from work on the bus. When you study remotely with a native speaker and at the same time pay him, you willy-nilly find time for this.

Use the time you spend in transport, in queues. Less facebook, games and empty time, and time, as if by magic, will appear.

Instruments

In fact, any book will be useful after second week of speaking practice. You should choose a book in which the grammar is explained as simply and intelligibly as possible. Everything else can be burned and forgotten. Study from the book one lesson a day, memorize the words. If you don't understand, write it down and ask your teacher.

This site has ready-made lessons that will allow you to get a small base in seven lessons. Also, language marathons are regularly held there, which in a month will allow you to learn and study a lot.

I studied grammar one lesson at a time, so I tried not to dwell on difficult topics or complex grammatical constructions. I took the basic principles, did the exercises, and asked my teacher what I didn't understand.

Application for learning words. Gives reminders of a word with its translation. Available as an extension on Chrome. A nice bonus: if you're reading on your phone and see an unfamiliar word, you can highlight it and Biscuit will instantly translate it into English and save this card for you to study it.

English-Italian dictionary (via in-app purchases). I liked the fact that all the tense forms of the verb are indicated there.

Application for keeping a diary. Around the end of my mini-trial, I started journaling in Italian in order to improve my writing skills.

Songs

Of course, the Italian stage is very well known to the older generation, primarily from Celentano and Toto Cutugno. Of the modern ones, we can recall Bocelli, Ramazzotti and a couple more. But when you discover the world of Italian pop music, you simply listen to it.

But it's good to listen. To do this, print out the words of your favorite song and try to translate it. Avoid the temptation to immediately copy-paste the whole song in Google Translate. First, read the text thoughtfully, then find familiar words and grammatical structures, and then start translating.

If this song is your favorite, then hum it, so you will automatically memorize the words and grammatical constructions.