Italian Update: 6 Months
It has been 6 months doing my Italian experiment. It's been a lot of fun! Molto bene!
Do I speak Italian yet?
Well, that's a matter of debate. I can definitely formulate some thoughts to create sentences. I have not tried to have a conversation in Italian yet. Maybe I should add this to my experiment plan. But I have gotten pretty far in Duolingo, about to finish checkpoint 3. (And there are only 4 checkpoints in Italian).
As a recap, here is what I am currently doing for this experiment:
- 1 lesson on Duolingo every day
- 1 journal entry (Q & A)
And that's it!
But I've also started a new habit where I think in another language on my way home from work every day.
Monday - Italian
Tuesday - French
Wednesday - Chinese
Thursday - Spanish
I really should be thinking in other languages more often during the week. I feel like I've been spending too much of my life in English lately, and each time I go to work on one of my languages, it takes a few minutes to get back into gear. I've also been feeling that I need to start studying a bit harder with Chinese and Spanish, so I can finish that dang Spanish Grammar book and actually be able to communicate with people in Chinese. When I was watching Princess Weiyoung, a Netflix series in Mandarin, I started to get comfortable with it again, and I went to one of Azren the Language Nerd's online Chinese classes which was great. Unfortunately, the time of the class for me is right around dinner time Saturday night, so I can't make it very often. Here's a link to his class if you're interested:
After seeing my progress from 6 months, I'm thinking I need to add something to my experiment in order to make it worthwhile by the end of the year, and hopefully speaking Italian comfortably. I know exactly what I'm missing.
A listening and speaking component with native speakers.
Here are my options for what is attainable for me:
- Listen to a podcast 3-5x a week and repeat the sentences.
- Get an exchange partner and have a conversation 1x/week.
- Sign up for online classes 1x/week or 1x/month (not ideal as this costs money and I don't have a lot of extra of that right now).
- Watch Italian t.v. shows with Italian subtitles 3-4x/week.
- Listen to an audiobook and read along with the written version.
My purpose of this experiment is to put in as little work as possible with Italian and see if I still pick it up from knowing French and Spanish. So, I will probably choose one of the easier options here, such as watching T.V. or listening to podcasts. I will just have to look around and see if there are any shows or podcasts that grab my interest. Although, actually speaking with a real person may be the most effective.
I will keep you all updated with what I have decided to do! For now, here is a picture of Skippy "helping" me study Italian.
P.S. If you haven't already, make sure you check out Polyglot Station.
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