Learning italian at 24 years old - month 1

Hello, hello

Ever since I was little I always had this curiosity towards languages, my parents would often say I learned languages easily because of how quick I learnt english (my mother tongue is portuguese). In school I also learned french, but never stuck with me, and spanish that I still remember and can hold a conversation in.

My boyfriend started learning spanish because of his work (one of is managers is spanish) and I noticed that even though I haven't been studying formally spanish (I stopped at 16/17 years old) I still could understand and comunicate fairly well. It's true that portuguese and spanish are sister languages but I came to the conclusion that one of the reasons why I also could speak spanish was all the time I wento to spain and talked and was immerse in it.

Then, on the other night I was watching Exhuma, a korean horror movie (would you guys like a review? Let me know in the coments) and while I was trying to load the subtitles I noticed that I could read the korean subtitles and understand some of it! I've been listening to kpop since 2016 and watched kdramas and another type of intertainment shows so I was happy that the effort that my 17 year old self did at korean worked, even if only a little.

What I noticed

I noticed that immersion truly is the best way to learn a language. With English I watched movies, tvshows and youtube videos. Here in Portugal we don't normally dub all the movies and tv shows so that also helped. I always wanted to learn italian so I decided that it's never to late and I'm starting now.

My plan

So I don't stop and lose motivation I'm going to write a monthly article about my evolution on here. And if you have any tips you can also share with me! This is what I'm going to do:

1- Duolingo

I know, i know. Listen, I have been doing my daily duolingo for 2 weeks and learned some vocabulary and sentences. I felt that they could have started with the alphabet and how to pronounce every letter, but it is what it is. It's going to be one way to don't stop listening and writing in italian so that my brain can absorve.

2- Movies and TvShows

It worked with english and korean so why wouldn't it work with italian? I added some shows on my Netflix to watch list and I going to start watching so I can listen to natives speaking.

3- Youtube videos

This might be trickier but I remember last year that I found a girl on youtube that would vlog her time in her grandmothers house that was italian. She wrote the subtitles in english so I can connect what I'm listening to what I'm reading

4- Podcast

I discover this type of podcasts called "Coffe break" that are made to learn the language that you are studying! When I'm organizing things I usually listening to podcasts so I'm going to start listening to it. Then when I'm more advanced I'm going to search podcast in italian that aren't made for learning.

What I followed of the plan

I only did my daily Duolingo, I now know how to say who I am, where I'm from, ask for tea or coffe and I'm starting to learn the members of the family. I do miss some lessons in grammar so I can understand the verbs. I might need to look for some youtube videos of grammar rules in the meantime.

Conclusion

So this is the plan! If you have some recomendations of movies, podcasts, youtubers in italian, or even tips to learn a language let me know. I hope next month I can show you some type of evolution!

Want to read more of my work? Check this out: "A girl with, a cat and a broom" and "How to make money the easy way".

See ya,

JP