Learning Italian in my 40s

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I never thought I’d be learning Italian in my 40s, but here we are! It’s been a process that I’m thoroughly enjoying and it’s challenged me to use my brain in ways that I haven’t in quite some time! I’m nowhere near fluent, but in about six months I’ve made some conversational progress so I’m sharing my story along with some tips and tricks for learning Italian!

Background

In Junior High and High School, I took three years of Spanish as it seemed to be the most practical of the few languages my school offered. I did…okay…ish. It took me a long time to wrap my brain around conjugating verbs and to be honest, I wasn’t super interested in the work, so I didn’t put in a huge amount of effort. I was never remotely fluent but had enough vocabulary and understood the basics well enough that it was somewhat useful when I traveled. Over the years I did some Duolingo to brush up and add some new vocabulary.

The Journey (So Far)

In May of 2024 I dove deep into the process of researching my Italian heritage and learning about the process of getting dual citizenship (more on that in a future post) and around that time I started working on Italian in Duolingo. It was useful for vocabulary, but I struggled to understand the conjugation patterns (and knowing what I now know about tenses and regular and irregular verbs, I see why!).

In August, I started looking around online and found an online Italian class that lasted a few weeks. It was very basic and more geared towards tourism vocabulary and applications. It did start to show me the complexities of the Italian language and when that class wrapped up, I knew I wanted and needed more.

After more online research, I signed up for an A1 (beginner level) Italian class with JoAnne of Living Italian. The class, which wraps up this week, met twice a week for two hours for 10 weeks. We take a 10-minute break halfway through the two hours, which is good because I didn’t realize the amount of brain overload I would experience!

During class, in addition to learning new concepts, we also practice translating and speaking, and making mistakes is no big deal! Everyone has made them and it’s part of the learning process. The environment is positive and friendly and while making mistakes is fine, apologizing for making mistakes is discouraged, which I love!

How I Study and Practice

I haven’t taken any type of formal class since the 90s, so doing online classes and re-learning how to study has been a whole process for me!

Homework

We aren’t given homework from every class, but we often have worksheets to complete. Sometimes they’re self-correcting (aka, the answers are available in the book) and other times we review the homework in class. The worksheets usually involve translating, writing sentences, and conjugating verbs. Even if we don’t have formal homework, we’re encouraged to review the material we’ve learned thus far and I typically spend 30 minutes to an hour on non-class days doing homework on reviewing.

Zoom Chat

After the initial class Italian class I took, one of the girls from there arranged a weekly Zoom hangout to chat in Italian. Her skills are more advanced than mine, but we make it work with google translate when needed and it’s a good way to get more speaking and listening practice, which is something I definitely benefit from! I find that my brain processes spoken language slower than written language and I can comprehend things better when I read them as opposed to when I hear them. I had the same challenge when I was learning Spanish and the best way to improve that is with speaking and listening practice.

Other Study Tools

One of my favorite tools is Italian verb conjugation flash cards that I got from Amazon! On one side they give the verb and use it in a sentence. On the other side, they translate and also conjugate the verb. I throw a stack in my bag and use any time spent waiting (like at the doctor’s office) to review them. Could I have made my own? Sure! But my sentences wouldn’t have had the extra vocabulary in them, so I’m definitely learning more this way.

I also have a fun Italian coloring book that’s a fun way to learn vocabulary in a way that doesn’t feel like learning. I’ll bust out the colored pencils and color in a page full of facial expressions and learn the vocab for the different emotions at the same time!

A new to me tool that I’ve just started using is an A1 short story book. It’s comprised of several short stories that are written for A1 leven students and it’s great at making me feel really accomplished when I can comprehend the gist of a story!

What’s Next?

Starting in December I will be taking an A2 level Italian course with Living Italian. It’s structured similarly to A1, we’ll meet twice a week for two hours for 10 weeks (though there will be a holiday break in the mix, so I believe it will wrap up near the end of February).

After that, I may move on to B2 or JoAnne said some people choose to repeat A1 and/or A2, depending on their comfort level. So that remains to be seen for me!

In the more distant future, I’ll be spending a week taking immersive Italian classes at Lucca Italian School this summer! I can’t wait for that experience and to share more about it with you!

My Favorite Study Tools

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