Bottom line is, at some point some years ago (I won’t go in detail at this time how many years ago – that’s a painful topic that deserves its own post, when I’m ready) I realized that Italian language makes me smile. And if something makes me smile, it’s only natural that I’d want to make it a permanent part of my life. Well, at that time I had no idea how permanent the learning stage would become.
I’ve learned languages before, although so far only English has a checkmark next to it. (Despite my obvious vocabulary and usage, if not grammatical inadequacies, I feel I mastered it enough to stop reading the dictionary on a daily basis. After all, I hold a job in which my primary function is to work with the English language.) I had a well thought-out plan of action – to proceed through the beginner, intermediate and advanced level of the language knowledge using textbooks and vocabulary lists and marking my progress as I went along. I thought that if I knew where I was, I’d know when I got there. “There” being the ability to speak, read and understand Italian like an educated native speaker (aren’t my goals lofty!?). Need I say I was wrong?
The textbooks didn’t work. I’d learn in gulps and then stop for weeks at a time. I had to redo the preliminary chapters and the intro lessons many times but the simple phrases still didn’t stick. My methods were all wrong.
So I’m starting anew.
I will chronicle my new effort to learn Italian here. I will employ new methods. And who knows, maybe the pressure of making daily reports that comes with a blog will make me regularize my learning enough to make it stick this time?
