Wife took the usual HS Spanish back in the day but generally doesn't use it much. She now needs to attain B1 proficiency in Italian (and be able to pass the exam). No rush on this but wondering where to start, good approaches, length of time, etc.

Any advice is appreciated.

On you tube, there is a program called Easy Italian.

Is there a chance she could go a few months to Italy?

Why does she want/need Italian?

If you are in a large City, there are Italian speakers.

Otherwise, there are Skype tutors.

I've been using Duolingo to brush up on my high school Spanish as well as start learning Dutch. I'm not sure how advanced it can get but it's been a really good starting point.

Using duolingo as well for German.

littlebitofhifi said:

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I've been using Duolingo to brush up on my high school Spanish as well as start learning Dutch. I'm not sure how advanced it can get but it's been a really good starting point.

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Stupid question, but why do you want to learn Dutch? Just a hobby?

wangus12 said:

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Using duolingo as well for German.

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Check out Easy German on YouTube.

littlebitofhifi said:

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I've got a decent sized team in Amsterdam. We all speak English in the office but I'm just trying to make a gesture by picking up some basics. They get a nice laugh out of my horrible pronunciation, so it's been good for team morale if nothing else.

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OK. That makes sense. I am in Amsterdam a couple of times a year.

Duolingo to start of course. Complete the entire course.

Create an Italki account so she can have Skype lessons with native speakers. It's so hard to find speakers to practice with in the US unless you live in NYC. Speaking the language with people is the #1 most important thing you can do when learning a language. And it's the reason we all suck at foreign languages after taking them in HS--we dont speak it anywhere near enough.

Thanks for the recommendation. She needs the B1 to get citizenship as a spouse. I get mine no matter what via descent.

blindey said:

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Thanks for the recommendation. She needs the B1 to get citizenship as a spouse. I get mine no matter what via descent.

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Skype tutors or someone in your hometown, if you live in a relatively big city, are the best way.

B1 level is not a super high level, but it is conversation and decent writing abilities.

You didn't say where you live, but Berlitz is really good to learn speaking a language.

It is fairly expensive though. My employer, at the time, paid for my German.

Now, I am fully fluent.

littlebitofhifi said:

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I've got a decent sized team in Amsterdam. We all speak English in the office but I'm just trying to make a gesture by picking up some basics. They get a nice laugh out of my horrible pronunciation, so it's been good for team morale if nothing else.

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it is very commendable of you, well done
This is a good idea. Why didn't I do this when I was a student? Now there is a huge database of various scientific papers and articles on a variety of topics. I recently found information about computer science and technology https://samplius.com/free-essay-examples/information-science-and-technology I'm sure it can be useful to you. I wish you good luck in your studies, you are very resourceful, which means that you will succeed.

To actually learn, the top resources will be Pimsleur for speaking/listening and Rosetta Stone for the rest. I cannot recommend them enough. I love Pimsleur because you can drive and learn. It's really excellent and the method works well and helps you retain, but you need more for reading and writing. Free apps are fine for fun, but not for mastery.

SwissAgg said:

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You didn't say where you live, but Berlitz is really good to learn speaking a language.

It is fairly expensive though. My employer, at the time, paid for my German.

Now, I am fully fluent.

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Can you talk a little more about your lessons, time spent per week, method of instruction, etc.?

Hi , I spent about 4 hours per week. Berlitz focuses on speaking and less on writing. You can learn grammar on your own. What language are you interested in?

Do ebomics count?

I've learned two romance languages to C1 fluency as an adult. It took roughly 700 hours over 7 months in each case, hitting the B1 level at about the midpoint of that time. That was with live instruction, but there are a lot of great programs out there now. I've been impressed by Fluenz and think their approach works well for an adult with an English-speaking background.

Read compelling comprehensible input, whatever she likes in Italian. Listen to native speakers everyday (She should watch whatever youtubers that speak Italian she enjoys). Practice writing, conversational response to email, write and defend an argument. Speak Italian. Do it in this order
She should become a sponge. Speaking is least important, it will come natrurally.

GoldenGun00 said:

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I've learned two romance languages to C1 fluency as an adult. It took roughly 700 hours over 7 months in each case, hitting the B1 level at about the midpoint of that time. That was with live instruction, but there are a lot of great programs out there now. I've been impressed by Fluenz and think their approach works well for an adult with an English-speaking background.

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Which languages? Was Spanish one of them? Did you learn both simultaneously? I've heard that is very hard because it is easy to mix up words in different languages.

How often were you practicing with native speakers? Is that part of the Fluenz curriculum?

ThunderCougarFalconBird said:

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Thanks for the recommendation. She needs the B1 to get citizenship as a spouse. I get mine no matter what via descent.

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Adult language learning is actually my specialty at work, and I've taught over 300 young adults how to speak, read and listen to foreign languages.

Two recommendations here, 1 you should do it with her, even though you are getting your citizenship automatically, it's so much easier to learn a language when you work with others. It will give her a speaking partner and you can hold each other accountable.

Secondly, check out some US Government resources. The best part about them is that they are all free. If you go to dliflc.edu you can find headstart programs for pretty much any language in the world. Also, search for the foreign service institute guide to Italian. It's the course we give to diplomats and focused heavily on communicative skills needed to carry on conversations. Some of the guides are dated in terms of the language learning methods, but I learned 4 languages using these dated methods, and it was good enough for me to handle diplomatic conversations in a foreign language.

I've used Berlitz before, and my 2 cents is that the quality of instruction varies wildly. If you go down the Berlitz path just be very specific with what you want. I made the mistake of not being as specific as I should have once and I had a teacher come in ready to teach me verb conjugation when I was ready to work on literature and geopolitics.

ETA link
https://www.dliflc.edu/online-learning/

Just noticed that this thread is super old.

larry culpepper said:

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GoldenGun00 said:

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I've learned two romance languages to C1 fluency as an adult. It took roughly 700 hours over 7 months in each case, hitting the B1 level at about the midpoint of that time. That was with live instruction, but there are a lot of great programs out there now. I've been impressed by Fluenz and think their approach works well for an adult with an English-speaking background.

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Which languages? Was Spanish one of them? Did you learn both simultaneously? I've heard that is very hard because it is easy to mix up words in different languages.

How often were you practicing with native speakers? Is that part of the Fluenz curriculum?

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Spanish and French. I used Fluenz to supplement but not as the primary source of study. It's online, so you don't practice with any live speakers exactly, although you hear native pronunciations and such. I've bought copies for Italian and German but haven't had a chance to learn both yet.

I studied Spanish in school but learned French to fluency first in my early 30s, then learned Spanish to fluency a few years later. I spoke with native speakers on average 5 days a week during the time I was studying seriously. Once I hit C1 in both, it wasn't really that hard to keep them separate, with the exception being that if I've been speaking one a lot for several months I end up mixing some words and phrases from that language into the other one for a bit whenever I swap over. Also, I'd note that it was incredibly tiring studying language for hours straight when I was learning French, but after I did that and my brain got used to using a foreign language regularly, it was much less exhausting when I went back and studied Spanish.

The DoD resources listed in the above post are also very good. I used the State ones many years ago and thought they were pretty bad, but they may have changed since then.

I'll agree that the State ones are bad by modern definitions of language learning materials, but what drew me to them was materials in esoteric dialects that are hard to find course materials in.

Had I been studying French or Spanish there is no way I'd use the FSI guides.

So yes in the context of this thread and learning a romance language I agree. If interested in learning something like Kurdish, an Arabic dialect etc. it might be a good option for some.

The post was not recent, but it is certainly timeless. There are some good tips here, and learning a new

language helps you learn and strengthen your native language.