How I did it: When college rolled along, I was looking for something to round out my first term of credits. My dad asked me, if I had to take a language, which would I take? My immediate reaction was "Italian" (after three lousy years of Latin--I think I just wanted to use it for something). He replied that I had read his mind.

I ended up taking a year of Italian and made some great friends and really liked my teacher--Nobuko. After having her for three terms, I learned she was not only fluent in English, Italian and Japanese but was also fluent in French and could read German. None of this made very much sense to me until I finally discovered that she was an opera singer--hence her study and attentiveness to Romance languages.

The first year, I studied a lot for the class and did really well. I ran through phrases in my head, had conversations in my head, counted in Italian at the bus stop and tried to chat with friends outside of class.

The next year, I started the architecture program and it made it difficult to fit extra electives into my schedule. After a few years off, I decided to take a second year, accelerated, during the summer before my junior year. I was extremely rusty, but it did sort of come back--never fully though because I never spent as much time at it.

The program was tricky because we ran through so much material so quickly. I did well but never was able to get back to the the "thinking" in another language thing.

The Italian did come in a lot of handy when I visited and lived in Rome for several months over the next summer. I was particularly grateful for my vocabulary of food when I went to restaurants, the grocery store and produce market. Knowledge of transportation and direction vocabulary also saved me quite a few times while traveling around.

It's a great language and really fun to learn. Like any language it's hard to keep up with if you don't have the patience and dedication to follow up after the class is over. I wish I had more discipline and the diligence to keep up with it. I keep telling myself that one day I will pick up my book and it will all come back again.

Lessons & tips:

• Make flashcards to review whenever you find a free moment: standing in line, riding the bus, waiting between classes.
• Find a friend and try to converse as much as possible in Italian.
• Around the house, try to think and describe what you are doing, to yourself in the language. It will facilitate the process of being able to think and thus internalize the new language.
• Make verb conjugation charts and keep them through your classes: one from each conjugation is helpful, as are the irregular verbs.
• Try to understand the patterns behind a language and don't just try to memorize words. If you understand how the language works, it will make it easier to memorize. (This is particularly useful for irregular verbs: learn why they are irregular and how that makes them more predicable to conjugate)
• For memorization: spend a lot of time up front learning the verbs that take "essere" vs. "avere"
• Note the genders of nouns and try to come up with creative ways to remember them
• Use mnemonic devices to remember weird grammar tidbits and other tricky things to memorize

Resources:

• "English Grammar for Students of Italian" was really great to really review grammar. A must have for English speakers rusty even with the ins & and outs of English grammar (crucial to understand before trying to pick up a new one).
• "Bantam New College English/Italian Dictionary"
• Italian textbooks & workbooks
• Flashcard resources: notecards, Microsoft PowerPoint, "Ebbinghaus" free software

Feb 03, 2009, 01:43AM PST | 3 comments | 10 cheers