Start Learning Italian: 5-week Crash Course
Start learning Italian with this fast 5-week course.
How can I start Iearning Italian?
This is a hugely important factor in learning a language, time. To learn basic Italian (it’s really closely related to English) you can invest between 750 and 1,000 hours of focused, immersive, input and practice, and hit a very basic level of fluency. Those hours are researched-based. They’re done by the US government, and they’re used to prepare people for their missions in embassies and counselors abroad.
Most of us aren’t like these people, however, where we get uninterrupted time to focus on learning a new language and do nothing else. However, I think it’s a really good rule of thumb to give an idea of how long it takes to learn to speak a language.
Each week you will learn a new theme presented in chunks. Communicative themes and chunks are critical pieces to learning a new language.
This week’s lesson-Start learning Italian for getting around
| subway | metropolitana |
| train | treno |
| bus | bus |
| taxi | taxi |
| I need to go to ___________, please. | Devo andare a ___________, per cortesia. |
| Where is the ticket office? | Dove è la biglietteria? |
| Where can I buy a ticket? | Dove posso acquistare un biglietto? |
| One ticket, please. | Un biglietto, per cortesia. |
| Where is the bus stop? | Dove è la fermata dei bus? |
| How much does it cost to the city center? | Quanto costa un biglietto per andare in centro città? |
| How much does it cost to the airport? | Quanto costa per andare all’aeroporto? |
| Here, please. | Qui, per cortesia. |
| Where is the closest taxi stand? | Dove è il posteggio dei taxi più vicino? |
| Where is the closest subway stop? | Dove è la fermata più vicina della metropolitana? |
| I’d like to rent a car, please. | Desidero noleggiare un’automobile, per cortesia. |
| A small car. | Un’utilitaria. |
| A medium car. | Un’auto di media grandezza. |
| A big car. | Un’auto grande. |
| I would like a ticket to ___________. | Desidero acquistare un biglietto per ___________. |
| I would like a round trip ticket. | Desidero un biglietto andata e ritorno. |
| At what time _________? | A che ora _________? |
| Is it close? | È vicino? |
| Is it far? | È distante? |
| Turn left. | Giri a sinistra. |
| Turn right. | Giri a destra. |
| Go straight. | Vada avanti diritto. |
| block | isolato |
| roundabout | rotonda |
| Do you have a map? | Ha una cartina? |
Remember to get practical. Will you do Goldlist? Vocab Columns? Task notebooks?
Track your time this week.
Track your time each day that you’re working on your language skills. We’re human beings. Life gets in the way, but there’s certainly time that we can all find- waiting in line, getting your car washed. Pull out your phone or your notebook, or your phrase book- whatever it is that you’re using to learn a language, and invest 20 minutes, or 30 minutes, here and there. The time all adds up. Even if you don’t do it perfectly over the next five weeks, you’re going to see pretty direct correlation between the amount of time you invest and your progress.