What a beautiful language Italian is, am I right? It sounds very elegant, but also very passionate. Plus, it has a wide variety of expressions to say what you want, think and feel. Add to the mix the classic hand gestures Italians do while speaking and you have an incredibly expressive language.
So if you’re thinking about learning Italian or are already doing it, congrats! We’re sure it’ll be tons of fun and will bring you tons of benefits. One more language to communicate in it’s always a win.
But are there any things you could do to learn Italian? Maybe something that can teach you faster? Or something that can teach you idioms and other phrases that not every school teaches?
Well, there’s no magic trick to learn everything about the Italian language and become an expert from one day to the other. Nonetheless, we do have 10 tips for learning Italian that will make your language learning journey easier and cooler. Let’s check them out!
10 Tips to Learn Italian
1. Listen to podcasts
Part of the language journey is that it should be fun just as it is useful. Sure, you must study hard, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time. Listening to podcasts is the perfect example of that.
Podcasts are something many people love and incorporate in their everyday lives. They can be very entertaining, but did you know you can also improve your Italian by listening to them? It’s true! Because thank God, podcasts exist in many languages and Italian is not the exception.
You just have to look for a podcast that is spoken in Italian and listen to it. Your ear will start training in pronunciation and to acquire vocabulary. Or listen to a podcast that teaches Italian.
Think about it: Maybe on one episode they’ll teach vocabulary, on another some grammar, then some idioms, and so on. And you don’t have to listen to it all in one sitting. Go little by little.
Now, maybe you already listen to podcasts and love them. Then you know this is the perfect activity for you to improve your second language skills.
But, if you’re not very into this kind of format, that’s okay. Let’s give it a try. Good news is there are many different topics, so you can listen to something interesting for you. Pick your favorite topic and look for a podcast that discusses it in Italian.
It can be about your favorite singer, movies, fashion, books, science, or anything you’re passionate about. This will make it easier for you to pay attention to it. After all, this activity should be fun.
Actually, we highly recommend you not only listen to podcasts that are particularly made to teach Italian. That’s great but listening to other kinds of topics will make you acquire Italian in a more natural way.
2. Practice with tongue twisters
You have to start saying tongue twisters in Italian from the beginning of your language journey. Seriously. It doesn’t matter if you don’t speak much, your vocabulary is not very wide, your pronunciation is bad, and your Italian comprehension is not very good yet.
Tongue twisters will help you polish all of that. Especially your speaking skills and your fluency, which is awesome because sometimes we need much more help with those things.
They work for every level. So if you’re already intermediate or advanced, they’ll still help you. There’s always space for improvement. But if you start since you’re a complete beginner, it’ll be better. You’ll make tons of mistakes while saying them out loud.
But you’ll also fix those errors before you acquire any language vices that will be harder to unlearn later. Just make sure you try your hardest to pronounce the tongue twisters correctly; you can listen to videos on YouTube.
Be patient with yourself. Remember that tongue twisters are made to make you trip with the words and make mistakes. You’ll try again until you master them. Meanwhile, remember to laugh at yourself; you might sound funny sometimes, everybody does when practicing tongue twisters. This is a fun exercise; it shouldn’t be stressful.
3. Read
No, we’re not talking about reading those tedious school textbooks. Read anything, honestly. If you like romance novels, read those. If you prefer fairy tales, go for it. If what you love is theater, read your favorite plays.
Are young adult books what make you feel a rush? That’s great too! And this exercise goes beyond books. You can read newspapers or magazines about any topic. Just make sure you read in Italian.
That’s it. That’s the exercise. Reading what you like in Italian, will help you acquire the language almost without noticing. You’ll just be having a relaxing time.
Sure, you might not understand everything, but the process will feel easier. This is because you’ll be entertained and invested in the story or topic. Therefore, you’ll be more willing to learn those words that you don’t know.
But vocabulary is not the only thing you’ll improve by reading. Your reading comprehension will also improve. You’ll also notice how Italians speak in real life and will not be guided just by a schoolbook. Oh, and if you read out loud, you’ll also work on your speaking, pronunciation and fluency.
4. Watch Italian news
Part of learning a new language is learning about the countries and cultures that speak that language. So watching the news is a great idea for you to learn about the native Italian speakers’ lifestyles. As well as to know what’s going on in the country and what’s important for them right now.
Besides it being a great source of information about Italy, watching the news can also help your language journey. Really. News presenters always talk with a more serious tone due to the importance of what they’re saying.
Nonetheless, it’s still a real way of speaking and not a robotic one. They still talk with idioms and everyday phrases, just not very informal ones. So, by watching the news you’ll learn how to express yourself in Italian when you’re in a serious situation or formal environment.
Oh, and of course, let’s not forget about listening and pronunciation. Two skills you’ll also work on thanks to watching the news.
5. Music is always a good idea
Learning through music is always fun, enjoyable and useful. Just think about when you were a child. Teachers usually use a song or a catchy rhythm to teach kids the alphabet and other topics. And it always worked! Well, guess what? Italian songs also work for teaching you the Italian language.
You can just play a random YouTube or Spotify Italian playlist. Or look up for the best or most popular Italian singers and listen to their albums. You’ll acquire vocabulary in a casual way and learn how to use it in a sentence or a real situation.
You’ll also hear the correct pronunciation of words, learn some grammar and even spelling if you read the lyrics. Oh, and to add the cool factor, you’ll learn new music in a new language! Honestly, only good things can come from listening to international music.
The best of these is that you don’t need to sit down like it’s study time and listen to the songs. Sure, that’s not bad if it’s your first time listening to them, because all your attention will be on the songs and its lyrics. But if not, you can just listen to the songs while doing other things. It will feel like a normal day and a typical activity.
6. Italian cinema
Of course, music is not the only artistic expression that can help your language skills. Movies are great for that too. And the best news is that Italy has some exquisite cinema.
You just have to pick the movies in Italian that you’d be wanting to watch for a long time now. If you don’t know any, you can ask friends or even the internet for recommendations. Trust us, you’ll have a wide variety of options.
Then, all you must do is enjoy. You can even organize a sleepover with friends from your language classes and watch some Italian films. You’ll help each other understand everything.
Hey, this doesn’t have to be stressful. Don’t feel bad if you don’t understand everything; you’re just learning. You can also start according to your level. So if you’re a complete beginner, you can watch a movie you’ve already watched before in your mother tongue.
But now you should rewatch it in Italian (whether it’s originally in this language or not). The fact that you already know what happens will help you a lot not to get lost by watching it in a brand-new language.
If it makes you feel better, you can also watch an Italian movie but using subtitles in your mother tongue. That’ll help tons. When you’re intermediate, put the subtitles in Italian. Gradually, lose them. It’s time to go full Italian to achieve that advanced level.
7. Play Heads Up
This one particularly helps your vocabulary. We know many people hate memorizing word lists, because they’ll soon forget about them. That’s why we thought of this game! Playing makes the learning process more fun, but you can also learn better through it. Because you won’t be bored, and your brain will strengthen the knowledge better.
In different cards write different Italian words you’ve been learning in class. One word per card. If you don’t want to know which words are part of the game, ask somebody else to write them for you. It can be a family member, the teacher, an Italian friend, your partner, a classmate, or anyone.
Then, invite your friends from the Italian classes to play with you. Everyone must pick a card without seeing and place it in your foreheads. You must guess which word you have written on your card just by asking questions to the other participants. They must do the same.
You can ask things like “am I a sport?” “Do I start with the letter “a”? “Is my pronunciation difficult?” Am I an adjective? “Am I a number?”. Or anything that comes to your mind. Just make sure they’re yes or no questions. The winner is the one that guesses first or the one that guesses more cards.
By asking and answering questions about the vocabulary, you’ll think about the meaning, uses, and description of the words. So you’ll reinforce the knowledge of how and when to use them.
8. Learn some hand gestures
It’s very well-known that Italians make a lot of hand-gestures to express themselves. Maybe you know the classic one for when something is delicious or exquisite. That’s the one where you take your fingers to your mouth, kiss them and open the fingers.
But there are many others. It’s almost as if Italians have two languages, and one of them is made of pure hand gestures.
If you start learning some of these gestures from the beginning, you’ll know another important part of expressing yourself in Italians and with Italians. As you adapt to these movements, it’ll also be easier for you to remember vocabulary.
Because you’ll link the image of the hand gesture or the movement itself to the word and its meaning. So lose no time; this is also essential for Italian communication.
9. Practice every single day
This is super important! Daily practice is at the heart of improvement. It applies with anything you’re learning whether it’s a sport, an art, math, or a language. The more you practice, the more you’ll keep improving. And yes, you’ll also make tons of mistakes. Because of this, at first it might feel like you’re not learning, but be patient with yourself.
Just think about an Olympian champion, anyone you want. They probably fell many times, made the wrong movement, and even got injured and had to come back after months of healing. But they kept practicing every single day until they achieved what they wanted.
Failing is part of the process and you can learn a lot from that. But let’s say you only practice once a week, then the process of making mistakes and improving will feel longer. On the contrary, if you practice daily, your brain will adapt to the new language faster.
Practicing will also allow you to fully polish all the skills of the Italian language, like reading, speaking, writing and listening. And you won’t leave some aside like they don’t exist.
Oh no, but how could you do that if you’re busy? We totally understand life can be chaotic at times and you have many things that take your time away. Kids, school, job, health, friends are all important and deserve their time. Even with all that, there are some small things you can do to improve your Italian daily.
Use some agenda to plan your day and be kind to yourself, not every day has to have the same amount of study time. The days you don’t have much to do, practice more. The days you have a lot, you can just dedicate fifteen or twenty minutes.
Good news is, you can use some of the tips we gave you above to make study time little but useful. Like, you can listen to Italian music. You can also do some of those things while doing other chores. For example: listen to a podcast in Italian while you cook.
Do you know the short videos from TikTok or YouTube? Well, those are perfect for when you’re in a rush. A lot of content creators teach you just one word or a couple of tricks to learn Italian in those mini videos. So you’ll learn something new and grow your vocabulary in a minute.
See? It doesn’t have to be stressful. Good luck.
10. Time to travel!
All aboard! It’s time for the coolest activity for Italian language learning: Travel! You’ll get a lot from it. You’ll enjoy a new country with its amazing monuments and beautiful landscapes; you’ll taste the delicious food, and you’ll learn about their history and traditions.
Maybe you’ll also make new foreign friends. That’d be amazing; you can grow so much from having a friend from another culture. But you’ll grow the most in terms of your Italian skills.
Once you’re in Italy, you’ll be forced to speak the language. If you travel alone, just make sure you don’t use any translator.
Encourage yourself to lose shyness and speak with the natives in their language. We’re sure even if you’re nervous situations will come around in which you’ll have to use your Italian.
If you go with somebody else that doesn’t speak Italian, he or she will probably make you speak it, because they trust you’ve practiced enough. So go for it; you can do it!
Even if you make mistakes, you’ll be practicing with locals every day of your visit. So you’ll inevitably polish your Italian. Believe us, there’s a lot of language growth by putting yourself out there and practicing your Italian in Italy itself.
Bonus points if you don’t only talk about the necessary things, but if you also have casual conversations about anything with the locals. This will make you improve even more.
If you don’t have the money yet, that’s okay. You can start by putting all the tips above into practice and meanwhile save money for your future trip.
Want to Learn Our Greatest Secret to Learn Italian?
After all these amazing tips for learning Italian, we saved the best one for last. And it’s awesome, as it gives great results; we bet you’d love it. You want to know which one is it? Okay, here it is: Enroll in TruFluency classes.
We have the best way of teaching to make sure you succeed and achieve all your language goals. All while instructing interesting classes. Lessons are based on the Bellieu Method, created by our founder and language expert, Micah Bellieu.
It consists of speaking in your target language using everything you’ve learned so far. Yes, we’ll encourage you to speak in class. That way, you’ll know how to use your knowledge in a real-life situation when this one presents itself. Plus, it’s the best way to achieve Italian fluency.
That’s not it! Our classes are customized to your needs. Maybe you want to practice your accent, learn idioms, learn how to write a business email, or overall step up your Italian game.
Well, we’re here for you! Since the very first class, we’ll talk with you to discuss what are your needs and which are your goals. So we can create the best curriculum for you.
Oh, and we have native teachers! This is super helpful, because you’ll learn from people that know the best tips and tricks for a real use of your target language.
And hey, if what you want is to become a polyglot, we have many other languages as well. Like Spanish, French, Mandarin, Japanese, and so on.
Read our testimonials to see for yourself how much you’ll enjoy our classes and how much we’ll help you. Then, take a two-hour trial class divided into two sessions of one hour. It only costs $59 and you’ll get to realize if this is truly the best option for you. You don’t lose anything from trying and you can win a lot!
