Guided tour

Learn how to learn

Welcome! Now you have access to my lessons. However, even the best language course won’t work if you don’t know how to use it or if you don’t use it regularly. So, before starting out, invest a few minutes to understand my method. This introduction takes only 10 minutes and will save you years of study.

My method

How we all learn languages

After learning 12 languages, I came to the conclusion that we all learn languages by listening and mimicking. A bit like we did when we were babies. That’s why I created study material to learn Italian by speaking.

My courses

My original learning resources are called Impara Con Me (learn with me) and include two kinds of lessons.

1. Ripeti Con Me (repeat after me) is an audio course to learn grammar without studying rules, but rather by listening and repeating many sample sentences.
2. Leggi Con Me (read with me) is a collection of bilingual readings with slow audio to expand your vocabulary with simplified and yet real-world material.

The combination of the two will make you familiar with grammar patterns and let you put them into practice right away.

Audio course Ripeti Con Me

Concept

First, listen to my very personal introduction to this course: This is an audio course specifically designed for the Italian language with a focus on conversation. I’ll show you how to say things in Italian and you’ll repeat after me to acquire vocabulary and grammar naturally. Each lesson covers one grammar pattern without explicitly teaching it, but rather showing many examples in English and Italian.

How to take a lesson

Simply put, you need to repeat everything that you hear in Italian. Every lesson includes 30 sentences in English and Italian and is made up of 3 sequences: A, B, and C. In sequence A:

1. you listen to a sentence in English
2. then you hear it in Italian
3. then you repeat it while you hear it again.

If you already understand something of what you hear and you’re brave enough, try to repeat also the first time that you hear a sentence in Italian. In sequence B:

1. you listen to a sentence in English
2. then you have time to say that in Italian
3. then, repeat the sentence in Italian while you hear it.

Don’t’ worry if you can’t recollect exactly. Try to say something anyway. In sequence C:

1. you need to speak along in Italian.

There is no English version. You find a recap in the figure below:

Pro tips

Now, I’ll give you a few tips to boost your progress:

• Take one lesson a day, every day. Neither more nor less. If you feel ready, move on to the next lesson, else repeat the lesson. You should take a night of sleep between lessons.
• It’s vital that you listen and repeat what you hear. Don’t listen passively, or it would go into one ear and come out from the other.
• The first time you listen to a lesson, don’t look at the booklet, but rather rely on audio.
• Go through A, B, and C on the same day, in that order, all in a row, without pausing the audio. Together, they take about 15-30 minutes.
• You’re not expected to remember or even understand everything you hear.
• It’s totally normal to miss words and mumble phrases. You’ll catch them later.
• There’s no need to stick to one lesson only because you don’t understand something.
• If you can keep up somehow with about 70% of the content, move on to the next lesson; or else, repeat the lesson the day after.
• You should take a night of sleep between lessons.

FAQs about Ripeti Con Me and other topics are available on the support page.

Grammar notes

Personally, I never study grammar explicitly, but I rather acquire it by making mistakes in conversation. That’s why my lessons do not include grammar notes in order to focus on speaking. However, if you just can’t resist the charm of grammar rules, you do find a link to grammar notes on every lesson of Ripeti con me! But read it after you finish the lesson, not before!

Readings Leggi Con Me

Reading the smart way

Reading is useful to expand your vocabulary and to put into practice what you’ve learned in class. However, usually, people read silently. This makes it difficult to recollect and recount what you just read. That’s why, in Leggi Con Me, first, you listen to a story and then read it aloud. This also improves your pronunciation. The readings don’t follow a path but are sorted by level. I add new material every day, so there’s always something new to learn!

What’s in a reading

The collection of readings is made up of 5 categories:

• Short stories
• News
• Conversations
• Jokes
• Songs

Every lesson of Leggi Con Me includes:

• Audio with adjustable narration speed We all learn by listening and mimicking. That’s why audio is paramount. First, rely on the audio without reading.
• Italian transcript After the first round of listening, read aloud the Italian text without looking at the translation.
• English translation Still puzzled by some words? Check out the English version!

Bookmark a story and review it after a few days. You’ll be surprised by how much more you can understand!

Get started

Bravo! You made it to the end. If you’re motivated enough to read this, you’ll also make progress fast with my lessons. Now that you know how my method works and where to find the lessons, you can start to study on your own. I collected all the resources you need on your dashboard. Bookmark the page and visit it every day to find the lessons you need right away. The dashboard shows lessons based on your level of Italian and other resources, together with your recent history to keep track of your progress. You may set your level at any time on your dashboard. On the dashboard, choose a lesson of Ripeti Con Me or Leggi Con Me and take it today. If you still have questions, find the answers on the “support” page or send me a message. Happy learning! Ciao ciao!