Learn to speak fluent Italian
When it comes to languages, Italian is truly popular: worldwide, it ranks fourth on the list of languages learned. This is quite unusual when you consider that Italian isn’t that widely spoken compared to languages like English, Spanish or Chinese. But the tremendous allure of the language and culture means many people still put learning Italian on their bucket list.
You’d think that once you’ve taken an Italian course, you’d be able to conjure up a reasonable sentence or two in the language, yet—more often than not—people end up lost for words as soon as an Italian starts busily gesticulating and conversing with them. There you find yourself, with all that grammar and vocabulary knowledge...
Communicate in Italian
Many Italian courses often simply come up short when it comes to developing practical skills so you can actually use the language—things like understanding the rapid-fire Italian of actual Italians and formulating your own sentences.
At Regina Coeli, we take a completely different approach by making speaking the starting point, right from the very beginning. Many of our students have already learned a thing or two about the language and culture before they come to us, and they generally know a few fixed phrases. But they’re usually not yet able to speak true Italian. It’s up to us to get them to the point where they can speak—happily, that always works out really well!
You only learn Italian by speaking the language, and there’s a big difference between written and spoken Italian. Written Italian is often very formal, while spoken Italian is extremely warm and personal. That leads us to the question:
What’s the best way to learn Italian?
1. Learn from native speakers.
Languages are best learned from people. With Italian, you learn it best from people who’ve been speaking it their entire lives. That way you also learn the gestures that support the language.
2. Come into a flow.
Italian is a language you don’t hear around you every day unless you live in Italy or under the same roof as a native speaker. If that doesn’t describe you, you’ll really need to immerse yourself in the language. You’ll learn best if you come into a flow and don’t have to ‘switch’ into Italian mode every time. Opt for more intensive training so you’ll be able to learn a lot in a short time.
3. Focus on speaking.
You’ll benefit most from understanding Italians in everyday communication and from being able to make yourself understood in those contexts, so choose a training course that helps you speak Italian. All the knowledge of grammar in the world is of no use to you if you can’t speak a coherent sentence in Italian.
4. Know what you want.
Why do you want to speak Italian? Are you planning to buy a second home in Italy and want to be able to talk to your neighbours? Or are you going to do business there and want to gain the trust of a business partner? These things make a big difference in how your Italian training should be set up, and it really helps to take this into account when choosing your training.
Learn Italian at Regina Coeli
At Regina Coeli, you have individual lessons from native speakers—lessons that are shaped around the personal programme we put together with and for you. This is possible in Vught, but also in online lessons. You mainly speak Italian in your lessons, no matter how simple that may be in the beginning. In between lessons you practice grammar, but also use the authentic Italian learning materials in our multimedia program. You read reports in Italian newspapers, watch Italian movies and listen to audio fragments. You learn to understand the essence of each text and fragment, even if, as a beginner, you can’t yet understand it in detail. This all helps you to prepare for real-life communication with Italians.
Read more about an Italian training course
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