Interested in learning Italian?
Considering Italian is spoken as a first language by only about 62 million people worldwide (compared with 322 million native Spanish speakers, 422 Arabic and 1212 million Chinese), it’s amazing how many people want to learn it. Although many other languages - including English - are more useful for travelling the world, there is something special about Italian that attracts students from all walks of life.
The Italian language is beautiful and some people are moved to study it for that reason alone - to understand Italian opera without needing translation and/or to read Dante, Manzoni and other giants of literature in the original. For most, however, it is the lure of Italy itself that prompts them to learn the language.
Italy has something for everyone, in abundance: sun, sea, mountains, art, architecture, music, history, wine, coffee, pasta, pizza not to mention energetic, effervescent people. Whether you’re looking for excitement or relaxation, romance or family-friendly fun, you’ll find it in Italy, in the spring, summer, autumn or winter.
If you can speak at least some of the language, it will enhance your experience no end. A lot of Italians speak English but it’s much more fun and, let’s face it, much more polite, if we can converse with our hosts in their own tongue. And, if you want to get off the beaten track, you may well find people don’t speak English and you’ll need some Italian just to get by.
As foreign languages go, Italian is one of the easiest for English speakers to learn. For a start, there is nearly as much Latin in English as there is in Italian. Also, Greek words that came into English were absorbed into Italian in a way that makes them instantly recognisable. Can you guess the meaning of “possibile”? What about “musica”, “telefono” and “problema”? Not too bad so far, is it?
Of the words that don’t obviously correspond to the English, many can be deduced with a bit of lateral thinking, particularly when they are seen in context. For example, “dente” doesn’t look like “tooth” but, as soon as you think of “dental” and “dentist”, it makes sense. For this reason, even if you can’t always work out the meaning of such words yourself, once you have learnt what they mean, it’s easy to remember them.
English, both British and American, is very fashionable in Italy and many English words (”film”, “computer”, “goal”, to name but three) have been assimilated into the Italian language, as thoroughly as “pizza”, “ballerina” and “cappuccino” have gone into English.
When you can speak some Italian, it will allow you to dig much deeper into the real Italy. You’ll understand what people are saying, not just to you but to each other; you’ll be in on the jokes; you’ll find out how Italians see the world.
Settling down to learn a foreign language can be a daunting task. The initial phase, particularly, is hard work and it can be a little while before you begin to see results. It takes determination and discipline. However, if you give it a good push at the beginning and then stay with it, your learning will soon gather a momentum of its own. One day, you’ll suddenly find you have learnt enough to have a chat in the new language - and the satisfaction is enormous. Even if right now you don’t know a single word of Italian, in three months’ time you could be speaking fluently.
