One (older) man’s quest to learn Italian – Part 1

There is no better way to fit in, rather than stand out, than to learn the native language of the places one visits. I went to Italy for the first time in 1996. I went to a small town called Fano … a beach town actually … on the Adriatic coast. Our family went there because my best friend was born there and still has family there. He immigrated to Canada at age 5, so he’s more North American than Italian, but he speaks fluent Italian. The town, even now, does not have anywhere near the percentage of people who speak English as … let’s say … Rome or Milan. Thus, we spent that two weeks during the hot summer of 1996 having my friend be our guide and translator. Reflecting on the trip afterwards … and it was a fabulous trip … the only disappointment for me was my inability to communicate with the people … it all happened through a translator.

I vowed that I would not go back until I learned the language. But, for almost 4 years I did nothing about it.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I did immediately buy the first Berlitz cassette series for Italian. It was 6 or 8 tapes and a book. It was just “OK”. I didn’t feel there was enough structure or purpose to it, and quickly lost interest. So, for about 3 (or 3 and a half) years I just dropped the thought of learning Italian.

In late 1999, we started planning a return trip to Italy … Rome, Tuscany, and Lake Como. I remembered my vow to myself. The impetus for making this commitment was simple. Like many, I took foreign language classes in middle school (Russian) and high school (French). I hated every minute … did the minimum needed to get the grade I wanted … and learned … really learned … just about nothing. It’s the old story of, “… if I knew THEN what I know NOW …”

I wanted to make up for that wasted time and thought learning a new language at 42-years-old would be an accomplishment as well as a way to fit in when returning to Italy.

I first started by researching Italian lessons or classes. It was clear that Columbus, Ohio is not a hotbed of Italian language learning. The only good option I could find was Italian classes … part of the normal curriculum … at Ohio State University. Of course, the classes were day classes that started at 10:00 AM five days a week, and thus not a viable option for me.

I went to the library and checked out every text, cassette, and CD series I could find. I tried them all, and found the Pimsleur series to be the best … for me (maybe not for you).

I used the 4 or 8 cassettes and got through them fairly quickly, and really felt they gave one a good base in terms of verb conjugation, without the learning process being rote memorization of conjugation tables.

To Be Continued …