Learning
Italian, or any language for that matter, becomes so much more fun
when you stop wrestling with the likes of grammar books and endless
flashcards.
Those
are useful tools worthy of being a part of the language learning
process, but practice through daily routine is also a part of the
process and deserves some public esteem.
So
what are twelve close-to-painless ways you can change today to
implement Italian into your everyday life?
1.)
Change your cell phone language to Italian.
Be
mindful of your learning level. This would make more sense for an
intermediate learner, but if you’re a beginner and feel up to the
challenge, I support you.
If
you have an iPhone, changing a language is as easy as going to
‘Settings
→ General → International → Language → Italiano’.
Cocktail
party fact:
If you have an iPhone 5, Siri will also be able to speak Italian to
you. So now you can practice your pronunciation and comprehension!
If
you’re not on the Apple bandwagon, you’ll have to do a quick
Google search for your phone model.
2.)
Follow boards on Pinterest about learning Italian.
If
you love Pinterest, you’ll love this option. Here are some great
boards to follow that teach Italian or are native Italian.
Speak to me in Italian
Italian Obsession
Learning Italian
Like Italian fan pages on Facebook.
- a famous singer in Italy
- a famous singer in Italy
.PNG)
a language learning method based solely on music and sounds.
10.) Change your alarm to an Italian song.
Download an Italian song (with some extra oomph) to your phone and set it as an alarm for the morning.
11.) Set a calendar appointment on your phone with an Italian phrase.
If you’re like me (a time management junkie), you use your online calendar to keep track of your life. Set a calendar appointment daily/weekly for a phrase. Set an alarm reminder for it, and it will pop up at that time, reminding you of the phrase and that you should be learning Italian.
12.) Choose one Italian podcast to listen to while you’re in the car, taking a jog, or making dinner.
Here are some podcasts for learning Italian to listen to:
If you want to hear just Italian, here is a podcast to listen to:
Cher Hale is an instigator of adventure and romance on her blog The Iceberg Project, where she teaches people how to charm Italians with their own language and chase their wanderlust so they have always have a story worth telling.
Like Italian fan pages on Facebook.
This
way you’ll get their updates in your stream. I suggest you bookmark
Wordreference
as your go-to Italian dictionary when you don’t know a word.
Here
are some great Italian fan pages to get started with:
- a page with Italian jokes and cultural references- a famous singer in Italy
- a famous singer in Italy
Also,
join a group dedicated to Italian like this one.
4.)
Make the homepage of your web browser an Italian web site.
It
will be the first thing you see whenever you open up your browser,
and it’s likely you’ll get lost in an article or three.
Here
are some options for Italian websites:
5.)
Change the background on your computer to an Italian quote or phrase.
Find
an image you love from one of the Pinterest boards, save it to your
computer, and change your settings according to your computer.
If
you have a Macbook,
just
go to the Apple
icon → System Preferences → Desktop & Screen Saver →
Desktop → Choose the ‘+’ symbol to find the picture → Choose
→ Voila!
6.)
Make the background of your phone an Italian quote or phrase.
Same
concept as above. You can save a picture directly to your camera roll
from the Pinterest App.
Here’s
how you would do that on an iPhone:
Go
to Pinterest
Application → Choose an image → Press the upper right hand icon
with the arrow → Press ‘Save to Camera Roll’ → Go to Camera
Roll → Press the lower left hand icon with the arrow → Find the
icon ‘Set as wallpaper’.
.PNG)
The
picture on the right side is how it will look if you’ve already
changed your phone settings to Italian!
7.)
Change your language on Facebook to Italian.
Go
the gear icon at the upper right hand side of your Facebook page.
Choose
settings → Language → Change → Italian.
8.)
Play Italian songs on Youtube while you browse the web.
Start
with this Italian music playlist or build your own using it.
If
you really love using music to learn a language, you’ll want to
know about The Mimic Method,
9.)
Follow native Italian speakers and Italian teachers on Twitter.
Here
are some great users to start with:
- an easy way to learn Italian through podcasts
- a famous author and actor in Italy
- a famous ballerina, actress, and conductor in Italy
-
Italian phrases and foreign language resources
10.) Change your alarm to an Italian song.
Download an Italian song (with some extra oomph) to your phone and set it as an alarm for the morning.
11.) Set a calendar appointment on your phone with an Italian phrase.
If you’re like me (a time management junkie), you use your online calendar to keep track of your life. Set a calendar appointment daily/weekly for a phrase. Set an alarm reminder for it, and it will pop up at that time, reminding you of the phrase and that you should be learning Italian.
12.) Choose one Italian podcast to listen to while you’re in the car, taking a jog, or making dinner.
Here are some podcasts for learning Italian to listen to:
If you want to hear just Italian, here is a podcast to listen to:
Cher Hale is an instigator of adventure and romance on her blog The Iceberg Project, where she teaches people how to charm Italians with their own language and chase their wanderlust so they have always have a story worth telling.
Follow @cherhale
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