Italian Immersion Announcement: I'm Going To Italy
Today begins the new year, and that means it's time for me to finally reveal a secret I've been keeping for a few months. As you already know, with the arrival of a new year, my attention will be shifting to a new language.
My year of Italian is over, but that doesn't mean I'm going to just forget everything I've learned. It's important to maintain each language even as I shift my attention to a new one.
It's also important to remember why I learn these languages. This has never been about impressing people, or being a polyglot. The reason for learning languages is to meet new people, to learn about their culture, to make new friends, and to travel and see the world.
And that's why I'm excited to announce that I am leaving for Italy in less than 10 days! I will be arriving in Rome on the 11th, and then I will be wandering by train throughout the country for a month, seeing the sights and of course, meeting up with many of the wonderful people who have helped me to learn their language.
If you are currently living in Italy, or planning to be in Italy at some time during the next month, and you want to meet up with me, let me know!
And regarding that other big announcement that you were expecting with the arrival of the new year... well, you'll have to wait for my next post! 🙂
Want to see my favorite language resources and courses?
I listed them here.
Rick
If you ski, you should try to make it up to Torino and into the Alps. Lots of good skiing. Even after the Olympics, Torino is an overlooked destination. It's a great town.
Guest
Are you learning your new language while in Italy as well as practising Italian? Or is it just for practising Italian? Well done by the way and thanks for the help last year. It was really appreciated.
Randy the Yearlyglot
I'll keep that in mind, thanks for the advice!
Randy the Yearlyglot
Yes, I'll be learning this year's language even while I travel. And I'm going to tell you how soon!
Andy
Hey Randy, I am in Rome and would love to meet up with you. I organise a free language exchange that takes place on Thursday nights. You would be more and welcome to come and practice with us. We are probably going to be starting up on the 20th January. Hopefully I will see you there.Andyhttps://www.extremelanguage.net
Guest
I'm looking forward to seeing this method and it's results.Have you mentioned it before briefly?
Rick
Just took a look at your website. That's a neat idea. Almost like speed dating for language learners.
Aaron G Myers
Istanbul is just a few hours flight to the East. Stop by. Explore Turkish a bit. I'll buy tea.
Randy the Yearlyglot
That day will come. But not this trip.
Randy the Yearlyglot
That sounds fun. I'll look you up when I'm back in Rome for my return flight home.
Randy the Yearlyglot
I've hinted at a few things in recent months, and no doubt the method itself is based on several things I've been strongly advocating for most of this year, especially the last three months.
Shandra, Lang-8
What a nice surprise :D I hope you're visiting also my city, Milano :D
Randy the Yearlyglot
I will be there on the 14th, to stay for several days.
Sara
I hear snatches of Turkish nearly every day of my life, but only stopped to learn a bit, which I promptly forgot. Seems like an interesting language, though, so I wish you all the best.I know this is going to sound like a dumb question, but I gotta ask anyway.Since I'm no longer translating in my head with my second language (yay! -- thanks to a lot of the great advice from this and other blogs I read), I've decided that it's time to move along to a 3rd one (I live in the environment with my 2nd language, have to use it every day of my life with most of the people in my life, so I won't be forgetting it anytime soon)...I'm not sure what my next step should be -- what I should do today/tomorrow to get going with the language (Spanish, which I studied before here and there years ago)...I know what to do weeks and months down the road to practice Spanish and get going good with it...I firmly intend the use the ones I've used to help me along with my second language (minus flashcards ;) to get me there, but I'm not sure what to do right starting off, especially since I'm not completely starting at ground zero. What do you do right on the first days when you're learning a language?
Catherine
Have fun in Italy. I just came back (had a blast)
Andrew
That's awesome, I can't wait to hear back about how you manage in Italian there, because, from what I understand, you've been learning it completely removed from Italy, so you haven't been able to immerse yourself, which is the same situation 99.9% of all language-learners are in, so I'll be interested in hearing just how well that worked for you since you're now going to get to find out just how good your Italian really is.Best of luck and I look forward to the posts.Cheers,
AndrewP.S. Happy New Year :)
Randy the Yearlyglot
Yeah, that's one of the most important parts of my blog, and why I won't travel to a place where the language I'm learning is spoken. It's very important to me to show everyone that you can become fluent in one year without traveling to that country.Yeah, I'm really excited to see how this will go and what my experience will be. One nice thing is that I've already got dozens of people all over Italy who I'm looking forward to meeting over the coming month — that means plenty of occasions to test out my conversation skills!
Randy the Yearlyglot
Nice! Where did you go?
Andrew
Andrew
Randy the Yearlyglot
With each language, I've started in different ways, and looking back on that, it seems like that was the best way to do it. That is to say that rather than following some kind of formula, I allow my reason for learning the language to dictate how I learn the language.If you live in a country where it is spoken, it's not hard to find ways to learn every moment. But if it's a language that is not spoken near you, you need to consider your reasons for learning it. Is it so you can talk to a friend? Start by learning the things you want to say to that friend! Is it for the purpose of travel? Start by learning what you need to know for travel! Is it to connect with your family? Start by looking at how you want to connect and learn what you need.
Dominick
Sono andato in Italia per due settimane giugno scorso per esplorare il paese e usare il mio italiano. È stata un'esperienza bellissima. Ero già fluente, ma essere circondato dalla lingua è la cultura mi ha saltato ad un livello anche più alto. Anche se 2011 per me sarà l'anno di Spagnolo, ritorno in Italia in Marzo per divertirmi con l'italiano ancora una volta.
Randy the Yearlyglot
Bravo! Che bello! Spero di avere lo stesso esperienza anch'io! Ma, a dire veramente, il fatto è che non viaggio io per imparare lingue. Imparo le lingue per viaggiare. :)
Your Life Amp
Hey I'm interested as to the advice regarding not translating in your head while reading your second language?
Dominick
sì, capisco, ma c'è la sinergia nonostante. :-)
Randy the Yearlyglot
There's a lot that can be said about that, and a lot that has already been said, on this blog.The most important thing is creating an emotional tie to the words you learn, and that can only be done through use... not through study. I'm planning on writing a post about this later, where I'll get into more detail.
Andy
Thanks Rick. Yeah, that's how it gets described. It works really well and people enjoy it. Gives you a chance to meet and practice with native speakers. You get to hear lots of different accents and meet people from a wide age range. If you're ever in Rome you're welcome to come along and give it a try.
Andy
Please do :)
Beowulf
Are you American? Because I want to know: What is the best place to visit in US? A place that have a bit of everything: history, landmarks, very nice people to talk and a good place to visit with my wife, it exists?
I'm from Brazil and had never been abroad...
Randy the Yearlyglot
Come to Chicago!