Learning a language

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Soldato
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Anyone been here / done that ?

I've been wanting to start up Italian again for some time and have finally got round to it. The first time wasn't a great experience, we had a poor teacher and only once a week etc but things have really moved on and I am using Duolingo on my pad. Even after a week I know more now than I did after a 10 week course several years ago. Anyway my question is (to anyone who speaks Italian) is, is there an easy way to remember / deal with Conjugation?

Take the verb bere - drink, for example, there are (as expected) hundreds of variations of it beve, bovono, beviamo, bevete etc that belong after you, we, they, he, she etc.

Am I being daft even asking and is it just something that comes with real world practice ?
 
It is the same as most other European languages in that regard.

I started with French, then German, then dabbled for a very short time in Italian and Spanish too.

Never progressed Italian or Spanish though, and i've sadly let French and German slip.
 
Practice for hours every day. Think of the mastery you have developed in English with the amount you speak it every day. Speak your new language as much as this and you will quickly become fluent.
 
You don't need to learn another language. You just speak English, very slowly, and really pronounce your words. Maybe up the volume.

HE-LL-O.

I

WOULD

LIKE

SOME

CHIPS.



YES


CHIPS



DO

YOU

SPEAK

ENGLISH?




ENGLISH?
 
RedvGreen said:
It is the same as most other European languages in that regard.

I started with French, then German, then dabbled for a very short time in Italian and Spanish too.

Never progressed Italian or Spanish though, and i've sadly let French and German slip.
Click to expand...

Look up Duolingo in istore or play store. Its free and will refresh it all I'm sure.

Monkeynut said:
Practice for hours every day. Think of the mastery you have developed in English with the amount you speak it every day. Speak your new language as much as this and you will quickly become fluent.
Click to expand...

This is the plan, the wife's doing it as well and we have agreed that after a couple of weeks of "basics" we will have an hour each day where we only speak to each other in Italian. Now, we might introduce grammatical errors into the conversation but it should help get us going.
 
Atlas23 said:
You don't need to learn another language. You just speak English, very slowly, and really pronounce your words. Maybe up the volume.

HE-LL-O.

I

WOULD

LIKE

SOME

CHIPS.



YES


CHIPS



DO

YOU

SPEAK

ENGLISH?




ENGLISH?
Click to expand...

:D This is how my old man does it
 
Michel Thomas does great cd learning. Highly regarded throughout a few forums (maybe OCuk included).

I managed to get the complete Spanish collection of ebay for a tenner (compared to £80 on that rain forest site).

Have a search.
 
LOAM said:
Look up Duolingo in istore or play store. Its free and will refresh it all I'm sure.



This is the plan, the wife's doing it as well and we have agreed that after a couple of weeks of "basics" we will have an hour each day where we only speak to each other in Italian. Now, we might introduce grammatical errors into the conversation but it should help get us going.
Click to expand...

I'm doing Russian at the moment... very very slowly!!

The 33 letter alphabet is a big speed bump for me.
 
I always start with the best intentions but then give up when I realise I'm hardly likely to visit the country anyway nor meet anyone from that country - living in the sticks as I do.

I've been hearing a lot of Brazilian Portuguese on the TV/radio lately thanks to the world cup and that is a lovely sounding language. But I know I'll give up within a month if I tried to learn it.
 
I really think that I should learn conversational Tamil so that I can converse with the in laws, I'm a bit lazy though because they all know English.

I struggle with the pronunciation a bit as some of the letters sound identical to me, but they're not.
I don't know of any places that run Tamil courses.
 
Atlas23 said:
You don't need to learn another language. You just speak English, very slowly, and really pronounce your words. Maybe up the volume.

HE-LL-O.

I

WOULD

LIKE

SOME

CHIPS.



YES


CHIPS



DO

YOU

SPEAK

ENGLISH?




ENGLISH?
Click to expand...

:D

This is every English person that goes to Benidorm and places like that.
 
Doing my utmost to learn French, and struggling with the level I've gotten to now (passable conversation, reasonable written).

That'll change soon though as I move in two weeks.
 
I remember hating languages at school, it wasnt a strong point of mine, mostly due to my sarcasm and the need to learn ridiculous sentences in order to impress my friends and generally get into trouble for being a smart arse.
since i have "grown up" i have always wanted to learn spanish, as i love going there, and the language and people itself.
i tried rosetta stone but it was just too much like being at school again, ill try that duolingo out!
although the best way to learn any language is obviously to speak to a native... maybe a spanish girlfriend will come in handy
 
Rosetta stone is ridiculously expensive. Nothing quite beats having an actual teacher who can train your mind for these things.

For french we learnt acronyms to remember things like past tense etre and past tense avoir verbs, and german little rhymes that you say in your head to remember them:

Ich e
Du st
Er, Sie and Es t t t
 
It really is, i was given the spanish pack from a friend who wanted to learn it but never got round to it. i think its a good learning pack for the younger generation, but at my ancient year of 26 id prefer to learn full useful sentences rather than singular words for things.
 
i'm learning Swedish and ironically struggle with only 3 new letters and a more basic sentence structure. I always want to make stuff difficult when i talk :( so i'm told.

Other than school French/German i've not done anything like it before.

Ill start an official Language class in evening school in August/September and that should speed things up.
 
Manners14 said:
I remember hating languages at school, it wasnt a strong point of mine, since i have "grown up" i have always wanted to learn
Click to expand...

This was me, I hated French lessons because it was never really explained what was going on, it ended up just being meaningless to me. Duolingo for me is working because its learning by playing and I can take it at my own pace re-doing elements that I struggle with.
 
My sister is fluent having lived with my father following my parents divorce. She always said it wasn't hard to speak but the grammar was really difficult.
 
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