How to Learn Italian Fast

Italian flag.

Maybe the canals of Venice have you itching to learn Italian, or maybe the great sites of Rome, or the family tree that leads back to Sicily. No matter what the reason, Italian is a beautiful Romantic language that many people desire to learn before visiting the nation of Italy. If you want to learn at least basic conversational Italian, and learn it fast, read on to learn how to learn to speak Italian quickly.

Things You'll Need

• Italian-your language dictionary
• Italian grammar guide
• Italian children's shows (optional but reccomended)
• A native Italian tutor from the area of Italy you want to visit (optional but helpful)
• A quick language learning guide (optional, but extremely useful)

Instructions

1. The first step is deciding whether you are learning Italian in general, or if you want it to speak while on vacation. If you're going overseas as a student, or only visiting one area, there might be a specific dialect you want to look for. In the same way that Australian English and American English are different, and slang is different, there are many areas in Italy that may have different slang or dialects, like Tuscany, Sardinia, Venice, Rome, and Sicily, just to name a few.

2. If it's possible, find a native Italian speaker who would be willing to tutor you. If money is an issue, also consider trading skills. I've learned to sew by teaching a friend to play chess, started learning basic French by teaching basic Spanish, and so on. Sometimes a little bit of money, some free food, or even exchanging basic skills can be enough to get some really quality learning time. Learning from a native speaker is almost always one of the best ways to learn Italian fast.

3. If you can, surround yourself with the language. If you live in an area that has a Little Italy, head in that direction. If you're a student overseas, hang out in a cafe or coffee house and just listen. Join an Italian Club at a local University, or learn Italian quickly by getting a hold of children's books in Italian, or children's programming, like Sesame Street. All of these actions can help you to learn Italian far more quickly than you otherwise would.

4. Use visual aides while learning. This is part of the reason that many programs designed for quick learning of a language are successful - because seeing visual images while seeing and hearing the words will help you learn any language far more quickly than without it.

5. If you can afford it, look into an accelerated Italian language learning program. Two of the most popular are Rocket Language Learning and Rosetta Stone. The former generally costs around $100 or a bit more, the Rosetta can go for up to $400. While these are pricey, they can charge that much because they have a track record of working for many people to help them learn a foreign language. Both have programs to learn Italian fast.

6. Rotate old stuff and new. Study Italian every day, and rotate the older learning with newer information to keep challenging your brain and to keep everything fresh.

Tips & Warnings

• Different people learn best in different ways. Figure out if there's a method that works better for you compared to others and emphasize that as your main learning method.

• Still use a variety of different methods, because you never know how much better a combination can work to help you learn Italian fast.

• Don't shoot for cram sessions. The human brain can only hold so much at once, which is why steady repeating of information is so important.

Resources

• Rocket Italian Fast Language Learning Program
• Rosetta Stone Italian: 1, 2, 3