mrobinson2 Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Going to Italy for our honeymoon and would like to be able to converse, although basically, in Italian. I always feel rude when i'm in a country where English isn't the first language and the people I interact with are making an effort to speak English even though I'm in their country. This time, I'd like to make an effort to learn at least a little bit of the lingo before we go (August). Anyone got any suggestions?? Thanks M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK350Z Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Very basic, but free: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wasso Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 I found learning Spanish subconsciously worked well. I got a few CD's from the library and shoved them in the car. Over a nine month period of driving from Birmingham to London every day I managed to complete the CD's. Because they were being played in the background I managed to listen and repeat the recordings over and over again. This subconsciously helped me to learn. uedo tener 2 tazas de café con leche fresca, dos medianas carnes cocidas, muy bueno eh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EH 370z Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 There is a load of free podcasts to down load via iTunes too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marzman Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Yep, definitely audio learning in the car for the win. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Italian eh? Speak very loudly, very quickly and wave your hands around a lot like you're questioning everything. You'll be fluent in no time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spursmaddave Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Only bit of Italian I know is "bunga bunga" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoff-r Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 I hear Rosetta Stone CDs are quite good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Id highly recommend the "Michel Thomas" audio CD courses. They are great to listen to in the car on the way to work. He does French, German, Spanish, Italian etc... I did his French course a few years back and it was very good. How his courses work, is that he starts of teaching you which words are the same in English and French. So right off the bat there are probably like 1000 "French" words you already know. Then he teaches you which French words are just English with a different ending. So then thats like 2000 French words you know. Then he gets more into the grammer, accents and phrases etc.. I really enjoyed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 When I lived in Russia I learned to read and speak Russian, I could write it too but never did. I used some basic language courses on CD / DVD and learned phrases (and replies) from little language books. Lonely Planet phrase books are the best there are. They offer phon0etics too. I have travelled to somefunny places with no English speakers and I have managed a lot with Lonely Planet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldel Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 Italian eh? Speak very loudly, very quickly and wave your hands around a lot like you're questioning everything. You'll be fluent in no time! Actually this is good advice! Rebecca speaks Italian, she lived in Naples for a few years, she tried to learn the language and found it hard until a rather sage Italian friend suggested she 'talk like you are taking the pi$$' and it worked - the reason Italians have an Italian twang to their English, is because thats how they speak Italian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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