speaking italian

I try to use basic phrases, but the response is usually a rapid barrage of Italian that I have to beg for them to slow down. They then typically switch to English. But have fun with it, all people get a kick out of someone trying to use the native language and will help you out.

Pick up Ricks phrase book in Italian. Steve, since you are in Miami and I am also, you can borrow mine if you'd like. Just send me a private e-mail and let me know.

Best thing you can do is pick up a small phrase book and study before you leave. A few simple words such as the following can help. Try to learn the ones I call "manners". If you are polite, it transcends a lot of language barriers.

Uschita.....exit

Si....yes

per favore.....please

grazie.....thank you

il conto.....the bill/check

ingresso.....enter

scuzi.....excuse me

We have used Rick's phrase books in Germany, France and Italy and find them very practical, humorous, wise and better than most anything but a quick course in the language. Definitely use RS for the protocol, finding lodging, menus et al. George

Phrases i found helpful were:

Binario: platform (for trains)
Dov'e: Where is
Il bagno: bathroom
Quanto costa?: How much does it cost?
Cosa ci consiglia?: What do you recommend? (for food)
Be sure to learn Italian place names for where you are going: Roma, Napoli, Firenze, Venezia etc. for Rome, Naples, Florence, Venice.

sorry for misspellings - they are more phoenetic

I found the Berlitz book and CD found at bookstores useful for common phrases.Good luck.

Io (sounds like the Spanish Yo) parlo un po l'Italiano - I speak a little Italian. I grew up with Spanish and was often confused between the Spanish and Italian words for the same thing.

Senore (long A sound at end), Senora, Senorina - It's appreciated when you begin a conversation with a decent greeting:

Buon Giorno Sinore, Dove San Marco? Good day Sir, where is San Marco?

Buona Serra Signorina, Quanto Costa? Good evening miss, how much does this cost?

When you pronounce Italian words, the next to last syllable is almost always accented.

When there are double consonants, make an effort to pronounce them independently with their syllables. Rosa is pink (or Rose wine, Vino Rosa) Rossa is red (or Red wine, or Vino Rossa).

I really don't know much Italian. I crammed before I went but received amazingly positive responses from locals for making an effort. Your first efforts will be most effective if you think about terms you need to be polite rather than just names of things. The second thing is to learn pronunciation so the word you say sounds like they say it. I traveled with my daughter to Mexico. She has a great memory and had studied Spanish in Spokane. Unfortunately her vowel sounds were American and people didn't understand her. I knew what she was saying/asking and repeated the same sentence using better pronunciation and got immediate understanding and response.

most important, I found was PERMISSO. When you bump into someone, or want their attention: Scuzi. When you want to get past them in the street, in an elevator, etc. : Permisso.

Also, Buon Giorno (daytime) and Buona Sera (late afternoon/evening) was appreciated on entering and leaving anywhere

I learned Italian for my trip and had a lot of fun with it. My sister and her husband just tried to learn some key phrases. The one thing they found thoroughly confusing was paying for things. Try to learn the numbers from 1-100 so that when someone says you owe "tre cinquanta sei" you will know you owe 3.56. It is not hard since you primarily have to learn the first 20 then from there learn 30, 40, 50, etc. Also, as mentioned: learning "dove" is very helpful since you can ask where something is with that little word. However, you might want to learn some direction words so that you understand the answer. "Sempre dritto" continue straight "sinistra"-left and "destra"- right. Have fun!

Italians for the most part are kind and patient with people trying to speak Italian. They really appreciate the effort and will say that you speak well, even if it isn't true.

Forgive my comments, but many of the postings above contain misspellings of the Italian words. (I've been studying Italian for about seven years.) I just wanted to mention that so you don't rely on them as authoritative. That said, if you use them you're almost certainly going to be understood (even if they might chuckle a little inside).

I've found that Italians appreciate the effort to learn their language, since it's not exactly useful anywhere else. :-)

One thing to keep in mind: "Ciao" is pretty informal and not usually used with strangers.

Umm, Michael, spelling Italian words correctly doesn't matter when you speak.

Actually, the spelling of Italian words is important as they are almost always pronounced as they are spelled. You just have to know the rules of pronounciation. (insert winking smiley face here.)
I agree with Michael that you shouldn't walk into a store or greet someone you don't know with "Ciao." Buon Giorno or Buona Sera depending on the time of day is a polite way to greet someone, or when in doubt, a simple "Salve" will suffice--it is neither formal nor informal.
Props to everyone who tries to speak Italian, and remember that 90% of all communication is non-verbal.

When departing from a conversation I usually wait for the Italian person to use the word for "goodbye." Then I follow suit. If they say "ciao," I return with "ciao."

Yep, my point was mainly that Italian follows strict rules of pronunciation and those rules are often the exact opposite of what English speakers expect. Example: the word for exit is "uscita" and English speakers write out a phonetic pronunciation as as "ooh-SHEE-ta". But if you write down "uschita" (adding an h after the c) and show it to an Italian and ask them how to pronounce it, they'll say "ooh-SKEE-ta".

The Italian pronunciation of the letter "c" with and without an "h" following is a big challenge to English speakers because it's so different from English.

Anyway, it's a fun, fun, fun language to learn and speak and the more the merrier!

Steve, I recommend getting the Pimsleur series from your local library. They are pretty expensive to buy, but many libraries have them for the more popular European languages. Pimsleur is all audio, with 30-minute lessons. Many people find they need to do each lesson twice to really get it. I found it was perfect to do on my commute to work.

There are 90 lessons total. Before my 1st trip I did the first 15 lessons and that is enough to teach you the very basics such as polite greetings, ordering a drink, asking where someplace is or how much something costs, and the all-important "do you speak english?". Its effortless learning, and you'll really retain them after going thru the lessons as opposed to trying to remember something you read a few times out of a phrase book. One advantage of the CD's is you hear the phrases spoken correctly and practice saying them.

And who knows, you might enjoy it so much you go thru more of the lessons!

I second the recommendation on Pimsleur CDs for Italian. My library only had the first 4 CDs, but that was enough to get me thru a wonderful trip through Italy. I copied the CDs and played them over and over several times and found that I could actually understand what some folks were talking about.

If you want to get the Pimseur CD's and save some money, look for used copies on ebay and amazon...and then when you're done, resell them.

Michael, I've also been studying Italian for several years, although not yet fluent by any means. Unfortunately, I live in a smaller city so don't have access to the language schools that exist in larger centres. I did take some night school courses a few years ago, but unfortunately the Italian lady that was teaching the courses has decided to move on to other pursuits.

I was also told the "rule" about use of the word Ciao, but have noticed that Italians seem to use it quite freely in stores, restaurants, etc. As someone mentioned in a previous post, if someone uses that greeting I assume it's acceptable for me to use as a reply to that person.

I also use the Pimsleur method and find that it works well for my learning style. However, I find that it takes some self discipline to spend 30 minutes a day on the lessons. If I don't review a lesson at least every few days, I start to forget details. I've considered spending a few months in Italy to study the language when I retire, but will have to see if I have the time and/or money. In the meantime, watching Italian TV seems to help to some extent.

Although Italian is not used in many other places in the world, I figure if I can become fluent in Italian I should be able to "get by" in a Spanish-speaking country. I've found that it's IMPOSSIBLE for me to study both of those languages at the same time, as so many of the words are similar.

Cheers!

We just returned last week from 5 weeks in Italy and we found our Frommer's Italian "phrase" book rather unhelpful and didn't use it much at all. Many times we looked in the index for specific basic words and they weren't in the phrase book, which was quite frustrating. Instead I would recommend a basic dictionary with English words translated into Italian, or maybe you can look for some of these on the internet. We also laminated the Italian word/phrase page from the RS guidebook and we found that quite useful and sufficient.
With regards to metro and train travel, we found that the ticket machines at the stations could be converted to English with the push of a button, which of course made it much easier. If you don't already know, the bin # of the train means which line the train will be arriving/departing from - and the different lines are reached by means of underground walkways that you will find if you head towards the exit (uscita) signs. At every train station there was a train schedule posted behind a plexi glass window - a different window for arrivals and another for departures - so you can look at these to ensure that the particular train you are thinking of taking will stop at your desired destination.
Also, every train/metro ticket window that we went to with a person manning it spoke English to some degree so we were able to ask/confirm routes with them. One other thing you will want to learn ahead of time are the Italian terms for each of the weekdays so you can read the time/day schedules easier.
Hope this helps!.......and have a wonderful time in Italy.

About the use of "ciao" - You're absolutely right that it's okay to use it if an Italian has already used it with you and not just with someone else. You definitely hear it a lot in restaurants between Italians because they probably know each other.

It's not a huge faux pas if you use it incorrectly, but it's just something to keep in mind. (And "salve" is definitely the best all purpose greeting. You don't have to remember what time of day it is.) Pronounced SAHL-vay

wow, thanks to everyone, a great crash course on necessary italian phrases, especially the importance of politeness first, also the train info on bin # and knowing the days of week in italian will help decipher the train schedules. In restaurants the phrase cosca ci consiglia (what do you recommend) might be the most usefull phrase in any restaurant.

FWIW, "Cosa [not "cosca"] ci consiglia?" (meaning "What do you recommend for us?") is pronounced KAW-za chee con-SEEL-yah. But be prepared for an answer in Italian that you won't understand. That's the danger of asking a question in a foreign language. The answer will likely be in that same language. :-)

You'll find that in all the major tourist destinations, the Italians in the tourist industry will have a functional knowledge of English for their particular job.

It's probably best to work on the greetings, etc. such as grazie, salve, buongiorno, buona sera, arrivederci, per favore.

Also helpful are "piu" (meaning more and pronounced pyew) and "meno" (less) when wanting to buy a quantity of something.

Also, "Posso?" means "May I?" and comes in handy if you want to take a picture or sit next to someone (say on a train).

Just get an Italian language book and go thru all the exercises. You must learn the "pleases and thank you's" and also how to ask questions. And the most difficult thing is to learn to understand the responses to your questions. It is also a must to learn the numbers, which are pretty easy. It is well worth the effort to learn the basics - makes your trip much more enjoyable to be able to communicate with the locals.

If you have an iPod, there is a fantastic and free podcast on iTunes called Learn Italian Pod. The instructor is a native Italian and the lessons are amazingly helpful. I used these podcasts before I went to Italy last year and my conversational Italian was great by the time I got there.

At the very least, it took away the fear of a language barrier. Good luck!