For all of you who watch Italian movies and wish you could speak a little; for those of you who spent $500 for Rosetta Stone and gave up before you finished level one, there is a solution and it is free: DuoLingo.
You’ve probably heard of it; practically everyone I know that is trying to learn a language is doing it right now, even a lot of my ESL students. If you haven’t tried it yet, you should. Take a look at the philosophy behind the method:
I learned Italian with a private teacher, courses in Italy, and night after night of conjugating verbs while my husband was watching TV, a pretty good way to learn but who has the time and money for all that? (And my Italian still stinks.) When I decided to learn French I had quite a few false starts. I paid for Rosetta Stone; it seemed like it would be great but I quickly lost interest. I think that it was too overwhelming.
I have an excellent private teacher but right now our schedules are not lining up very well so I decided to do what it seemed everybody else was doing and try DuoLingo. Guess what? J’apprend le français. (I might start loving French movies too.)
Is it really better than Rosetta Stone or am I just such a tightwad that I like the idea of free better than $500? I’m not sure, but I really think it’s better than Rosetta Stone. With Rosetta Stone, I felt pulled in all directions, not able to focus and unsure of what I should be concentrating on. With DuoLingo, it’s like I have a real teacher saying, “Do this. Good job. Now try this. No, that wasn’t right; do it again.” I just do what the program tells me to do and I am learning.
I’m still going to want my real live French teacher when she becomes available, but even when that happens I’ll continue with DuoLingo to reinforce what I’m learning.
The movies are better in Italian; the subtitled translations are ofted really terrible. I’m often heard muttering, “That’s not what he said!” while we are watching a movie. Find out what they are really saying!
What are you waiting for? You could be speaking Italian, a little, anyway, TODAY. For free!
I Love Italian Everything 