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Subject Topic: Anyone learning Italian?! Post ReplyPost New Topic
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herdingkittens
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Posted: March 05 2012 at 8:20pm | IP Logged Quote herdingkittens
I think we may be the only family locally....   

We are using Rosetta Stone, and doing CM's method of memorizing 5 words a day (okay....so really that is my goal , but it happens less than I would like).

I would love to know if anyone has suggestions for good supplemental material, esp. online and free, or book suggestions.

Also, any interest in a penpal to write to in Italian?   

Thanks!!

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DominaCaeli
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Posted: March 05 2012 at 10:06pm | IP Logged Quote DominaCaeli
We are! But my two oldest are only 5yo, so I'm not much help. Right now, we're just doing our daily calendar work in Italian, as well as some simple household vocabulary (a word a day). My side of the family is Italian and I took several years in college, but I have forgotten most of it, so I'm refreshing my memory along with them. I'm planning to continue it casually and then start up Latin alongside it in around 2nd grade. I'm not sure if I'm going to use a formal curriculum later on or whether we'll put more of our energy into Latin and just continue Italian casually at that point. I have had a really hard time finding resources--there is so much out there for Spanish and French for little kids, but practically nothing in Italian!

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guitarnan
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Posted: March 05 2012 at 10:45pm | IP Logged Quote guitarnan
EnchantedLearning.com has printable pages in Italian - you have to buy a one-year membership ($20) but they have printables for all kinds of subjects, not just foreign language, so it's probably worth it if you have a printer and a budget for paper and printer cartridges. (We used this site extensively for elementary school science as well as foreign language learning.)

We have found it very difficult to find books for children in Italian in the U. S. We have a few, but we bought them in Italy.

You might try Paperbackswap.com to find Italian-English dictionaries - you need to join to swap, but it's a great place to find all kinds of books. I swapped for dd's Japanese-English dictionary (the same one for sale at Barnes and Noble) - nice!

Another resource, depending on where you live, might be Italian-American parishes. I am in Maryland, and we have some Italian-American churches here that offer Italian classes, cooking classes, etc. - that might be a good place to ask about books, tutors, and other materials you might want to have.

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herdingkittens
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Posted: March 08 2012 at 9:05pm | IP Logged Quote herdingkittens
Celeste, I hear you on the lack of resources. I feel like I can find little bits here and there, but nothing that I have been wowed by - yet!   

Thanks Nancy - I had not thought about looking into an Italian-American parish - what a GREAT idea! Not sure we have one where we are, but I will keep my eyes peeled when we are travelling.

We have a dictionary, which is very helpful. Actually, I picked up a little picture dictionary at the library, which my oldest son has been pouring over the pages of. I may use that to do the old "label the house with notecards" thing, provided the baby does not take them all down and eat them!   

Of course, I think this would be much easier if I spoke Italian... my husband knows a bit (he has the Italian blood), but I need to get myself into gear and get on Rosetta Stone myself and play around a bit.

Rambling!   





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stacykay
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Posted: March 09 2012 at 8:24am | IP Logged Quote stacykay
I've been tossing the idea of Italian around for a couple of years. Does anyone know if Rosetta Stone covers a certain "region/dialect" of Italian? I have heard from two native Italians (who are just way too busy to tutor me ) that each region almost has their own version of the Italian language.

One of my friends said that there is so much Latin in the Italian language, I should focus on that, before delving into Italian. Would that make sense?


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Tina P.
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Posted: June 07 2012 at 10:05am | IP Logged Quote Tina P.
Latin is only slightly easier by having Italian before it. I don't know about the other way around. And once you get to the declensions in Latin ... well, it was all a blur to me. I would focus on Latin Roots in the English language first.

Italian is a poetic, beautiful language with clear, crisp diction. To me, it was very easy to learn and because of it, French and Spanish were easier than they would've been without having been introduced earlier to another romance language.

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MarieA
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Posted: July 07 2012 at 12:13pm | IP Logged Quote MarieA
Michel Thomas is wonderful for Italian!    You can even get it as an app and purchase it for less money. I did the course before we went to Italy last year and was able to do pretty well with what I learned. I also used an Italian dictionary to fill in vocabulary words as I needed them. I love Michel Thomas' courses!   

Michel Thomas Total Italian   ~ Amazon~

Michel Thomas Website

Michel Thomas App info



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Martha
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Posted: July 07 2012 at 12:28pm | IP Logged Quote Martha
Just as an FYI, I just posted that the chapter books I just bought have Italian vocabulary and phrases in them.
Sister Philomena series.

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SallyT
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Posted: July 07 2012 at 1:09pm | IP Logged Quote SallyT
Check out the BBC foreign languages, too. I haven't looked at their Italian page, but the German page has lots of fun stuff. It's not all aimed at children, so previewing the various links and videos is wise, but they do seem to pull together a wealth of resource materials.

I've also found things like alphabet songs and other children's videos on YouTube. Again, this is for German, not Italian, but you might do some searching there to see what you turn up.

Sally

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guitarnan
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Posted: July 07 2012 at 5:57pm | IP Logged Quote guitarnan
My husband learned Latin before Italian (high school for Latin, Navy duty for Italian). Italian was cake after 5 years of high school Latin.

Having said that, I would not rule out Italian if that's your true preference. I agree that the verb declensions are quite different from Latin, but that's okay.

Re: dialects - all the programs I've seen (several) are non-dialect. They are "standard" (e. g. Tuscan) Italian. It is true that every region has a different dialect, and some of them are almost unintelligible even if you know basic Italian, but if you learn standard Italian you will be able to talk to people all over Italy, as they pretty much all understand it even if they don't use it every day. In tourist/Catholic history areas we've visited (in every region of Italy!), our Italian worked just fine.

P. S. American English has dialects, too, but people around the world learn English (either British or American) and manage to cope when they visit or study here, or when they watch an American movie, or read a book in English.

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DominaCaeli
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Posted: July 09 2012 at 11:54am | IP Logged Quote DominaCaeli
Thanks for posting the suggestions here, all--I'll definitely be looking through them!

For this year with my two 1st graders, I'm starting out with Pimsleur Italian (breaking up the lessons into 10-15 minute chunks) alternating with Teach Me Everyday Italian for some songs and more childlike conversational skills. I have both of these out from our library, so we will be giving them a test run starting this week (it's our first day of school today!) and will adjust as necessary. Both of these approaches are completely oral/aural, which is what I was looking for since I have small ones. We will also continue to do our calendar work in Italian.

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MarilynW
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Posted: July 12 2012 at 5:46pm | IP Logged Quote MarilynW
Anyone whose teens have done high school Italian?

My twin boys want to possibly study in Rome in the future - and they want to learn Italian through high school.(at least 3 years) They have had many years of Latin which should make it easier. Right now the two main programs I am looking for (aside from a host of free online introductory materials) are

1. Auralog's Tell Me More
2. Prego

I would love to hear of any other materials. I am not a big fan of Rosetta Stone.

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guitarnan
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Posted: July 12 2012 at 6:06pm | IP Logged Quote guitarnan
We had some technical problems with Tell Me More Spanish - our computer microphone was unable to pick up my daughter's pronunciation properly, and she could not move forward in the oral pronunciation part of the lesson because of this. Tell Me More tried to help, but the problems persisted.

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Posted: July 13 2012 at 6:55pm | IP Logged Quote pmeilaen
Marilyn,

Did you know that Kolbe uses this for their high school Italian? You can also do a single course enrollment with them.

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Posted: July 13 2012 at 7:00pm | IP Logged Quote pmeilaen
My Catholic friend Sybille, from the German speaking part of Italy, has a lovely bilingual blog (German/Italian) you might want to look at. She can be found at Buntmond. She is an artist and homeschooling mother of 2. (Only one is homeschooled right now).

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Posted: July 13 2012 at 7:10pm | IP Logged Quote MarilynW
pmeilaen wrote:

Did you know that Kolbe uses this for their high school Italian? You can also do a single course enrollment with them.


Thanks so much for letting me know. I thought that they had stopped offering Italian. My boys like a structured format for language learning (they are not too keen on computer based) - and this seems great.

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pmeilaen
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Posted: July 16 2012 at 9:27pm | IP Logged Quote pmeilaen
MarilynW wrote:
pmeilaen wrote:

Did you know that Kolbe uses this for their high school Italian? You can also do a single course enrollment with them.


Thanks so much for letting me know. I thought that they had stopped offering Italian. My boys like a structured format for language learning (they are not too keen on computer based) - and this seems great.


You are very welcome and good luck with finding a good program!   

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