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This is Silvio. I met him in Sovana walking down the street with zucchini flowers he had just picked from his garden.

Whether you have a trip to Italy coming up and want to learn a few things to say, or whether you are moving there for work and need to dial up your Italian skills, or maybe you just want to learn the language for fun, today I want to tell you about some of the ways I learn and improve my language skills, and also the online course I use to learn and practice Italian at home.

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Why Learn Italian?

I have a slightly different approach to most people. I’m not trying to be perfect at the language, and don’t stop to think how to conjugate a particular verb, or what is the grammatically correct way to say something. Although I have been learning both along the way, and definitely am 1000x better than I was before. My entire goal with learning Italian is to be able to participate.

I want to be able to join the conversation, chat back and forth with anyone and everyone, and understand what’s going on. This to me is where the fun lies in a new language and in traveling to a country that uses that language. And I have to say, I have no end of fun practicing my language skills on anyone who will let me!

Italians are really fun loving, gregarious people, so when they see you making an effort they are more than happy to help you out.

In the picture above I was talking to a lovely gentleman, Silvio. He talked to me about his zucchini flowers, his garden at the end of the street, and then over coffee he told me all about growing up in this little town in the Maremma (southern Tuscany). He told me about his brother walking home from the war after being a prisoner in Russia, arriving home barefoot and just skin and bone. And he told me about his wife who died 32 years ago.

Part of the reason I could talk to him about so many diverse subjects was the online course I use to learn Italian. It’s called Italian With Davide.

Speaking The Language Adds To The Fun

In another little town nearby, the lady in the cheese shop was great fun and loved that I was at least trying to speak in Italian. She taught me a bunch of cheese related words, then put me behind the counter to prank some of the locals. (My friend Anna video’d it)

My 3 minute job in the cheese shop!

Anyone who speaks Italian will pick up on the mistakes I made, but it’s a great example of the fun you can have even just speaking a small amount. In this case all the other shop owners along the street could hear us all shrieking and laughing and came in to join the fun. I ended up making loads of friends, which was handy because I was staying there on my own for several days.

You may not want to be pretending to be working in a cheese shop, but you can see how using the language adds to the experience!

What Else Do I Do?

Taking a course isn’t the only thing I do to learn Italian. I watch Italian movies and TV shows with subtitles on (Prime, Netflix, You Tube). I also do Italian Reader books like this one and this one and this one. (I have them on Kindle/the Kindle App, so can read a little bit or do some comprehension questions while out and about/on a lunch break/while I’m getting an oil change etc.)

But those things only work if you have something more structured going on as well, which is why Italian With Davide course work so well for me.

The Courses

Italian With Davide has three courses based on your level and ability. The courses are Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced.

Each course is broken up into lots of small modules. You do them at your own pace, and you can reach out for help when/if needed. There are even chat rooms where you can practice with other learners around the world who are doing the same course as you!

I normally only have time to do a couple of modules at a time, but I do them most days. When I get to the end of a course I often start back over, and keep repeating modules. For me and for the way I learn, this is super helpful. Once you’ve bought a course, you own it and can do it as many times as you want.

Lots of course members do it on their phone while they commute to work. I prefer to do the course at home, but you have all kinds of options.

Some of What You Learn

What I have found super helpful is that you learn real world things that you can actually apply to real life when you’re there.

One example for me was on a boat excursion in Abruzzo this past summer. (If you belong to my newsletter you will already know this story)

On the boat in the Tremiti Islands, the bridal part behind me. It was a super fun day!

I was the only English speaker on the boat. Apart from the captain and the first mate there was a group of 4 women about my age, and then another group of girls doing a bachelorette party day. In one of Davide’s modules you learn about weddings, and the vocabulary of weddings. I had never thought I would actually use those words, but then here I was, on a boat with a bridal party, able to participate in a conversation about the dress, the bridesmaid, the ring, the flowers, the cake – you get it.

What’s In The Courses

You learn all kinds of things that you actually use in real life, and each lesson is broken down so that you learn to pronounce things properly, learn the vocabulary, grammar and expressions. It’s wonderful!

How To Get The Course

Italian With Davide opens for registration several times each year, for about 5 days at a time. If you are reading this before Black Friday 2022, there is a HUGE sale coming up. The biggest discount Davide has ever given. (I, of course, bought all of mine full price a couple of years ago.)

Because the registration is only open for 5 days normally and 3 days over Black Friday 2022, if you are interested or want more information, you should get on Davide’s email list, so that you get notified. For most of the year I don’t pay attention to when the course opens – I already have mine. So being on his email list is the best way to stay informed.

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How is your quarantine coming along? Are you getting bored with Netflix yet? This might be the perfect time to learn a new language. We have endless free time and most of us are looking for something to occupy our minds. Plenty of us are out of work and can’t spend the money on expensive lessons, but if you are interested in learning Italian I have some great options for you.

When I started learning Italian I couldn’t afford to take classes. I was a single parent, working 7 days per week to keep a roof over our heads and there wasn’t any spare money, let alone spare money to spend on myself to take classes. Also I didn’t have time to commute across town to physically go to classes. But I really, really wanted to learn the language, so I had to get creative.

3 Ways To Learn Italian While We Are On Quarantine.

If you are planning a trip to Italy at some time in the future you might enjoy using some of this down time to learn some Italian. Now that I’m no longer flying to Italy next month I decided to use this time to improve my language skills, so this weekend I pulled out my Italian text books and am committing to spending a half hour per day learning Italian. (No matter how good you are at a language there is always room for improvement)

1. Listen

When I started learning Italian there really weren’t podcasts like there are now. I did manage to find a couple of lightweight, fun podcast-like audio programs on iTunes that I would listen to on my commute. There are some great podcasts to help you learn Italian available now. Although they aren’t enough by themselves they are still really helpful!

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At home I played Radio Italia on my computer while I was working or writing my blog posts. Listening to easy voices talking about music and ordering coffee (rather than politics or anything heavy) got me used to the sing-song sounds of the language and the rhythms of conversation. Most of the time I had no idea what they were talking about, but as I started learning the language it started making sense.

2. Use Books

The cheapest way for me to start really learning the language was to buy some inexpensive workbooks and see A) if I could do it and B) if I was really interested in pursuing it or if it was just a phase I was going through.

Barron's Italian Now! Text book — Italian Now! is a great place to start

I bought three Italian text books that became the backbone of me learning the language. Italian Now, Italian Verb Drills and Italian Grammar Drills. These were fantastic. I would always have one of them with me and work away on it during downtime on photoshoots, at my son’s music lessons, or anytime I had a free moment. The books are full of exercises and have a marking key in the back of the book, so you can check on your progress each day.

Nanni Tate Italian Verb Drills — Italian Verb Drills is the best book I’ve found for learning and practicing Italian verbs

I advise starting with Italian Now and Italian Verb Drills. Italian Now is a good all round beginner book and gives you some structure to follow.

Italian Verb Drills in my opinion is an essential book for anyone learning the language. Italian is a very verb driven language, so it is important to learn the main verbs and how to conjugate them. The exercises in this book are very repetitive but you’ll find that in no time your brain just automatically conjugates the verbs without you even thinking about it.

Italian Grammar Drills is also really helpful and is full of exercises to do to get you in the habit of using good grammar. In my opinion as a traveler it doesn’t really matter if your grammar isn’t so good. No one is expecting you to speak grammatically perfect Italian on your vacation. If you have a decent understanding of verbs and know some vocabulary you will do just fine, but if you can start learning grammar from the beginning it will become automatic and is so much easier than trying to add it in later.

Multi Media

Once I realized that I was going to see this learning Italian thing through and not give up after a couple of weeks, I saved up and bought Rosetta Stone Italian. Initially I just bought the first level, but later bought the entire set.

Rosetta Stone Italian Level 1-5 — Rosetta Stone Italian

I’ve done languages my whole life and I really think this is the best system I have ever seen or used. Rosetta makes your brain learn the language the same way a baby or a child learns. Most language programs have you learning by translation, memorizing vocabulary and translating from your language into the new language. This is a really difficult way of learning as you are perpetually translating, so in real life situations you are a couple of seconds behind as your brain moves words from English over to Italian.

Instead of translating, Rosetta teaches your brain to recognize pictures and identify them in the new language. You see a picture of a house and your brain immediately says Casa rather than house = casa. In each learning block they teach you visually then give you an audio section where you keep repeating the words in that lesson until your pronunciation is correct. Then it takes you into reading and writing the words and phrases.

It’s the same way you learn your own language growing up. You go at your own pace, so there’s no pressure, and the program keeps giving you tests along the way so everything stays current in your brain.

It’s easy to see why international businesses and government agencies like the CIA use Rosetta Stone to teach their people languages. I’m a huge fan!

Rosetta Stone teaches lots of different languages, so if you want to learn French or German or Spanish or any other language during this quarantine break, you really can take your pick.

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