Why learn the language?

Even if you're only in Italy on a brief holiday, it's worth spending a little time learning basic communication.
Outside the major tourist sights, spoken English is not particularly widespread. Without at least a phrasebook you're
likely to encounter problems buying train tickets, or finding the right bus stop. And you may also find important notices
written only in Italian - for example: museum opening times, details of a transport strike.

A second major reason for learning some Italian is, of course, politeness. It is shocking how many tourists (and British
and Americans are sadly big culprits) don't even make the effort to learn to say 'thank you' in Italian. No-one expects a
foreign tourist to speak fluent Italian, and most Italians will oblige you with sign language or their few words of English.
But it is simple good manners to be able to say 'Excuse me', 'please', 'thank you' and 'Do you speak English?' in the tongue
of the country in which you are a guest. And it will do wonders for your relationships with Italians, who will wholeheartedly
appreciate any effort made with their language.

Italian for beginners
1. Learn the simple pronunciation rules. Then you can say (and read) the name of your destination, read phrases from a guidebook
and you'll be instantly less helpless.

2. Take a phrasebook and/or a dictionary with you, and carry one around with you 24/7. Otherwise you could be
very frustrated if you find yourself in a non-English speaking environment, and need to ask for information.

3. Learn basic phrases and important words by heart: 'thank you', 'where is the bathroom?' etc.

Buongiorno - Good day
Buonasera - Good evening/afternoon - it is customary to use one of these greetings when entering small shops
Arrivederci - Goodbye
Per favore - Please
Grazie - Thank you
Prego - You're welcome
Scusi - Excuse me
Parla inglese? - Do you speak English?
Non parlo italiano - I don't speak Italian
Dov'è il bagno? - Where's the bathroom?
Dio mio! My God!
Vada via! or Vai via! Get out of here!
Lasciami in pace! Leave me alone!
Baciami. Kiss me.
Dammi un bacio! Give me a kiss.
Vieni qui. Come here.
Subito! Fast!
Dammelo, per favore. Give it to me, please.
Piano, piano. Slowly.
Voglio... (VOE-yo) I want...
Ti amo.
Andiamo. Let's go.
Perche non andiamo a prendere qualcosa da bere. Why don't we go get something to drink.

Dai! Speak Italian

Especially as an independent traveller, you will really benefit from speaking some Italian. From personal experience,
I can promise you that you will feel safer and more assured, discover useful and interesting facts, cope with
unexpected situations, and meet with much greater friendliness if you speak a little Italian. Making new friends
and understanding what is going on around you will vastly enhance your enjoyment of Italy. If you have the time,
I'd recommend taking an Italian course come io ho fatto in Italia e in America. Being able to understand what's going on around
you, and being able to communicate with Italians, will make your holiday a totally different and more valuable experience.
If you can't go to classes near your home or you prefer to study at home, consider buying books and CDs in Italian.
Rent or buy Italian movies and TV programs. Netflix e cosi via.


Finally, if you are serious about wanting to learn Italian, why not consider a language course in Italy? Language schools
throughout the country teach Italian as a foreign language, and a fortnight in Italy learning Italian makes an interesting, educational holiday.(The best)

I really would love to take an Italian course in Italy!! Unfortunately, I must work for a living and could not afford the time off. I'm glad you told us how to say "Baciami", Villa. Every tourist should know that!!!LOL

For those who can't take an italian course or don't have the money Itunes has a great podcast called LearnItalianPod.com and they have a website too. You can download comprehensive lessons from beginner to advanced and put it all on your Ipod for free. That's what I'm doing right now and it has been a molto aiuto! :)

Here are some other fantastico websites I have found that you can learn alot for free!

http://wikitravel.org/en/Italian_phrasebook

http://learnitalian.elanguageschool.net/
This an online free language course and very informative.

I will be leaving in quattro giorni for Venezia! I will be there for month and so ready to go!

Ciao ragazzi!

The BBC also offers free classes

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

Thanks for explaining how to say "give me a kiss" in Italian. Been looking for that, much appreciated ;)

I will be leaving in quattro giorni for Venezia! I will be there for month and so ready to go!

Ciao ragazzi!

Visitng venezia in August? its a tourist trap during this time around, almost no/ less local italians can be found during this time, prices of stuff are a bit higher than normal and if they knew you're american, they'll charged you higher...

visiting venezia in august should be avoided but since you're on your way, i wish you buon viaggio e buon divertimento!

enjoy yourself piccola and thanks for the links!

Add also like to add that learning a foreign language helps you at home, too.

Now that I am actively trying to learn Italian, I hear it in the streets every where.

The guy at the train station is VERY Italian so I walked up and said "boungiorno" and we talked (in Italian for as long as I could) for 10 minutes while I was waiting for the train.

Today at the chocolate store, tourists from Italy were shopping ahead of me who didn't speak English and needed help with the exchange. Had their children not been there, I could have stepped in and helped. I feel bad now for the missed opportunity just to say "ciao" and practice some more on real native speakers.

I enjoy learning Italian at home. I just got back from a week vacation at Disney World and used the little that I knew at the Italian pavilion in EPCOT !!

Sure beats hearing Spanish all over here in Florida :D

James, Got Cuban relatives in Florida. When I go to Florida it's mostly
Spanish I speak.

James, Italian and Spanish are 70+% the same. If you knew Spanish it would or would have sped your Italian learning 100%.

Are Italian and Spanish similar? Si, no... By Villa

I have taught high school Spanish for over 30 years and am now in my fourth year of teaching Italian. I lived in Italy for over 2 years,
became a translator and went to school in Italy. Also went to school in Mexico. Ended up taking 18 classes of Spanish over the years.
Spanish and Italian are 70+% the same. I know I teach both. When I first went to Italy years and years ago(did not know Spanish at the
time) I was studying Italian night and day 24/7 as they say. Was very frustrated. After a week of studying and studying I couldn't even
count to 10 or remember simple Italian words. I had a friend from Mexico(in Italy) who was a fluent Italian speaker. I asked him what his
secret for learning Italian was. What book, tape or method did you use to learn Italian so well? I'll never forget his answer. He said he
used no book, no tapes. All he did was to speak Spanish with an Italian accent and after a few weeks he was speaking and understanding Italian.
He said every thing seemed so familiar to him in Italy. Most of the people looked like his relatives and friends back home.

Why are Italian and Spanish alike you might ask. Why are the people of Spain, Latin America and Italy so similar? Well, Spain was the most important
colony of Rome. In fact Spain was a colony of Rome for 640 years! Latin was spoken in Spain for 840 years. The same Latin that was spoken in Rome with
variations like there are in any language. There were Roman emperors from Spain, Popes from Spain. Remember the movie Gladiator? Well he was from Spain.
When Roman soldiers would retire they didn't go to Florida or Hawaii, they went to Spain. So you could say that Spain was Rome and Rome was Spain. Even
before the Roman Empire the Greeks had colonies in Spain just like they had in Italy. People from all over the Mediterrean went to what is today Spain and Italy.

I always tell my students that Italiano e Spagnolo sono fratelli. Italian and Spanish are brothers. They come from the same mother. Latin.

Years 347 to 395 -
Teodosio I The Great was a
Spanish born Roman
Emperor, Christianized
the Roman Empire, and
did so at great odds, for
the rest of Rome
with the exception of the
Hispano/Romans, were
against the Christianizing
of the Empire
.

57 B.C. - Present day Seville, Spain - Guadalquivir, colonists who were called Phoenicians settle here & bring a God Hercules to the mythical origin of the city. These people had three centuries of prosperity and ends with the arrival of the Carthaginians.

206 B.C - Rome, the Legions of the most powerful nation in the world march into Guadalquivir (Spain). Spain becomes and is a part of the Roman Empire.

45 B.C. - Gaius Julius Ceasar makes Hispalis (in Spain) a Roman town, and becomes one of the most prosperous cities in Hispania.

Legio IX Hispana (Spain) 42AD

Years 53 to 117 - Spanish born Roman Emperor Trajano, Marco Ulpio.

Years 117 to 138 - Adriano Publio Elio (Hadrian) Spanish born Roman Emperor ; appointed four (4) former
consuls to serve as circuit Judges to Italy.

years 161 to 180 - Marcus Aurelius Hispano Roman Emperor.

years 180 - 192 - Commodus, Hispano Roman Emperor
years 347 to 395 - Teodosio I, The Great, Spanish born Roman Emperor, Christianized the Roman Empire, and did so at great odds, for the rest of Rome with the exception of the Hispano/Romans, were against the Christianizing of the Empire.
Roman Emperors headquartered in Spain....continued.

A proposito/A proposito

Italian 'o' or 'uo' often becomes 'ue' in Spanish when the syllable is stressed. E.g. morto/muerto, posto/puesto.

Italian 'e' often becomes 'ie' in Spanish when the syllable is stressed. E.g. concerto/concierto, tempo/tiempo.

Italian 'f' often becomes 'h' in Spanish when at the start of a word. E.g. fumo/humo, figlio/hijo. But fumare/fumar

Italian voiceless consonants 'c' and 't' often become voiced ('g' and 'd' respectively) in Spanish. E.g. amico/amigo, potere/poder, colpo/golpe.

Italian 'sc', 'sf', 'sp' and 'st' often become 'esc, 'esf', 'esp' and 'est' in Spanish, when at the start of a word. E.g. scrivere/escribir, sforzo/esfuerzo, speciale/especial, studente/estudiante.

The Italian suffixes '-tà' '-tù' and '-zione' become '-dad', '-tud' and '-ción' in Spanish. E.g. università/universidad, virtù/virtud, informazione/información.

Armed with this knowledge, you can easily learn the following pairs, which involve the 'o' to 'ue' rule:
l'accordo/el acuerdo, il collo/el cuello, il conto/la cuenta, la corda/la cuerda, il corno/el cuerno, il corpo/el cuerpo, il fuoco/el fuego, il mobile/el mueble, la mostra/la muestra, la noce/la nuez, la porta/la puerta, il porto/el puerto, il risposto/la respuesta, il racconto/el cuento, l'ospito/el huésped, l'osso/el hueso, lo sconto/el discuento, il posto/el puesto, l'uovo/el huevo, il volo/el vuelo, buono/bueno, forte/fuerte, morto/muerto, nostro/nuestro, nuovo/nuevo, fuori/fuera, dopo/después.

And these ones, which involve the 'e' to 'ie' rule:

il cervo/el ciervo, il concerto/el concierto, il dente/el diente, la febbre/la fiebre, la festa/la fiesta, il governo/el gobierno, l'inverno/el invierno, la nebbia/la niebla, la petra/la piedra, la pelle/la piel, il tempo/el tiempo, il vento/el viento, mentre/mientras, bene/bien, aperto/abierto, sempre/siempre, vecchio/viejo.

And these ones, which involve the initial 'f' rule:

la farina/la harina, la fata/el hada, il fegato/el hígado, il ferro/el hierro, il fico/el higo, il figlio/el hijo, il filo/el hilo, la foglia/la hoja, il fondo/el hondo, la formica/la hormiga, il forno/el horno, il fumo/el humo, fare/hacer, ferire/herir.

Thank you Villa. I do understand that italian and spanish are closely related, my father told me the same thing long ago.

While I wasn't knocking on the Spanish language, I should have explained it better by saying that is was a nice change to see and hear Italians from Italy

Va bene, amico/amigo. Comprendo/Comprendo

James, there is a movie in Spanish called Azucar Amargo. It is about in part an Italian turist who goes to Cuba. He meets this
Cuban couple and they develope a love triangle type thing. Anyway he speaks only Italian to them and they answer back only
in Spanish and they understand each other. Funny how he never even tries to speak to them in Spanish and they never try
to speak to him in Italian but they still understand each other without any apparent hang ups.

Grazie mille amica !! Guarderò Azucar Amargo

Sono amico not amica. LOL!

:o:o Mi scusi

Why learn the language?

If no one else decided to learn Italian it would go the same way as Latin, as the native population is in rapid decline.
So, let's work together to keep this beautiful language and culture alive and learn Italian, for free, right here on Life in Italy :p

Sardoman I don't really agree it would disappear, there are too many speakers in Italy and around the world.
Population is in decline, but it is also one of the few cultures that are more strongly related to their own language than to English.

Over 400 million people speak spanish as a first-language. The number of Spanish speakers is going up not down. The total spanish-speaking population
of the world is estimated to be 400-500 million people in 22 countries counting the U.S. These numbers are just an estimate, but it can give you some clue, creo.

Moral of the story. Learn Spanish too. Por que no? Perche no? All the native Italian people I know qui in California speak Spanish tambien-ache.

Io per esempio ho imparato l'italiano prima e dopo lo spagnolo. E facile.! Es facil!

because it is the 20th most spoken language http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers#Top _20

because it is the 20th most spoken language http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers#Top _20

Spanish is the 3rd most spoken language in the world.
But Spanish is number 1 for the western hemisphere.

Italian is number 20.