Learning to speak Italian?

Frankly, Italian seems a particularly useless language to learn as a second language. Just a very obscure variant of Latin.

That said, ANY language is good to learn as a second. I studied french for 6 years in school (five years were mandatory, the very hot teacher talked me into the 6th year, and no I didn't hit it.) Then I spent three years in Germany and soaked up a fair bit of that. Strangely enough, in ten years in Dubai I have picked up hardly any Arabic. And that doesn't bother me even a little bit. [Insert politically-incorrect slur that would get my post deleted here.]

Practical considerations say learn Spanish, but then I should have learned Arabic by now. Might think about French: very different from Italian but disantly related.

 

I'm also going to start learning Italian soon, through one of those Rosetta Stone programs. I'm taking french currently in school, and the vocabulary I learn will be of absolutely no use to me in France. I'll probably get two systems, one to back up my current french and one to learn italian.

 

F 'em!!

 

Well, I know the color codes in Italian.

All of the "Romance" (e.g. Roman aka Latin derived) languages are related -- French, Spanish, Italian. Learning any of them will help you with the others to a degree. (Specifically, to the degree that they're more like each other than like English.)

But then, I spent two and a half years studying French and learned virtually nothing. (I have zero talent for languages.)

As your profile reads "San Jose", I'd guess that you will likely encounter more Spanish speakers than Italian speakers in that neighborhood.

In Europe, I've noticed that you score "points" if you at least try to speak the local language. If you think about it, it's pretty arrogant to go to their country and expect them to adapt to your language. Except for the French, most Europeans speak some english. (And most think they're better at it than they are. ) They'll usually laugh at you, and then show off their own knowledge of english, but the attempt counts. I guess it makes them feel good to know that their english is better than your (fill in the blank).

The French implemented a language purity concept a few years back. For example, I saw an article that the use of the term "e/mail" was seen as a corruption of the French language.

Which is odd, because "mail" is one of the thousands of words that English got from French in the first place.

Another culture clash with the French is when Americans try to smile "to be friendly". The French seem to feel that someone who smiles all the time is an idiot.

But I digress (again).

Depending on your talent for languages, you might try to pick up Spanish and Italian concurrently, by paralleling a formal course in one language with vocabulary from the other.

But then, what do I know? (Other than a dozen computer languages. )

 

Hi, sono fiorano94. Sto parlando in italiano. Amo parlare italiano, voi dovrei provarlo. Il relativo abbastanza divertimento.

 

Hi, I am fiorano94. I am speaking in Italian. I love speaking italian, you should try it. Its quite fun.

 

im che va continuare a comunicare in italiano. È MOLTO MOLTO divertimento. Dovreste provarli. Ritengo speciale poiché posso parlare certo italiano. Thats freddo per me!!

 

Im going to keep talking in Italian. It is VERY VERY fun. You should try it. I feel special since i can speak some Italian. Thats good for me!!

 

In my experience, Italian is probably the easiest second language to learn. Go for it.

 

Pimsleur - far and away the best language learning program, except for the FSI Courses. Unfortunately, the FSI course for Italian supposedly isn't very good.

I'm midway through the Pimsleur Italian I course right now.