One (older) man’s quest to learn Italian – Part 4

Once you’ve mastered the readily available audio lessons (like Pimsleur and “Learn In Your Car”), you’ll still feel that you’ve only scratched the surface of the Italian language. In reality, you’ve probably learned 70% (by volume … vocabulary, verb conjugation, etc.) of what you need to communicate well. It’s just that the other 30%, although a much smaller volume, is the most difficult material and concepts.

I was somewhat stymied at this point. I still had not found good classes or formal classroom instruction that worked with my schedule.

I came to the realization that it would now require (much?) more work on my part, and my style of learning would need to change. Before this, my preferred learning style was audio – cassettes and CDs. Now, it would have to be more visual … primarily reading and memorizing from books. Before you cringe too badly, I did find a way out of this conundrum, but we’ll discuss that in Part 5 of this series.

Here are some resources I found very helpful at this point:

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501 Italian Verbs, Barron’s, John Colaneri and Vincent Luciani
This is a great resource for learning more infinitives, verbs, gerunds, and verb conjugations.

Webster’s New World Italian Dictionary
What more can I say?

NTC’s Beginner’s Italian and English Dictionary
A different kind of dictionary as it has only about 3,500 of the most commonly used words, and then uses them in context, in an Italian sentence, WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION. This is a wonderful resource.

Italian Verbs and Essential Grammar, Passport Books, Carlo Graziano
This is a very concise grammar text, explaining every aspect of Italian grammar. I’ve seen others that are just as good. In fact, my take is that the grammar books are all very similar. You need to buy one, any one, and use it. It is probably the most important text you can have for seriously studying Italian.

Mastering Italian Vocabulary (a thematic approach), Barron’s, Luciana Feiner-Torriani and Gunter H. Klemm
This is, in my mind, another “must have” book. Like the NTC dictionary, this book takes 5,128 of the most used Italian words, and categorizes them around themes (i.e. sports, health, food, work, etc.). There are sections within each category of the easier and most used words, as well as sections within each category for the harder, more commonly-used words. Each word is used, in context, with the English translation. A fabulous resource.

Ultimate Italian (advanced), Living Language
This is a more advanced cassette or CD learning tool. It has more short narrative pieces or “acts” that are also transcribed and translated in the accompanying text. It is work to get through this material, but that’s because it’s much more advanced. This is one of the better “advanced” audio learning tools I have seen, but unlike Pimsleur and “Learn In Your Car”, you need to use the text with the cassettes or CDs or it’s not very instructive. Not a good tool to use while driving, or exercising, for example.

Acquerello Italiano, Champs-Elysees
This is a series of contemporary audio “magazines” (cassette or CD), issued on a regular basis in subscription format, that have printed learning materials provided along with the audio media. Like Ultimate Italian, this takes work, and while you can listen to the audio alone (like in your car), it’s a better tool to use if you use both the audio and the written material.

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You can also go to any half-price, or used book store and find many great Italian texts, dictionaries, and audio sets for very little cost. I’ve purchased some short story or novellas that have Italian on one page, and the English translation on the facing page. These require work to get through … but with time … will greatly improve your advanced Italian language skills.

Next entry, the final entry in this series (thank goodness, right?), where I am now …