Hi, guys! First time poster here :D My name is Hope, and I have a question.
I'd like to self-teach myself Italian. I already have a pretty good basis for learning - my mother tongue, Maltese, borrows heavily from Italian and has similar verb conjugation and pronunciation. Now, what I want to ask is: are there any helpful resources (websites, books, films) that you'd recommend? And what are some tips for learning Italian?
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- Hopie (
write_rewrite) wrote in 
linguaphiles,
March 1 2013, 06:11:52 UTC 2 months ago
1) One World Italiano: http://www.oneworlditaliano.com/english/h
2) Verbs-online: http://www.verbs-online.com/italian-verb
3) Android apps: Italian Verb Conjugation by Pangea Learning ("Molto Bene"), Italian Flashcards by BH Inc., Italian Verb Test (Free and Pro). Some Dictionaries.
4) Google Translate! I translate an entire interesting Italian website (such as news ahah), and then click on "original" to practice reading in Italian. When I don't understand a word, I hover over the sentence, which shows the translation.
Additionally, try to read interesting stuff - for me what works is comics ahah. I have read comic strips on Wizard of Id and Popeye amongst others, in hard copy. You can also try searching online for them (try searching for "fumetti"). Read blogs/twitters/tumblrs by Italians (Italians write interesting stuff, trust me). And also read entire books instead of just small pieces as that really helps in building vocabulary. "Nat Geo" type books written for middle school level are good as they have simple sentences and the subject matter is usually familiar. As for movies, they are useful as they keep you interested in the language and the country, but it's better to put them off until you have done a fair book of book reading. Until then, you could watch Italian educational videos - One World Italiano has some; and there are some excellent Italian teaching channels on YouTube.
Also keep a "real" dictionary instead of just online/electronic ones. I use Collins and I find it very good.
Hope this helps! Learning Italian is a lot of fun. Stay motivated and all the best :)