Learning to speak Italian?

The BBC has a free online beginner class. It isn't the best I have seen, but it good and free. I am doing the Italian right now for a month long trip this summer and find it useful.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/

You will never learn enough Italian between now and May to carry on any sort of conversation with an Italian. You might get out one sentence in Italian, but when the native speaker replies you'll be stopped cold.

What you need are just a few basic phrases that are easy to remember and will make you feel better about switching to English when you have to (which will be almost immediately).

My advice is that you get the little book "Rick Steves' Italian Phrase Book & Dictionary". When you get it, learn the "survival phrases" on the inside of the front and back covers. That's all that's necessary to arm you with a few basic words, like good day, please, thank you, yes, no, where's the bathroom.

Then carry the little book with you when you travel. You can use it to look up things you have not memorized. It has a decent little English/Italian/English lexicon, and a good menu decoder to help you order at restaurants, plus a lot more. It also teaches you pronunciation basics, which is not real hard in Italian.

Do the BBC language course and also check out some language courses from your local library. Pimsleur is good for listening to in the car. A PC based course with voice recognition helps you with your accent which is just as critical as learning the words.

Be sure to include something that shows you the words you are saying so you learn to read signs and menus.

If you can at least have the basic polite words in your vocabulary, you will be received more warmly.

My vote is for Pimsleur (your local library may carry it.) If you do the entire program, you'll be able to carry on a basic conversation with subjects related to tourism. And understand the responses.

Traci,

I'd also recommend Pimsleur, however buying all three levels is a bit on the expensive side. Each level tends to "build on" past lessons, so it's a good idea to start at Level 1 and progress from there.

These are available on both CD's and on "Bookchips" which are small SD cards that can be used in a PDA (Palm or other). These may be available in your local Library for loan at very little cost. You may also be able to find Pimsleur products on E-Bay or Craigslist. I believe there may be an IPod version now also.

Level 1 provides lessons in very basic greetings, simple phrases, numbers, etc. Level 2 builds on that and moves to more complex sentences. Level 3 gets into more conversational lessons. There's also a Level 4 that was just added recently, but I haven't tried it yet so not sure what it covers.

The Pimsleur method is designed to teach language skills in the same way that children learn to speak using repetition, but without a lot of complicated grammar rules.

I've also looked at Rosetta Stone and many people like that learning method, however it's also expensive and is PC based. I don't have time to sit in front of a PC, so prefer having something I can listen to while I'm doing other things (eg: at the Gym).

There's no way you'll "learn to speak Italian" by May, as the grammar is very complex. However, Pimsleur or similar lessons will provide you with a basic foundation to function in Italy. For the most part, it's worked well for me so far.

Happy travels!

I agree with Lauren, I have been trying to learn some key phrases in French and later some Italian on the BBC website, it fun! Like Ken stated, you will not learn the language, but hopefully enough to get by.

Check craigslist and see if anyone near you wants to do language practice/exchange or is offering cheap lessons. I took private lessons for 6 months before my trip (different folks charged different rates. I had $12/hr up to $35/hr) and could carry on a broken conversation and do all the basics--ordering, directions, train tickets, etc. The biggest problem I had was I'd know exactly what I wanted to say to start with, but once someone replied, it all went right out of my head!

Another recommendation for Pimsleur here. They come in sets of 30. If you do one a day you can probably get thru the 1st 60 lessons, which will let you say a decent amount that tourists need to say, all of which native Italians will understand. The problem I had is that they then replied in fluent Italian, but really it was more fun than a problem!

The Pimsleur set is ridiculously expensive, but you may be able to borrow it for free from your library.

Also they say to do each lesson once, but I found (and most people I've talked to agree) that you need to do each lesson twice for it to really sink in. Luckily my commute is about 30 minutes, matching the length of each lesson, so I would do it once on the way to work and again on the way home.

Live Mocha is free and pretty cool.

My 8yr old is learning with Rosetta Stone - we think it's great.

Old school and cheap can be effective, too! Get the Rick Steves Italian phrase book, select about 200 of the key words/phrases, make index cards with Italian on one side and English on the other, and practice them on the train, before bed, over breakfast, etc., at least three days a week between now and your trip. That's worked well for us!

My husband and I have used the RS Italian language book for 3 different trips. It works very well, as Rick throws in a few phrases that made us laugh as we were studying. We practice on each other speaking and testing each other at dinner every night for the month before we go. We were in a very small family tratoria in Rome being served by the wife of the owner last year. She had practiced enough English to ask "Okay?" after we had our meal. My husband had practiced enough Italian to answer "It was better than my Mama's kitchen" You should have seen the hugs & kisses he got! We were given a wine glass with their logo etched in it! I told this story to Rick when I met him on a speaking engagement & he laughed! I made Rick Steves laugh!! what fun. Even if you take the book & practice it while you're having dinner there, they smile & help you with your pronunciation! Have fun & give the language a try.