My Italian Language Learning Resources

My Story Learning Italian

I first learnt Italian at grammar school when I was about 16-17 years old. As we finished our GCSEs and went on to A-Levels, I was given the choice of taking four A-Levels (English, French, German and Music) or dropping one and doing a 1-year intensive GCSE in Italian. So, I dropped German and took up Italian. I found it fairly easy to pick up having already done three years of French and I passed the GCSE without any trouble.

In the years since then, I have done no intensive Italian study, but I try to keep it up and work on it a little through listening, reading, and writing letters to pen pals. Although, I fear my spoken Italian is a little rusty these days. Because I learnt first at school, I also don't have a huge number of textbooks to recommend for this language, as I haven't really needed any in my subsequent self-studies.

You can hear me chat about my journey with Italian in this video.

 

Resources

The following resources are ones I've found useful.

Please note that I am not receiving any incentive to recommend any of these resources. Nor can I say they will suit every learner, as everyone's learning style is different. I am sharing only my personal experiences with these assets and cannot guarantee they will benefit everyone.

Books

Improve Your Italian - This is a follow-on from the initial Teach Yourself Italian book. In general, I always find the Teach Yourself series a good place to start on any language-learning journey. They aren't all you need, but they are a good base to kick off from.

Harrap Italian Verbs - Just a handy book for verb tables for quick reference. I still use this on occasion when I am writing and have a mental block on a conjugation.

Modern Italian Grammar - This Routledge series offers excellent grammar overviews. They are in-depth works but are still easy to follow and have clear navigation to find what you need to know.

 

YouTube

Dolce Vita with Luca & Marina - a channel with some good introductory vocabulary and grammar videos.

Learn Italian with Lucrezia - a great channel with a mix of grammar videos, vocabulary videos and fun vlogs.

Weila Tom - Tom's videos are a mix of grammar, vocabulary and general language-learning tips.

 

Podcasts

Quattro Stagioni - This podcast covers many cultural topics including travel and food (low-intermediate and above).

Learn Italian with Lucrezia - Yes, the same as the YouTube channel above, but this is Lucrezia's blog where you'll also find links to her interesting podcasts (low- intermediate and above).

Pensieri e Parole - A podcast on Italian culture and literature (low-intermediate and above).

 

Websites

SBS Italian - Australian foreign-language broadcasts in Italian.

Easy Italian News - As the title says, this is news read in slow, easy Italian (with transcript).

Daily Italian Words - A focus on building vocabulary along with comments on cultural usage.