Hi! I'm going to Italy in October, and I have a goal to be able to at least hold a simple to moderate conversations in Italian while I'm over there. I have, in the past, taken an Italian class at a local community college... but I found it to be a train wreck. by week 3 I was completely lost.. we spent so much time understanding feminine and masculine, and congugating verbs.. and I didn't even know any nouns! I checked my syllabus 3 times to make sure I was in beginning Italian.. and I was... I ended up dropping out in week 4 because I was completely lost..

So I bought some of these language CD's. I bought "global access" brand... there are about 8 cd's of phrases.. you have a guide you can print out.. and then you listen to the cd's.. they say a word in english, and then repeat it twice in Italian (a bit fast for me.. I wish they would slow it down just a bit so I could really hear the correct pronunciations.. but overall not bad.. )

The problem is... how do I get the most out of these? Lesson 1 has about 15-20 phrases... I've listened to them 4 or 5 times... I've read along with the guide... but, not many of them are being commited to memory. Do I just listen over and over and over and over for weeks to the same lesson before moving on? or do I move on and work all the lessons on the same cd, over and over? I mean... that's all just rote, right? anyone have any hints for making the most of these things? I have 7 1/2 months before I leave, and I'd love to learn everything on these cd's by then... any suggestions?

Hi Scarlet - I taught myself mandarin using language CDs. What I found worked well for me was listening to the CDs before bed (usually just one lesson) as apparently this assists with memory. I also wrote up each lesson's phrases/vocab on sheets of paper and stuck them to the outside of my glass shower door so I could focus on them while showering (something to do besides singing in the shower hehe). Sometimes I also made little flipcards to test myself with phrases.

I'm now doing an Italian course at the CAE in Melbourne - and it's actually going quite well

Cheers
Christine

Take a look at the techniques for learning thread.

I began learning Italian with tapes in the days before CDs, listening to the same lesson over and over and made written notes of the vocabulary I needed to learn. I've been studying for some time now but still make "cheat" cards before a trip. I take the 5x7 notecards and label one for each topic, restaurants, shopping, laundry, hotel, etc. and carry them with me. Good luck.

quote:

Originally posted by Christine in Australia:
Hi Scarlet - I taught myself mandarin using language CDs.

Complimenti!!

Just out of interest which CDs did you use and how long did it take? (Sorry, completely off topic but I want to go to China next year and want to learn a bit before I go - so it seems daunting, to say the least)