If you're considering learning a foreign language, why not choose Italian?
The Italian language is popular for its melodic flow and the cultural influence it's had around the world.
Perhaps you want to visit Italy and make the most of your time there by speaking with the locals or simply use your new vocabulary to order food in restaurants and enjoy more of the country's exquisite cuisine.
In this article, we'll explore how you can make Italian learning not just easy, but also accessible and within your reach, even as a beginner.
Budgeting for Italian Courses
There are plenty of ways to learn Italian for free, especially if it's taught at your school, but Italian isn't taught as often as other languages like Spanish, so most Italian learners have to look for private lessons to learn the language.
When thinking about Italian lessons and your budget for them, consider the following:
- Location: The cost of any Italian lesson will be affected by exactly where it's being taught. The cost of living and supply and demand will affect the prices of lessons, courses, and private tuition.
- Teacher Type: The person teaching the class will change the price, with certified Italian language teachers charging more than students or native speakers.
- Learning Goals: The level and overall learning objectives also affect the price. Usually, the higher the level, the higher the price of any lesson or course, regardless of the subject or skill.
- Frequency and Format: One-on-one teaching or tuition is more expensive per student than group lessons, but you can enjoy lower prices by signing up for longer courses or more private tutoring sessions at once.
For private Italian tutoring on the Superprof website, the average hourly rate is $36.
Finding the Right Italian Teacher
Every student is different, so the right teacher for one student mightn't be the right choice for another. Choosing the best Italian teacher won't simply be a case of choosing the cheapest option.
When looking for an Italian teacher, course, or tutor, consider your learning objectives, why you want to learn Italian and the level you want to achieve.
Are you learning Italian for work, to travel, or just to develop a new skill?
Here are a few things that you should consider:
- Teaching Experience: Ideally, you'll want a teacher or tutor with relevant Italian and teaching experience.
- Methodology: Does the teacher focus on interactive language learning with games and activities or prefer memorisation and drilling vocabulary?
- Specialisation: Certain teachers and courses may offer Italian for business, a particular regional dialect of Italian, or Italian for certain fields and professions.
- Reviews and Recommendations: Reading reviews and getting recommendations from other students can help you make an informed decision about teachers and courses.
What Beginners Should Know About Learning Italian
Italian is a language that can be easy to pick up the basics but difficult to master. As a European language, it's more closely related to English and generally easier for English speakers to pick up than Asian and African languages.
It uses the same alphabet as English, excluding a few of the letters, which means you won't have to learn a new writing system to start being able to read the language.
However, Italian grammar is naturally different to English grammar and verbs, and adjectives are some of the first hurdles Italian students will have to overcome:
- Adjectives: Italian adjectives usually come after the noun and will agree with the noun's grammatical gender.
- Verbs: Italian tenses tend to have six conjugations for each personal pronoun.
In a beginner Italian course, you'll likely cover the following topics.
- Pronunciation: Sounding more like an Italian when you speak and read the language.
- Basic Vocabulary: Learn essential words that you can use when travelling or having polite conversations.
- Grammar Basics: A focus on verbs, adjectives, and Italian sentence structure.
- Listening Skills: Familiarise yourself with how Italian sounds when spoken so you can understand spoken announcements or Italian conversation.
With private Italian tutoring, you have the freedom to decide how much emphasis you want on each skill, in line with your learning objectives.
Preparing for Italian Exams
Your course may include an exam or be in preparation for taking an Italian exam. Generally, most language exams will include the main components of every language (reading, writing, listening, speaking).
Here are some tips to help you with each of the main language skills.
Reading
To develop reading skills in Italian, practise reading as often as possible. Make a note of unknown words in the margin or at the bottom of the page.
From context, try to guess the meaning of the word first before looking it up in a bilingual or Italian dictionary.
For reading exams, ensure you're familiar with all the question words in Italian. It's very easy to drop marks in an exam by simply mistaking a "who" for a "what" and giving the wrong answer even though you've understood everything else.
Writing
Good writing in Italian comes from having a good vocabulary and a solid grasp of grammar. Regularly test your vocabulary and specific vocabulary groups based on what you've been studying.
For grammar, it's useful to not only practise the Italian conjugations to familiarise yourself with them, but also to study the use for each grammatical tense as they don't always align with how their equivalents are used in English.
Listening
Listening skills are among the most challenging to develop in any language, but they're also among the most fun to work on, as you can watch TV shows or films and listen to Italian music.
Try and find as much Italian language media as possible to hone your ear to the sounds of the language.
If the Italian exam you'll be taking has a sample or past listening for you to use, consider practising with these, too.
Speaking
Speaking is probably the hardest language skill to develop and the one that most learners find the trickiest since it involves the vocabulary and grammar knowledge you need for writing, listening skills, and an understanding of pronunciation.
In addition, you need to be able to produce the language on the fly without the chance to rewrite it.
That said, a good way to practise your Italian speaking skills is with a language exchange partner who speaks Italian natively and wants to practise their English. In a language exchange, you can spend half the session practising Italian and the other half helping your partner practise their English.
You can also practise speaking with classmates, Italian friends, teacher, or tutor.
Free Resources for Learning Italian
You can bolster your Italian language skills with paid-for and free Italian language resources. To help Italian students on a budget, here are a handful of Italian resources that you don't have to pay for.
- Duolingo is a language learning app that gamifies the process. It's not comprehensive enough to learn to speak Italian fluently, but it's useful for getting in the habit of practising the language and can complement other classes and resources quite well.
- Loecsen: This offers interactive modules and quizzes to help you learn Italian words and phrases.
- YouTube Channels: You can search for videos in Italian to practise your listening comprehension or find video lessons on aspects of Italian grammar and vocabulary.
- Websites: Some websites have guides for learners of Italian.
- Italian Newspapers: You can find Italian newspapers like ItaliaOggi or Corriere dello Sport and keep up to date with what's happening in Italy while practising your language skills.
Why Learning Italian is So Useful
Studying Italian comes with plenty of benefits.
Firstly, learning any language has been shown to improve your cognitive function, including memory.
Learning Italian will also open you up to the world of Italian culture including history, cinema, music, and cuisine.
Professionally, a foreign language makes you more employable, even in jobs that don't specifically require you to speak Italian. Employers understand the time and effort it takes to learn a foreign language and see applicants with language skills as driven.
Learn Italian with a Private Tutor
If you need help with your Italian, don't hesitate to look for private Italian tutors on the Superprof website.
There are tutors across New Zealand and worldwide who are ready to help you with your language skills.
Many of the tutors on the Superprof website offer the first session for free so you can try potential tutors before choosing the one that's right for you, your goals, and your budget.
To get started, just search for “Italian” on Superprof today!
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