u/elenalanguagetutor

As an Italian native speaker, I am curious to know!

I heard this so often from my students. "I don't have a talent for languages!". Do you think that's true to some extent?

Nowadays there are so many tools available that you can learn a language well without ever visiting the country where it is spoken. Agree or disagree?

Hey LanguageHub community! 👋

It’s time for our weekly Language Goal Check-In! What have you learned this week?

Ciao a tutti!

Mi chiamo Elena. Sono un'insegnante di italiano online. Negli ultimi mesi sto lavorando a un progetto chiamato Jolii AI, un'app per imparare le lingue utilizzando i video di YouTube e Netflix.

L'idea è creare un metodo efficace per imparare le lingue attraverso i video in un modo attivo con esercizi, sottotitoli interattivi, ecc..

Al momento stiamo cercando persone disposte a provare l'app e a condividere il loro feedback sincero.. 😊

La vostra opinione sarebbe molto utile!

Sentitevi liberi di commentare qui sotto o di inviarmi un messaggio privato. Ho anche creato un modulo Google Forms per raccogliere feedback: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfG4RaOTfmgHD_n9LZfSfg47uCD9VssgWSjV6b0lNttvQPnBQ/viewform?usp=header

Grazie a tutti!

Elena

Apple store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/jolii-ai-language-learning/id6740603058

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jolii.android.app

Hallo! I am trying to level up and finally achieve C1 (or even C2!). Here's what my current setup looks like for improving my German. Less grammar, more immersion!

Passive immersion

• ZDF for authentic German movies and series. I like the channel ZDFNeo, with easy to follow shows for young people. You might have some restrictions depending on your country, especially for live shows.
• DW for when I need something slightly more accessible, made for language learners

Active Video immersion

• Jolii AI: Been using this for a more active immersion German video content. There I can watch any YouTube or Netflix video with subtitles, save words, and practice them later. There are some drills and dialog simulations which i find helpful to get some extra speaking practice.

Active reading & listening

• Kindle & Audible (combined): It gets more expensive, but I love reading and listening at the same time. It helps me control the instrnct of looking up every work I don't know and improves my listening skills as well. With Kindle, I cna tap of words and look up the meaning directly.

Currently reading a crime based in my hometown in Italy "Abscheid auf Italienisch". Easy to follow what's going on in the story.

Monolingual Dictionary

• PONS: I switched to monolingual dictionary "Deutsch als Fremdsprache", so I am 100% immersed and noy relying on translation. I save words there and note them down in a notebook.

Speaking and grammar

• italki: One hour a week with a tutor, mostly conversation with light correction. Not really a structured lesson.
• Grammatik: When I feel like reviewing some grammar. I also have a paper book "Begegnungen" for that.

What I've noticed at my level: the more I read and watch, the more I feel that expressions become more natural. I still lack some confidence when speaking, mainly because I am always afraid of making mistakes with gender.. it is what it is I guess!

I really hope to achieve C2 one day! If you have any suggestions to improve my setup please let me know!

Hey LanguageHub community! 👋

It’s time for our weekly Language Goal Check-In! What have you learned this week?

I watched "The Rational Life" and I absolutely loved it, even though it was hard to understand. I can absolutely recomment it!

I am now looking for a new show to improve my Chinese, any recommendation?

As a native Italian speaker, a few years ago I think I learned both Spanish and Portuguese mainly by immersion. What I mean by immersion is that for both languages I first began watching series (some easy binge watching), reading magazines and books (the most useful in my opinion to acquire vocabulary). Then at some point I visited the respective countries and started to attempt speaking. I can share more details, however in both cases I had to work with native speakers who didn't speak English, so I was really forced to use the language. I kinda had the ideal setting for learning by immersion!

In the long term, I eventually realised I missed some advanced grammar and had a look at them, but kind of afterwards, after achieving a solid confidence in using the language.

That said, I think I believe that was possible for the proximity of the languages but I couldn't image doing the same for other languages such as Japanese or Korean for instance.

So I am wondering if anyone actually tried learning a language by immersion? Maybe a language not so close to their native one?

Ciao a tutti! I love learning languages with music, I have learned so many expressions with music! I teach Italian and I am always looking for nice songs to recommend to my students.

So I am asking especially to language learners here, which Italian songs or artists are your favorites?

UPDATE: Thanks everyone for sharing! It's great to read what Italian learners enjoy, you are giving me a lot of ideas!