What Is A Good Online Place To Learn Italian?

Wow, I personally have been using the DuoLingo app to learn more Italian (It's an app that makes learning a language game like, and a lot of fun) but I'm going to have to check out LiveMocha! But if you wanted something to either learn a new language or just refresh your memory on one DuoLingo is really nice! Don't use Rosetta Stone though; it's really awful at teaching and I've had native speakers of a language (Friends who's first language is Spanish) tell me that Rosetta Stone only teaches other languages at a Third Grade level!
 
I like Duolingo; it has a big helpful user community, and a fun format. It's easy to do a lesson every day and to enjoy it, enjoying levelling up and unlocking new skills and all. It's a nice way to make it a game, but even people who don't like games will enjoy it.

In my days of learning Italian, I also went for children stories to translate (there are a lot of them available for free, classics or tales by amateurs) and used lang8.com, where you get to write in the target language and native speakers will correct you and explain how to say it better. You can write complete complex texts or short practice sentences.
 
Another good way to learn is to go to the Italian club in your area as they have classes there for conversational Italian and it works by the end of the year you would be able to speak!
 
twinsmommy31 said:
Sounds like Livemocha is a the best way to learn the italian language online. I think I am going to give it a try. I can see that many people have tried this and have given it a positive review. That works for me.
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It's definitely very useful, especially if you're a beginner. I think I may have mentioned this before (I'm not really sure), but if you're intermediate or up, the website probably won't be enough - you'll need a lot of other props and tools, dictionaries, grammar books... I wasn't content with the intermediate level. There were so many questions unanswered. I don't know whether they'd improved - I haven't been around since they'd changed the design (and most probably some content as well). Do give it a try, though, it might work for you :D
 
I never tried Rosetta Stone because I never went for an internet method I had to pay for. Rosetta Stone gets good reviews, but I think if you are resourceful you don't need to invest the money in it. You can also probably find some learning podcasts to download from the internet -- I had this on my iPod for a while when I walked around.
 
Joie I like the idea of learning podcasts! I will definitely search for these on iTunes. Is there any of these podcasts that people recommend I look for?
 
I have lost my iTunes library, unfortunately, but I expect it will depend on people. I did not like podcasts that focused on teaching words -- I know some people do, hear out a few words on transit, but I enjoyed more the podcasts that felt a bit interactive and that asked you to figure out what the sentence to answer or to make would be, you know? This was the one that gave me the better grasp on the language. I also had podcasts of stories and fairytales for kids that I slowed down to make sense of. Wish I could help you find an exact link...
 
If you can't find anything affordable online, Netflix has a DVD. It is fairly inexpensive if you already subscribe to Netflix. It's called Every Day Italian and is a user-friendly language tutorial that targets students who'd like to learn the basics of Italian but don't have time for in-depth instruction. Segments focus on vocabulary and phrases that will get you safely through everyday situations, from eating out, shopping and sightseeing to health, recreation and emergencies.
 
Joie d'Etre said:
I never tried Rosetta Stone because I never went for an internet method I had to pay for. Rosetta Stone gets good reviews, but I think if you are resourceful you don't need to invest the money in it. You can also probably find some learning podcasts to download from the internet -- I had this on my iPod for a while when I walked around.
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Is there a free trial version? Can you use Rosetta Stone for some time (say a few weeks) and then decide whether you like it or not? Some products have this. I am not sure about Rosetta Stone, though. I haven't heard anything about this.

I too have heard it's very good, but also limited for intermediate learners, perhaps less so than Livemocha (Livemocha is, after all, free), but still limited. It seems there is no good learning without a teacher ;)
 
Regina Juno said:
If you can't find anything affordable online, Netflix has a DVD. It is fairly inexpensive if you already subscribe to Netflix. It's called Every Day Italian and is a user-friendly language tutorial that targets students who'd like to learn the basics of Italian but don't have time for in-depth instruction. Segments focus on vocabulary and phrases that will get you safely through everyday situations, from eating out, shopping and sightseeing to health, recreation and emergencies.
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Nice tip i would try and watch it from Netflix i am really interested.
 
I have recently got myself a Netflix account, and I didn't know there are educational movies for learning foreign languages, but thank you for the heads up! I will definitely give it a shot, and we'll see where it goes. Do I have to pay extra to watch it or can I watch it with the normal subscription? (I literally just subscribed last night, so I have no idea). Thank you. Also, LiveMocha seems good, and I've used it a bit before, but they've changed it recently and I just can't figure my way around it.
 
Have you tried Udemy. They have language classes online and some of them are free. They are like videos that you can do at anytime at your own pace. Some of the classes are by professionals who work else where and have a reputable background. They are offering their services independently on
Udemy for a lot less. There are also some educational websites like this that have online classes at http://access4college.com/Online-Courses.php
 
If you have an iPhone or Android, Duolingo is a great app available in both the Apple Store and Google Play. I purchased it to learn Spanish, but they also offer other languages, including Italian. It's great because they make it like a game. They have tons of different levels, and it works the same as most games when it comes to unlocking coins and things of that nature. It was really easy to learn, and it kept my attention since it was sort of fun. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for a free resource to help them learn a language.
 
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Aurelia said:
Have you tried Livemocha? I used to learn French there. They offer a great number of courses (all of which are free) in various languages (even Chinese, though I don't think you can learn that online, it's practically impossible), Italian included. They even have a special ''quick crash course'' for intensive learning (which you have to pay, true, but still, it's an option). It's quite effective, considering there aren't many good websites. I have also heard of Rosetta Stone. Supposedly, they too offer language courses, but I am not sure whether they offer Italian as well... you'll have to check it out.
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Thanks a lot for your hint. Right now I took a look at this website. It is fantastic because I started years before in a course to learn the Italian language together with some friends and after the course finished I did nearly nothing to improve my skills. This website could be a good help for me and a motivation to move on. It is also useful because I started to learn Russian some weeks ago and it is very difficult for me without good exercising examples.
 
I do think you'll enjoy Livemocha then. It will help you reinforce your Italian and definitely help with Russian, although I would first suggest working on the Cyrillic letters more when it comes to Russian. That's the key thing about it. Before you can really understand it, you must be able to read it properly.

It would definitely be a help if you went through the basic Italian exercises, even though you may be familiar with them - somehow there's always something you're not sure about... I don't think it will take you too long, though.
 
I think that Rosetta Stone is your best bet. It's military grade stuff; It's what the US Government uses. Outside of that you could always start some Italian language threads here :)
 
Well sure, but Rosetta Stone is fairly expensive. What if you change your mind and decide you don't really want to learn? You've spent the money in vain then. It's better to check whether you like something for free before purchasing anything. That way you will at least save yourself from an investment you don't need.

A friend also recommended this website for German: http://www.learnalanguage.com/learn-german/german-courses/
It's free and still under construction, as far as I could see, but it also has several other languages. I saw that Italian has two courses available for the time being, so it might be worth checking out.
 
I highly recommend the Michael Thomas Italian mp3s. Really good and his method teaches you how to build sentences easily and instinctually rather than bog you down with grammar and rules. It will get you talking at a decent beginner level after about 8 hours with his course. There is also an intermediate course you can do. The Assimil Italian book and audio is a very good compliment to MT and I think using both in combination could get you into the intermediate level.
 
A great way to learn is to listen to the language as often as you can by watching movies with subtitles, listening to Italian music and reading the lyrics and also going to a class where there is someone to help you when you get stuck on a word or phrase. I think for online learning memorize is a good option and you will definitely walk away with conversational Italian
 
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