Just want to give you some words of encouragement on learning Italian. You can do it! Just keep trying. Poco a poco.

Use to be a fluent Italian speaker but went over 20 years without speaking Italian. (Por fortuna ho imparato la lengua Spagnolo which piu o meno conserved my Italian.)

At any rate 3 anni fa got a job teaching first graders Italian. Actually just kind of relearned and learned right along with them. Quasi tutti erano hispano parlante quindi era abbastanza facile. For the last 2 years have been teaching adults beginning Italian.

A few tips for learning Italian: If you are a beginner or a relearner come io you need to do a lot of listening to Italian. Don't worry so much about speaking Italian at first. E molto piu importante to be able to understand Italian at first. If you are in a total immersion type situation then you need anywhere from 4 to 6 months listening and listening to Italian.(Spanish speakers can cut this listening time in much more than half!) After going through this period of listening the words will just automaticamente flow out of your bocca. E come magico. E meraviglioso!

So watch Italian TV, Italian movies on DVD and and all types of Italian on CDs, musica, conversations etc. etc. Take your Italian CDs with you in your car. Put Italian on your Ipod or in your portable CD player.
Get Italian phrasebooks and or Italian text books. Take them with you everwhere you go. Walk or jog listening to Italian. Read your Italian books in bed before you go to sleep.

Above all make flash cards with Italian words.

Take an Italian class. The one I teach is free!

Bouna fortuna amiche!!

Villa - very nice! Growing up in the home I did, I can pretty much understand Italian, but can't really speak it, unless I'm not trying to. I hope that makes sense. My parents and grand parents insisted that we speak English and not Italian, (probably because of the WWII thing) so none of us are fluent. The older I get, the more "compelled" I am to learn it. So back to college I go! Unfortunately, here in the old south, very few people speak it and of course the classes are not free. Anyway very encouraging. Thanks again.

Yes, it's frustrating, but I think building my confidence has been the hardest part! I struggle through, using the wrong verb tense, and struggling for the right words, but people are so helpful! Thank goodness for that!

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Read about our house for sale in Umbria on our blog!

http://www.expatsinitaly.com/blog/barb

Villa, thank you so much for your kind words! I love the idea of immersion, as I spend much of the day listening to Italian Internet radio and have even been known to fall asleep listening to CD's like Laura Pausini and Laura Bono (which I find very soothing)

So when I struggle - and I do, desperate to burst out from simple memorization - I'll remember your words. Grazie!

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"Tremate, tremate, le streghe sono tornate!" - Italian feminist slogan

Good advice Villa, Thank you! Being new to learning the language I'm already running into the frustrations you describe. I will keep pushing through though!

-dv

My next project is to rent an apartment for at least a month in the fascinating city of Vicenza. I'll fly into Milano and then take

the 2 1/2 hour bello train or a bus trip to Vicenza. (Will spend a few days or more in Milano before going on to Vicenza.)(Want to visit the nearby city of Bergamo anche.)

While in Vicenza I'll speak only Italian.(Si chiama immersione) Vicenza will be my base of operations and from there will travel around Italy

to Venice, Verona, Padua, Treviso, Trieste, Trento, Belluno, Cortina, Bresscia, Cremona, Mantova, Ferrara, Bologna, Ravenna,

Rimini, Lago di Garda(largest lake in all of Italy), Torino, Aosta, and anyother place I might find myself and speaking Italian all the while.

Will take along my little hand held tape recorder and record people speaking Italian. Then I'll put all that on to cds. Will visit

schools and sit in on classes wherever possible. Will take my camcorder and take 1,000's of still pictures anche.

While in Vicenza I'll join a local health club gym and speak only Italian while working out. Will meet Italians

and make Italian friends. I'll go to church in Italian, shop in Italian, go to see Italian movies, and dream in Italian like I use to.

Will watch TV in Italian and listen to Italian on the radio. (Can rent a car and listen to the radio and listen to Italian CDs while traveling around.)

Will go to soccer games and anyother sports event while in Italy. Will join a martial arts club too. All in Italian.

Anybody interested in going with me let me know.

Being an Italian teacher I could take a group of people and then teach them how to learn Italian like I have.

SOUNDS LIKE FUN.
I just finished 10 weeks with Adriano Tamanza of the Atlanta Language Institute. I did live in Lido di Ostia for 5 months which helped a lot. Right now I'm just learning on my own; waiting for more people to sign up for Adriano's next class.
It is hard when you can't speak it; I can understand it better than speak it. thanks.. grazie mille..

Hi Villa

I've found a really interesting site. It's a site where you can choose an Italian tutor from anywhere in the world and have a live conversation with them anytime that you choose. I think it's really cool and it makes learning Italian really fun.

http://www.verbalplanet.com/learn-italian.asp

Ciao Todd,

Che buona idea. Me sembra molto piu che buono. Grazie mille.

hello every one
i think that speaking italian depends to your way of listenning and also the precision .its the same thing for the other languages linke frensh or english .
hope that we can exchange help here for ameliorating our level in italian the beautiful language
thanks