My Italian Journey - Italian learning resources

This is probably not the place for it, but it is a convenient place to put it.

I have been learning Italian since April 2018 and the following resources have been extremely helpful. Enjoy.

Quali risorse usi per imparare l'italiano?

Youtube

My favorites:

• Learn Italian with Lucrezia Oddone An Italian who is fluent in English but teaches Italian in Italian (Immersive learning). She also provides the Italian captions for her videos! (Watch the comprehensible input video to learn why that is important). This has been a great channel for me to play in the car at 0.75 playback speed and use a technique called "shadowing"; I just repeat everything she says, as she says it.
• Italy Made Easy (with Manu) An Italian‑born who teaches in English
• QVC Italia This one sounds funny to people when I recommend it. It was actually recommended to me by Manu! Passive listening is an integral part of language learning. It keeps your mind familiar with the sounds and feel and cadence of your target language. The best part about QVC Italia is that they are always streaming live, so the content is fresh and I can keep it on in the background while I'm working. Another great part of the content on this channel, is that they are always talking about a product, something tangible. So complex and abstract ideas is not normally discussed on the channel. It makes it easy to learn new nouns and the adjectives often used to describe them. (You may even find a cool Italian product you want to buy 😆)
• Easy Italian This channel essentially nails it when it comes to subtitles. they are easy to read and in both English and Italian! Studies show that comprehension of your target language of video content goes down when you simply read subtitles in English, and it goes up when the subtitles are in Italian, and it goes way up when both languages are present in the subtitles. Also, great content! They interview real people in Italy all the time. Very fun.
• Tom Txxytu An American who teaches in English and Italian
• Rock 'N Learn If it sounds corny, that is because it is. This channel is meant for children, but when you are a child yourself in the language you are learning, what better way to learn the basics than how children learn best.
  • Numbers, Colors, & More
  • Food, Activities, & Animals
  • Body Parts, Family, & Feelings
• More channels: https://www.mosalingua.com/en/youtube-channels-to-learn-italian/, https://www.alllanguageresources.com/italian-youtube-channels/

Apps

• Google Translate This one is a must! For the most part, it is spot‑on in translating for you.
• Reverso Translate and Learn (aka Reverso Context) Where Google Translate fails (particularly around idioms) this app cleans up! It references real articles and other literature written and translated by native speakers so you know it is more accurate. Still be careful about the context you use what you learn here.
• HelloTalk This would be a great one for all of us to join since there is an excellent correction mechanism in the app! By now, I have made lifelong friends through this app.
• Duolingo DuoLingo has helped me expand my vocabulary a lot! And there is a streak mechanism that keeps me focused.
• Memrise Not my favorite app to be honest, but they leverage many of the same psychological hacks that Rosetta Stone does by including 2‑second videos of real Italians speaking the language.
• LinguaLoops Short‑term memory commits to long‑term memory with 1) repetition 2) sleep and 3) high emotional contrast accompanying the new information. LinguaLoops focuses on repetition in the form of cute, catchy‑tunes for the verb tenses.

Podcasts

• Radio 24 My favorite is Effetto Giorno, an Italian radio news show. Just keep in mind, this is a real Italian radio show for Italians. It is fast, idiomatic, and uses very unique language since they discuss economics, politics, geography, and other social topics.
• Let's Speak Italian I think this one is excellent for the beginner. A perfect car ride podcast for expanding your vocabulary.
• SBS Italiano Another advanced one, but they include news from Australia which is cool as well as interviews and random community stories. There are news stories, but they are more interesting ones.

Netflix

Tips

• When using Netflix for language learning, this Chrome Plugin is a MUST!
• Change your Netflix localization to Italian! (https://help.netflix.com/en/node/13245) What's nice about this one, is that it only affects your profile, not the whole account! So you can even make yourself an extra account in Netflix for your Italian shows, and keep your regular one.

Shows

I'll list some of the kid shows here, but some of the other Italian shows that I do enjoy, can also be really graphic. So I'll let you just search for "Italian" and discern what is appropriate for you or not 🙂
The ones I list here though are clean and I can vouch for!

• Pocoyo It is just cute
• Parole In Festa My kids and I watch this all the time! The songs are super catchy and give you good Italian baby language to use around kids!
• La Suburra Not kid friendly, but I seriously love the acting, the characters, and the story.

Books

• La Ragazza nella Nebbia by Donato Carrisi [Fiction]
• Quei 10 giorni oltre la vita by Mauro Prosperi [Nonfiction] I purchased my physical copy here
• More books recommended by Lucrezia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-1T09Y2s0U&ab_channel=LearnItalianwithLucrezia, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVSy2TomGFg&ab_channel=LearnItalianwithLucrezia, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBYYj-9Qhzs&ab_channel=LearnItalianwithLucrezia, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LDI0j_p5HM&ab_channel=LearnItalianwithLucrezia

Children's Books

These are all a big favorite with my kids.

• A series of Bilingual books by Shelley Admont https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00CZJ2UTI/search?terms=Italian
• Several titles by Gabriele Clima with one of my all time favorites being La Popò, come la fo?
• The Italian Experiment offers a unique variety of stories for free that can be read online along side the English translation! Some of the stories are even animated and available on YouTube.
  • The favorite among my kids at the moment is Il Polletto Carlleto. The YouTube video is available here hosted by the Fable Cottage.

Other Content

• I like this video because it breaks down "comprehensible input" The ULTIMATE language learning hack ever! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_EQDtpYSNM
• Great Spotify Playlist by Lucrezia Oddone - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6gHVsQ8qLA4vWEaqasMVKN
• Find movies and shows by searching online to discover if maybe you can get it in Italian! Like Disney movies for instance. I think the Chrome Plugin I mentioned above actually works for Disney+ now
• A Videogame called Influent. I have spent many hours playing this game with my kids. They really enjoy it and love repeating after the in-game voice.

Other Ideas

• Change your Netflix localization to Italian! (https://help.netflix.com/en/node/13245) What's nice about this one, is that it only affects your profile, not the whole account! So you can even make yourself an extra account in Netflix for your Italian shows, and keep your regular one.
• If you feel really daring, you can do this to your phone too!

I hope this helps someone. Happy Italian learning!