Clearly your other languages are helping a lot, the pace you describe sounds beyond the average pace of learning...Plus I really do think your early Italian helps. I took French 30 years ago, for 1 year or less in a chaotic public school and now learning Italian I still find I pull up French words. Just to say the brain is amazing at holding languages somewhere in the dark recesses of the mind.
I had a similar experience when I first started learning Spanish, all these French words started coming to mind and I thought I hardly remembered any French lol, it is amazing really. Especially since I wasn't confident with languages or my memory in general back in school. Now I'm loving the process of learning and I really want to learn Italian too but I want to get my Spanish to a high level first
I got black out drunk two years after I graduated high school, and according to everyone who was there, at one point I exclusively spoke German. I had 3 years in highschool (very low quality curriculum), and was never any good at it, plus it had been about 3 years since I ever used any of it in any way, shape, or form. Upon being told this, I was amazed to realize I had a shockingly strong command over German. My vocab and grammar was lacking compared to the level 3 German class version of my past self, but I found I could watch videos and ACTUALLY understand them somehow. Anyone who took a language course in school knows how shocking it is to actually be able to listen or speak since all the focus is on mastering grammar that native speakers don't even use and being a vocab dictionary (because the most important thing is to have a big vocabulary - who cares about being able to listen or speak? Those are trivial forms of human communication! Anyways, I digress...) The human brain is mysterious and incredible. It's like somehow a certain form of damage was done to my brain that overstimulated the spot where it's holding one of the two forgotten languages I spent many years learning. Why I wasn't speaking French (a language I was drastically more competent and comfortable with) that night I will never know.
It's awesome that you took the comment about showing us a different location of London in each video, also I just found your videos on my journey to learning Italian! I'm excited to keep watching your videos.
I started learning Italian and I actually bet with my father that we're going on vacation to Italy if I can learn it in one year. Honestly, I'm not doing really good progress. For me, listening is the most helpful (I'm not on that level in Italian, but it helped a lot with my English). Btw, I'm learning Italian in English and I wish good luck who's currently learning a language. Don't give up and thank you for those who read this.
Great video. Seriously, this was perfect. The fact that you mentioned that you got bored during the week really spoke a lot more to me. I love this video, and I feel like im gonna come back to it more when I start learning Italian
Hey Davide! Nice surprise! I’ve just been using those episodes that are on LingQ, so the transcript is included. I’m finding that my comprehension is improving so quickly, that I think by next week I will already be on to more authentic content, including stuff without the transcript, so I’ll be sure to check out the rest of your library!
I’m hoping you see this and will answer please. What method of learning Italian would you suggest for someone that is completely blind? I went blind in 2013, and before that, I was okay at discerning what a word might be from the spelling. It’s only recently I’ve wanted to learn Italian though.
@@storylearning I’m hoping you see this and will answer please. What method of learning Italian would you suggest for someone that is completely blind? I went blind in 2013, and before that, I was okay at discerning what a word might be from the spelling. It’s only recently I’ve wanted to learn Italian though.
Hi Olly! I'm also in the very beginning of learning Italian and know some intermediate French and Spanish from before and I'm definitely going to follow you intensely from now on, with your newsletter and vlog. Love that you share inside tips and stuff like that, AS WELL as talking about your struggles. I actually gets me motivated to know that all successful language learners struggle, just as I do, but they keep on going. Buona fortuna!
Learning a new language is a really long life journey, unfortunately is not a 3 months trip..especially if your native language has nothing to do with your target language. As an ltalian,l've been studing american english for years and l still struggle undestanding movies in english.. It constantly pops up new expressions and words to memorize in context, the same word has so many different meaning depending on the context..then phresal verbs are thousands,not to mention how freaks me out connecting speech🤯 Be focus on your goal and keep going!!
Yes, it's truly a lifelong journey. I've been living in France, on and off, for nearly 20 years, and I still feel as if I have far to go before my writing, expecially, becomes error-free! And oh yes, listening to French films, *I have the same experience you do with American films.* In fact, here in Paris, I prefer going to films in *any* language other than French, because I can read the French subtitles quickly. But if the film is in French, I'll miss a lot of the jokes. It's frustrating!
I'm english, I never realized english was like that lol. I'm trying to learn german and this happens all the time, words just mean very different things in different contexts.
I like that Collins Easy Learning Grammar - it works on the 80/20 principle by covering the 20% of grammar that will help you understand 80% of what you're encountering. It feels about the right level for a first iteration through the language. A quick skim gives a great overview of how things work, and it breaks stuff down into small chunks so you can quickly understand anything that's proving problematic in your input. I've also got a very interesting Routledge grammar by Anna Proudfoot (Modern Italian Grammar) which I plan to use once I've got a sense of the basic patterns. It teaches intermediate grammar through the functional lens of practical applications like expressing opinions or asking people to do things, which I find more interesting and useful than an academic grammar. Highly recommended, from what I've seen of it. I'm on the first days of my own Italian project, and started using the first 50 Assimil lessons for input to attune my ear. I was able to cover around 5 lessons a session to full comprehension, given the high number of cognates they use. Compelling input they are not - it's not their best course. But they are convenient and progressive and just about bearable - they got me over the hump so I can start to make some sense of native input on TH-cam. Plus the recordings are of a high standard and an excellent model for pronunciation. I think I'll finish the course for comprehension, but I'll only use it selectively for sentence mining on the output side, as a lot of it isn't very relevant to me (Smoking? Gala openings at the opera? Jewellery shopping?) Lots of useful idioms though - I've googled them and they are mostly still current. Ordered it through the library, so the price was right. Now I'm orientated, I'm using the Collins to tackle the more challenging areas like the formidable pronoun system while tacking more ambitious input. Because it's so simplified, I find I can cover a topic like nouns or adjectives in a quick study session to the point when I'm sensitised to the pattern in input, and starting to play with it in output. I'll be interested to discover what your next steps will be. My current plan is to work up practical "Language Islands" on the Boris Shekhtman model and activate them in conversation practice. His ideas emerged out a huge amount of experimentation at the FSI and they are well proven. I think I need a more proactive approach than Steve's method to keep me motivated. I like the idea of fast, time-limited iterations where I focus work on input, grammar and vocab on a specific area of output, but that might change once I've seen how you proceeded.
@@pedrodemarco8083 Interrupted by health and personal issues, I'm afraid. Just got going again a few days ago, so too early to say. Good luck with your project!
Listening to these series about your Italian project I thought your were a total beginner in that language but I remembered an interview you had with Luke Thompson from Luke's English Podcast episode 332 Olly Richards Top Advices and Strategies for Language Learning. In this episode of LEP you said : "Italian's a bit funny because I used to speak it very well but I haven't done any practise. Italian is a language I understand a lot of but for speak it I'll need a lot of practises to get it back. That was in 2016 and it explains why you were able to write a book in Italian before you "Italian Project." So of course I suppose these series called Olly's Learn Italian Project were not supposed to have any " Scientifics" purposes.We would need more experiments with a lot of students.But don't you think, it should have been better for your demonstration to choose a language you don't speak at all : Finnish, Russian, Danish etc. That also arises a reflexion. I think we never forget anything all the information are still somewhere in our mind waiting to be waken up. Well maybe you mentioned in your intro you were not a total beginner in Italian, if not I think you should have done it. Anyway I subscribed to your channels that's the proof I find it useful .
Good call - a lot of these guys pull this stunt, either for YT clickbait or to flog some language course. That said, I do like Olly's language courses, just wish he'd be more honest with us!
Hi Olly , very empresses , how committed you are , thank you for sharing your journey with us , when you're listening do you wright. The words down that you understand .? Thank you for the resources you sharing and the idea. I'll give three months you'll speak Italian! See you next video. Rose
Hi Rose, thanks for your comment. No - no writing, just focusing on understanding! I’m deliberately avoiding any time-consuming “study” activities at this stage, as my only goal is massive input!
Very interesting. Thank you. Steve Kaufman emphasises the importance of noticing and also uses his known words count as a measure of progress (e.g. start speaking when a certain number is reached). I suppose measuring progress and maintaining motivation is an issue for people learning on their own. So what is your strategy for measuring progress?
Stephen I know I can always rely on you for an interesting question! I’m not sure I have a fully worked out answer for you, largely because I’m familiar with my motivation, and from past experience I don’t think I will have a problem with a short-term project like this. However, I will admit that I am already itching to start speaking Italian! If I’m feeling such a strong urge to start speaking after only week one, I can only imagine what It will be like a couple of weeks from now. However, I’m really trying to give comprehensible input as much of a chance as possible. So I’m going to try my best to stick to the plan. As soon as I actually start speaking in month two, I’ll be doing everything I can to actually get out there and live an Italian life here in London, and I believe that will be all the motivation I need.
I have to agree with Yoga Bliss Dance. How ever I’m a little skeptical. Here’s a challenge for the next time you learn a new language. Find someone that has no language skills at all and take us all along with his and your progress. A good candidate would be someone that might be planning a trip to the country that speaks the language your planning to learn.
0:35 "So here we are today in Canary Wharf!" Me, an American who has never been to England: Oh, you mean the place the Daleks fought the Cybermen in Torchwood Tower? 🤣 Seriously though, I'm super late to this party but I dearly want to learn to be conversational in French within 6 months if it's at all possible and it's really helping me to make a plan for that so thank you!
@@davidnichol4735 I'm not sus I swear! As a Rose Tyler and Ten fan, I'd be disappointed in myself if I *didn't* know lol. Also I like pineapple on my pizza so clearly my godless American license is legit.
@@RivkahSong if pineapple on pizza is un-American, then I'm a damn traitor. I was just joking about the reaction people give me when I say anything about Dr Who. People act like if you watch the show as a "non British-speaker" (that accent is intense, though, I'll agree with that) you burst into flames.
Bonjorno Olly, looking for to see your update on your Italian. You know why I did asked? because your information and your method helping me and others. Thanks Olly buena swerte.
I found your update video on the first week of Italian very interesting. I was interested in seeing how the " nuts and bolts" of LIngQ work; and the way you are explaining your resources; with your daily routine in learning Italian. (I like your background video clips of London!)
How many times are you listening to a story on average? Are you listening to a story over and over until you pretty much understand it all and feel comfortable with the majority of the vocab or are you quickly moving on and listening to many different stories?
In general I’m listening to stories over and over until I understand 90% plus. With easy material that can happen immediately. With harder material like I’m listening to right now, I might need to listen to it 10 times. But I really enjoy that repeat listening because I find I noticed new things every time.
Olly. I have listened to most of your TH-cam videos purchased your Italian story books. I have listened to Steve Kaufman and I am still completely confused. How does one read stories without having any translations? What is it beginners are supposed to be listening too? I’m looking to you for some guidance please.
I’m hoping you see this and will answer please. What method of learning Italian would you suggest for someone that is completely blind? I went blind in 2013, and before that, I was okay at discerning what a word might be from the spelling. It’s only recently I’ve wanted to learn Italian though.
Can you play some stuff that you enjoyed for us in a video and describe why you liked it? Also, what do you do when you are listening? Are you taking notes as reading along?
I’m literally just listening and reading along. I’m not taking any notes, but I am looking up words occasionally as I go, in order to understand what the hell I’m listening to :-)
When will you start to use the flash cards? I'm not very clear how you are planning to use them in this new methodology, will you review them after you have read the story? btw I love your stories book (for Russian). any chances of more coming out?
Right now I’m not using anything, because I’m working under the assumption that I will learn a lot of the stuff naturally with repeat listening and lots of contact. We will see how that works out. Really the point of flashcards is to help with output (or production). In other words to help with your speaking. So I think this will become clearer in month 2 when I actually start speaking, and need to be able to recall words and phrases more reliably.
when you are listening, do you read english translation to help learn to understand, or do you just listen in straight italian... I feel like I do not understand any more by listening to Italian while not knowing any other romance languages is kind of just like
I watch this series whenever I need some motivation. I think you are greatly unappreciated in the language learning space. Keep making more videos. I enjoy your newer take on different languages but I would love to see you try more language learning methods and see your journey through it.
Hi Olly. So at 1:51 you say you do 1-2 hours of hours of focused study. But what about your article on sprints? and you said you focus on one activity for 3 weeks and do sprints?
Sure, so in this case the one activity (sprint) is reading and listening. Since I’m trying a new method this time, I’m not restricting it to 3 weeks. But the principle is the same, to focus on one activity above all, and to do it well. Hope that helps.
Olly Richards ah so by activity you mean one of: speaking, reading, listening, writing. You don’t mean one activity as in only do Colloquial, or only do Flashcards, or only post speeches on Lang8?. By the way your new method is learning Italian by only comprehensible input ?(With some Collins grammar haha)
Nice to see Your dashboard. Yes, marking entire phrases or expressions makes perfect sense- it's good to use chuncking method with lots of audio input. This is how one can build up correct speaking patterns without starting from painful grammar drills from day one. It's actually godd crash course in speaking. As for quick audio input containing grammar- maybe youtube vidoes made by Veronica from Oneworlditaliano could help? Since she makes mini-stories focused on each grammar point. One may study patterns but one may also focus on the story itself. Lucrezia from Learn Italian with Lucrezia also makes videos focused on how grammar is used, not how it's constructed plus mini-stories with walks in different Italian cities. I can also recommend songs by Emma and Ultimo. They have both very nice voices, really poetic and interesting lyrics yet their songs are really quite catchy so, it's easy to recall them. Both cna be found on YT as well as on Spotify. I actually added various Italian singers recently to my Spotify following different recommendations from other learners of Italian.
Hi, Olly. Steve Kaufmann says that once you get back to a language you haven't spoken for a long time, it soon gets activated and you speak it better than ever. You said you spoke some decent Italian 17 years ago. What level did you reach back then? Do you feel as a complete beginner or is some of your knowledge getting activated?
Yes I agree about reactivating an old language, But I don’t feel it applies to me in this case. The reason is that when I learnt Italian, about 17 years ago, it was a very short project of a couple of months. I did learn to say quite a bit in that time, but because it was such a small project to come I also forgot it all very quickly once I started learning other languages, Spanish and Portuguese. I also saw this happen in my tie project a couple of years ago. When language is in your short term, tactical memory, it really isn’t consolidated in any meaningful long-term way. It’s totally different from say my French, I actually lived in France for six months and spoke it on a daily basis. So it’s hard to say exactly what kind of advantage it will be, but I think the best analogy is that of someone who learnt a language at school many years ago and has some residual knowledge, without it being very useful
I realize I'm a little late, but I'm confused about something. HOW are you NOT fluent in Italian, yet, you are studying Italian, with a book of Short Stories, which I own BTW, that YOU YOURSELF WROTE???🧐 Am I missing something??🤔
So you wrote a book of Italian Short Stories ... before you learned Italian??? What? And you used your own book to help you learn the language you didn't know when you wrote it? Very confusing.
Parlare una lingua soprattutto cse d’origine Latina/Greco antico è molto difficile per chi non ha perlomeno studiato un minimo di grammatica. Dipende o se hai bisogno di conoscere la lingua per dialogare per lavoro, pubblicamente per conferenze o situazioni del genere. Sinceramente, non vedo la necessità di fare tutto lo sbattimento di un corso se è solo per andare in vacanza tipo; ordinare al ristorante, o fare compere, visto che il 99% degli italiani parla inglese abbastanza da farsi capire dai turisti molto meglio della gran parte degli inglesi/americani. E comunque senza almeno aver visitato il paese non si può parlare una lingua straniera! Il contesto è tutto!!! Idem per chi ha studiato inglese a scuola e si ritrova in circostanze lavorative in Australia o in sud Africa…. Vedi come cambia l’inglese che si parla 😂😂😂. Poi chiaro, ognuno ha i suoi motivi personali per voler apprendere un’altra lingua, e ben venga chiunque voglia arricchire le proprie conoscenze. Però, dire che una persona di media cultura e intelligenza medio/alta parlerà italiano in due settimane è ridicolo!!
Hi, Zak Shah. You're not wrong, in my opinion. In fact, the amount of exposure depends on the learner (their needs, how much free time they actually have, their goals...). So 15-20 minutes can be enough, but you'll make progress at a slow pace. Since Olly has challenged himself to get lots of comprehensible input within a month, the more the merrier :-)
Clearly your other languages are helping a lot, the pace you describe sounds beyond the average pace of learning...Plus I really do think your early Italian helps. I took French 30 years ago, for 1 year or less in a chaotic public school and now learning Italian I still find I pull up French words. Just to say the brain is amazing at holding languages somewhere in the dark recesses of the mind.
I had a similar experience when I first started learning Spanish, all these French words started coming to mind and I thought I hardly remembered any French lol, it is amazing really. Especially since I wasn't confident with languages or my memory in general back in school. Now I'm loving the process of learning and I really want to learn Italian too but I want to get my Spanish to a high level first
I got black out drunk two years after I graduated high school, and according to everyone who was there, at one point I exclusively spoke German. I had 3 years in highschool (very low quality curriculum), and was never any good at it, plus it had been about 3 years since I ever used any of it in any way, shape, or form.
Upon being told this, I was amazed to realize I had a shockingly strong command over German. My vocab and grammar was lacking compared to the level 3 German class version of my past self, but I found I could watch videos and ACTUALLY understand them somehow. Anyone who took a language course in school knows how shocking it is to actually be able to listen or speak since all the focus is on mastering grammar that native speakers don't even use and being a vocab dictionary (because the most important thing is to have a big vocabulary - who cares about being able to listen or speak? Those are trivial forms of human communication! Anyways, I digress...)
The human brain is mysterious and incredible. It's like somehow a certain form of damage was done to my brain that overstimulated the spot where it's holding one of the two forgotten languages I spent many years learning. Why I wasn't speaking French (a language I was drastically more competent and comfortable with) that night I will never know.
@@davidnichol4735 That's a cool story!
It's awesome that you took the comment about showing us a different location of London in each video, also I just found your videos on my journey to learning Italian! I'm excited to keep watching your videos.
I started learning Italian and I actually bet with my father that we're going on vacation to Italy if I can learn it in one year. Honestly, I'm not doing really good progress. For me, listening is the most helpful (I'm not on that level in Italian, but it helped a lot with my English). Btw, I'm learning Italian in English and I wish good luck who's currently learning a language. Don't give up and thank you for those who read this.
Did you win the bet? 😅
Did you win the bet??
@@Lovepand not really but we went to Italy last year
Great video. Seriously, this was perfect. The fact that you mentioned that you got bored during the week really spoke a lot more to me. I love this video, and I feel like im gonna come back to it more when I start learning Italian
Glad it was useful!
It's cool you've been using my podcast :) Did you only check out the episodes with transcipts or also those without?
Hey Davide! Nice surprise! I’ve just been using those episodes that are on LingQ, so the transcript is included. I’m finding that my comprehension is improving so quickly, that I think by next week I will already be on to more authentic content, including stuff without the transcript, so I’ll be sure to check out the rest of your library!
Poi dimmi che cosa ne pensi! E se vuoi iniziare a parlare, scrivimi un messaggio :) Possiamo fare uno scambio.
I’m hoping you see this and will answer please. What method of learning Italian would you suggest for someone that is completely blind? I went blind in 2013, and before that, I was okay at discerning what a word might be from the spelling. It’s only recently I’ve wanted to learn Italian though.
@@storylearning I’m hoping you see this and will answer please. What method of learning Italian would you suggest for someone that is completely blind? I went blind in 2013, and before that, I was okay at discerning what a word might be from the spelling. It’s only recently I’ve wanted to learn Italian though.
Hi Olly! I'm also in the very beginning of learning Italian and know some intermediate French and Spanish from before and I'm definitely going to follow you intensely from now on, with your newsletter and vlog. Love that you share inside tips and stuff like that, AS WELL as talking about your struggles. I actually gets me motivated to know that all successful language learners struggle, just as I do, but they keep on going.
Buona fortuna!
Great to hear, Erik! Good luck and let me know how you get on!
Learning a new language is a really long life journey, unfortunately is not a 3 months trip..especially if your native language has nothing to do with your target language. As an ltalian,l've been studing american english for years and l still struggle undestanding movies in english..
It constantly pops up new expressions and words to memorize in context, the same word has so many different meaning depending on the context..then phresal verbs are thousands,not to mention how freaks me out connecting speech🤯
Be focus on your goal and keep going!!
Yes, it's truly a lifelong journey. I've been living in France, on and off, for nearly 20 years, and I still feel as if I have far to go before my writing, expecially, becomes error-free! And oh yes, listening to French films, *I have the same experience you do with American films.* In fact, here in Paris, I prefer going to films in *any* language other than French, because I can read the French subtitles quickly. But if the film is in French, I'll miss a lot of the jokes. It's frustrating!
I'm english, I never realized english was like that lol. I'm trying to learn german and this happens all the time, words just mean very different things in different contexts.
I like that Collins Easy Learning Grammar - it works on the 80/20 principle by covering the 20% of grammar that will help you understand 80% of what you're encountering. It feels about the right level for a first iteration through the language. A quick skim gives a great overview of how things work, and it breaks stuff down into small chunks so you can quickly understand anything that's proving problematic in your input.
I've also got a very interesting Routledge grammar by Anna Proudfoot (Modern Italian Grammar) which I plan to use once I've got a sense of the basic patterns. It teaches intermediate grammar through the functional lens of practical applications like expressing opinions or asking people to do things, which I find more interesting and useful than an academic grammar. Highly recommended, from what I've seen of it.
I'm on the first days of my own Italian project, and started using the first 50 Assimil lessons for input to attune my ear. I was able to cover around 5 lessons a session to full comprehension, given the high number of cognates they use. Compelling input they are not - it's not their best course. But they are convenient and progressive and just about bearable - they got me over the hump so I can start to make some sense of native input on TH-cam. Plus the recordings are of a high standard and an excellent model for pronunciation. I think I'll finish the course for comprehension, but I'll only use it selectively for sentence mining on the output side, as a lot of it isn't very relevant to me (Smoking? Gala openings at the opera? Jewellery shopping?) Lots of useful idioms though - I've googled them and they are mostly still current. Ordered it through the library, so the price was right.
Now I'm orientated, I'm using the Collins to tackle the more challenging areas like the formidable pronoun system while tacking more ambitious input. Because it's so simplified, I find I can cover a topic like nouns or adjectives in a quick study session to the point when I'm sensitised to the pattern in input, and starting to play with it in output.
I'll be interested to discover what your next steps will be. My current plan is to work up practical "Language Islands" on the Boris Shekhtman model and activate them in conversation practice. His ideas emerged out a huge amount of experimentation at the FSI and they are well proven. I think I need a more proactive approach than Steve's method to keep me motivated. I like the idea of fast, time-limited iterations where I focus work on input, grammar and vocab on a specific area of output, but that might change once I've seen how you proceeded.
Hey mate, I'm starting my first day today, how was it your 2 years of learning?
@@pedrodemarco8083 Interrupted by health and personal issues, I'm afraid. Just got going again a few days ago, so too early to say. Good luck with your project!
Listening to these series about your Italian project I thought your were a total beginner in that language but I remembered an interview you had with Luke Thompson from Luke's English Podcast episode 332 Olly Richards Top Advices and Strategies for Language Learning. In this episode of LEP you said : "Italian's a bit funny because I used to speak it very well but I haven't done any practise. Italian is a language I understand a lot of but for speak it I'll need a lot of practises to get it back. That was in 2016 and it explains why you were able to write a book in Italian before you "Italian Project."
So of course I suppose these series called Olly's Learn Italian Project were not supposed to have any " Scientifics" purposes.We would need more experiments with a lot of students.But don't you think, it should have been better for your demonstration to choose a language you don't speak at all : Finnish, Russian, Danish etc. That also arises a reflexion. I think we never forget anything all the information are still somewhere in our mind waiting to be waken up.
Well maybe you mentioned in your intro you were not a total beginner in Italian, if not I think you should have done it. Anyway I subscribed to your channels that's the proof I find it useful .
I agree with Aquarius -- for your next project, why not try a language in which you don't already have a background?
Good call - a lot of these guys pull this stunt, either for YT clickbait or to flog some language course. That said, I do like Olly's language courses, just wish he'd be more honest with us!
I love Udemy. That's a great idea.
I actually had bought a short story book of yours before finding your TH-cam channel. Very cool.
Hi Olly , very empresses , how committed you are , thank you for sharing your journey with us , when you're listening do you wright. The words down that you understand .? Thank you for the resources you sharing and the idea. I'll give three months you'll speak Italian! See you next video.
Rose
Hi Rose, thanks for your comment. No - no writing, just focusing on understanding! I’m deliberately avoiding any time-consuming “study” activities at this stage, as my only goal is massive input!
I liked getting to know more of London, a beautiful and modern city as far as I can tell.
Old and new!
Very interesting. Thank you. Steve Kaufman emphasises the importance of noticing and also uses his known words count as a measure of progress (e.g. start speaking when a certain number is reached). I suppose measuring progress and maintaining motivation is an issue for people learning on their own. So what is your strategy for measuring progress?
Stephen I know I can always rely on you for an interesting question! I’m not sure I have a fully worked out answer for you, largely because I’m familiar with my motivation, and from past experience I don’t think I will have a problem with a short-term project like this. However, I will admit that I am already itching to start speaking Italian! If I’m feeling such a strong urge to start speaking after only week one, I can only imagine what It will be like a couple of weeks from now. However, I’m really trying to give comprehensible input as much of a chance as possible. So I’m going to try my best to stick to the plan. As soon as I actually start speaking in month two, I’ll be doing everything I can to actually get out there and live an Italian life here in London, and I believe that will be all the motivation I need.
Thank you, Olly! It was really interesting. And London is so beautiful! :)
Glad you liked it!
I have to agree with Yoga Bliss Dance. How ever I’m a little skeptical. Here’s a challenge for the next time you learn a new language. Find someone that has no language skills at all and take us all along with his and your progress. A good candidate would be someone that might be planning a trip to the country that speaks the language your planning to learn.
keep up the good work Olly.
Thanks James
0:35 "So here we are today in Canary Wharf!" Me, an American who has never been to England: Oh, you mean the place the Daleks fought the Cybermen in Torchwood Tower? 🤣
Seriously though, I'm super late to this party but I dearly want to learn to be conversational in French within 6 months if it's at all possible and it's really helping me to make a plan for that so thank you!
> being American
> knowing obscure Dr. Who trivia
Get out, imposter!
@@davidnichol4735 I'm not sus I swear! As a Rose Tyler and Ten fan, I'd be disappointed in myself if I *didn't* know lol. Also I like pineapple on my pizza so clearly my godless American license is legit.
@@RivkahSong if pineapple on pizza is un-American, then I'm a damn traitor.
I was just joking about the reaction people give me when I say anything about Dr Who. People act like if you watch the show as a "non British-speaker" (that accent is intense, though, I'll agree with that) you burst into flames.
@@davidnichol4735 lol I guess we godless American Whovians have to stick together, then! **toasts you with delicious Hawaiian-style pizza**
Bonjorno Olly, looking for to see your update on your Italian. You know why I did asked? because your information and your method helping me and others. Thanks Olly buena swerte.
Buongiorno *
I found your update video on the first week of Italian very interesting. I was interested in seeing how the " nuts and bolts" of LIngQ work; and the way you are explaining your resources; with your daily routine in learning Italian. (I like your background video clips of London!)
Thanks Paul!
How many times are you listening to a story on average? Are you listening to a story over and over until you pretty much understand it all and feel comfortable with the majority of the vocab or are you quickly moving on and listening to many different stories?
In general I’m listening to stories over and over until I understand 90% plus. With easy material that can happen immediately. With harder material like I’m listening to right now, I might need to listen to it 10 times. But I really enjoy that repeat listening because I find I noticed new things every time.
Olly. I have listened to most of your TH-cam videos purchased your Italian story books. I have listened to Steve Kaufman and I am still completely confused. How does one read stories without having any translations? What is it beginners are supposed to be listening too? I’m looking to you for some guidance please.
Hey Olly, nice video.
Cheers
I’m hoping you see this and will answer please. What method of learning Italian would you suggest for someone that is completely blind? I went blind in 2013, and before that, I was okay at discerning what a word might be from the spelling. It’s only recently I’ve wanted to learn Italian though.
Can you play some stuff that you enjoyed for us in a video and describe why you liked it? Also, what do you do when you are listening? Are you taking notes as reading along?
I’m literally just listening and reading along. I’m not taking any notes, but I am looking up words occasionally as I go, in order to understand what the hell I’m listening to :-)
When will you start to use the flash cards?
I'm not very clear how you are planning to use them in this new methodology, will you review them after you have read the story?
btw I love your stories book (for Russian). any chances of more coming out?
Right now I’m not using anything, because I’m working under the assumption that I will learn a lot of the stuff naturally with repeat listening and lots of contact. We will see how that works out. Really the point of flashcards is to help with output (or production). In other words to help with your speaking. So I think this will become clearer in month 2 when I actually start speaking, and need to be able to recall words and phrases more reliably.
when you are listening, do you read english translation to help learn to understand, or do you just listen in straight italian... I feel like I do not understand any more by listening to Italian while not knowing any other romance languages is kind of just like
I watch this series whenever I need some motivation. I think you are greatly unappreciated in the language learning space. Keep making more videos. I enjoy your newer take on different languages but I would love to see you try more language learning methods and see your journey through it.
Hi Olly. So at 1:51 you say you do 1-2 hours of hours of focused study. But what about your article on sprints? and you said you focus on one activity for 3 weeks and do sprints?
Sure, so in this case the one activity (sprint) is reading and listening. Since I’m trying a new method this time, I’m not restricting it to 3 weeks. But the principle is the same, to focus on one activity above all, and to do it well. Hope that helps.
Olly Richards ah so by activity you mean one of: speaking, reading, listening, writing. You don’t mean one activity as in only do Colloquial, or only do Flashcards, or only post speeches on Lang8?.
By the way your new method is learning Italian by only comprehensible input ?(With some Collins grammar haha)
It can be anything. The point is to focus. Most people get lost in a sea of possibility.
Hi, 😊
Nice to see Your dashboard. Yes, marking entire phrases or expressions makes perfect sense- it's good to use chuncking method with lots of audio input. This is how one can build up correct speaking patterns without starting from painful grammar drills from day one. It's actually godd crash course in speaking. As for quick audio input containing grammar- maybe youtube vidoes made by Veronica from Oneworlditaliano could help? Since she makes mini-stories focused on each grammar point. One may study patterns but one may also focus on the story itself. Lucrezia from Learn Italian with Lucrezia also makes videos focused on how grammar is used, not how it's constructed plus mini-stories with walks in different Italian cities. I can also recommend songs by Emma and Ultimo. They have both very nice voices, really poetic and interesting lyrics yet their songs are really quite catchy so, it's easy to recall them. Both cna be found on YT as well as on Spotify. I actually added various Italian singers recently to my Spotify following different recommendations from other learners of Italian.
Thanks for the great tips!
Hi, Olly. Steve Kaufmann says that once you get back to a language you haven't spoken for a long time, it soon gets activated and you speak it better than ever. You said you spoke some decent Italian 17 years ago. What level did you reach back then? Do you feel as a complete beginner or is some of your knowledge getting activated?
Yes I agree about reactivating an old language, But I don’t feel it applies to me in this case. The reason is that when I learnt Italian, about 17 years ago, it was a very short project of a couple of months. I did learn to say quite a bit in that time, but because it was such a small project to come I also forgot it all very quickly once I started learning other languages, Spanish and Portuguese. I also saw this happen in my tie project a couple of years ago. When language is in your short term, tactical memory, it really isn’t consolidated in any meaningful long-term way. It’s totally different from say my French, I actually lived in France for six months and spoke it on a daily basis. So it’s hard to say exactly what kind of advantage it will be, but I think the best analogy is that of someone who learnt a language at school many years ago and has some residual knowledge, without it being very useful
this is fun
I like to watch movies with subtitles on. The only bad thing is you can't slow it down
I realize I'm a little late, but I'm confused about something. HOW are you NOT fluent in Italian, yet, you are studying Italian, with a book of Short Stories, which I own BTW, that YOU YOURSELF WROTE???🧐 Am I missing something??🤔
Hi olly, bellissimo però non ho visto mail piace lei video è molto fantastico
he memorized so many words that his brain is starting to forget how to speak english
I'm gonna use this series to learn russian lol
and maybe italian after
I notice that you speak super fast in English. Is that a sign of language facility in general?
I don't think so, more just personality.
ciao
So you wrote a book of Italian Short Stories ... before you learned Italian??? What? And you used your own book to help you learn the language you didn't know when you wrote it?
Very confusing.
I have books in Russian, Turkish and Korean too… but I didn’t translate them.
Parlare una lingua soprattutto cse d’origine Latina/Greco antico è molto difficile per chi non ha perlomeno studiato un minimo di grammatica. Dipende o se hai bisogno di conoscere la lingua per dialogare per lavoro, pubblicamente per conferenze o situazioni del genere. Sinceramente, non vedo la necessità di fare tutto lo sbattimento di un corso se è solo per andare in vacanza tipo; ordinare al ristorante, o fare compere, visto che il 99% degli italiani parla inglese abbastanza da farsi capire dai turisti molto meglio della gran parte degli inglesi/americani. E comunque senza almeno aver visitato il paese non si può parlare una lingua straniera! Il contesto è tutto!!! Idem per chi ha studiato inglese a scuola e si ritrova in circostanze lavorative in Australia o in sud Africa…. Vedi come cambia l’inglese che si parla 😂😂😂. Poi chiaro, ognuno ha i suoi motivi personali per voler apprendere un’altra lingua, e ben venga chiunque voglia arricchire le proprie conoscenze. Però, dire che una persona di media cultura e intelligenza medio/alta parlerà italiano in due settimane è ridicolo!!
Holy shit, 12 hours is a LOT. I was thinking that listening for 15-20 minutes was adequate. Am I wrong?
Hi, Zak Shah. You're not wrong, in my opinion. In fact, the amount of exposure depends on the learner (their needs, how much free time they actually have, their goals...). So 15-20 minutes can be enough, but you'll make progress at a slow pace. Since Olly has challenged himself to get lots of comprehensible input within a month, the more the merrier :-)
What Israel said!