Topic: So, I've started to learn Italian

[Shiroi Koumori]

I borrowed the Berlitz Self-Teacher: Italian book.

Since I have no knowledge of the grammatical aspects of any of the Romance languages, this is proving to be a challenge. All those gendered words... 

And I have to constantly remind myself not to think in English. Then find myself suddenly thinking, what was that word again in japanese after learning the italian equivalent. My L2 languages are turning into a puddle!

Does anyone of you have ideas on a good book/ online lessons that is preferably free?

[X]

Learning more then one language will be a very trying task. And no-doubt at times you will feel like your brain has liquefied. There's programs out there like Rosetta stone to help people to learn other languages fast and easy. I would do some net sleuthing just to see what's available.

[Dark Nemesis]

Here you go

(click to show/hide)

http://livemocha.com/https://www.duolingo.comhttp://www.busuu.com/enc/

[Las]

Well my friend from Puerto Rico..speaks fluent spanish..and says he can talk to an italian speaking guy no problem. I think they are highly latin based languages. I was at a bank once..and showed a teller a rare coin..or so i thought.. It happened to be a coin from the vatican..like their currency.. Which i got to talking with this guy.. he said that Most of europe is based off of eitehr Latin or Romantic based languages.. He pointed out a few if i recall like english, german, maybe hungaraian that i think he said were romantic languages..ah romanian to i believe. But others like spanish, itlaian,and i believe french..were more latin based.. I'm not sure if he was accurate but i assume maybe so..he seems to know a crap load about the languages and coins.. Yeah the coin i had was from Marino..inside Italy..it's a seperate province i believe..that has it's own currency...like where the vatican is.. I didnt ever research it to be honest..so i dont exaclty know..I have not a clue if what he said is accurate..i just remember what he told me.. 

Either way from what i hear..if you end up knowing spanish pretty solidly..or italian..pretty sure you'll be able to understand alot of what the ohter language is saying.. I do remember taking spanish in school years ago..and alot of the words in a sentence would be opposite of how tehy'd be in english.. I have no idea about italian..but i assume the el=the, la=the when in plural que=what, you know de,..stuff like that is probalby all the same between teh two languages(spanish&italian)..you know the basic connecting words.. Then again..i never learned enough spanish..so i wouldnt say i am positive their..if anythign i have only a basic understanding of it..  now that i think of it yeah...rosetta stone wouldnt be a bad bet to learn from.

[X]

Well my friend from Puerto Rico..speaks fluent spanish..and says he can talk to an italian speaking guy no problem. I think they are highly latin based languages.

They are considering those countries were once under the flag of the Roman Empire. The Empire spoke Latin but after the collapse of the empire the language diversified. However they still hold the root dialect which is why learning one European language in a specific region will make it easy to learn others in the surrounding regions.

[Shiroi Koumori]

Grazie guys!

I found "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Italian" at a used bookstore and upon browsing through it, I think it might be more fun than the Berlitz book.
I will just focus on self learning with the books first before I try the online stuff.

I think it is easier for people in Europe or the Americas to learn Latin-based languages.
I live in Asia, so it is like being a fish out of water and it is extremely hard to find native speakers. Hehehe.

Learning more then one language will be a very trying task. And no-doubt at times you will feel like your brain has liquefied.

I've felt that way all my life.
I had to deal with 3 languages (+1 dialect) by the time I could understand things. It was so crazy that I decided to just drop the third language and the dialect and just be happy to be able to grasp the basics of it while increasing my proficiency with the other two. Then I decided to learn Japanese in college (I'm already happy with my intermediate/advance level as I believe one can never reach the native level in Japanese without staying in Japan for a lifetime), then now Italian.

[Gunlord]

Das cool! I'm thinking of learning Italian as well...u-u

[Shiroi Koumori]

Das cool! I'm thinking of learning Italian as well...u-u

That's great! We can do some writing practice here. But for now, I am not yet ready.

I browsed through the verb conjugations and I suddenly felt "oh boy... it looks like those verb acrobatics in Japanese"
dun dun dun dun.... I'll eventually get to them.

For now, I have to memorize those crazy feminine masculine nouns and their plural forms. At least the cognates don't pose a problem.

[Gunlord]

The cognates are definitely one thing that makes Italian easier than Japanese Just watch out for those false ones, though...x-x

[Shiroi Koumori]

The cognates are definitely one thing that makes Italian easier than Japanese Just watch out for those false ones, though...x-x

Esattamente! (Am I using this correctly?) I found out that I can understand more or less what a written sentence means in Italian without learning the exact meaning of each individual word. Then again, formulating a sentence is a challenge. hehehe.
Yeah I have seen those false cognates.

[crisis]

yes its true that Spanish y Italian are very similar languages. i wish i was multi-lingual, not just for the broader perspective of life aspect it brings, but multi-language speaking people statistically earn a better living and make way more money than single-language people

you have a bright future Ms. Koumori 

[Shiroi Koumori]

Thanks Crisis.