The Italian language always seemed very interesting to me. When I thought of learning a foreign language the first that came to my mind was “Italian”. I never had a second thought while deciding to learn the language. I have done a course in the Italian language from Multibhashi which is an online language learning platform. I have completed my B1 level in Italian. Along with taking up a course from Multibhashi, I had devoted my maximum time studying Italian at home. Before enrolling for a foreign language course I felt a bit hesitant and was a bit unsure but then I realized that it would be very useful for my personality development and growth in the professional field. And overall it has been an awesome journey mixed with excitement, frustrations, failures and finally achieving the desired goal. 

The positive things that helped me to overcome all the difficulties were proper guidance, motivation, my passion for the language, and of course my dedication and consistency. Focusing on various other learning methods made me feel more comfortable while I used to study the language at home. I used to watch Italian TV shows, listen to Italian music, podcasts, Italian radio. These methods helped me a lot to learn the language. Also, many times while working at home I listen to Italian songs and radio and this passive learning helps a lot. 

During my learning journey, I had to face a lot of challenges and complications. Often I felt demotivated as I was unable to cope up with the language at the beginning, but thanks to my mentor who kept on motivating me in several ways. Many people told me that learning a foreign language at my age (in my 30’s) was not possible, I got discouraged but I tried hard, I pledged to learn the language by any means.  

The complicated conjugations, numerous verb tenses, confusing pronoun rules, and various other grammar parts made me feel like I was in an unknown land full of unknown people and always had a fear in mind that I won’t be able to learn the language. But once again, thanks to my guide, my mentor, who made these things so simple for me that I could gradually learn and understand all these. 

After learning the language to some extent, came the biggest fear, and that is fear of speaking. This is where one thinks that one can’t get beyond this. But I would say, any person will be able to overcome this once he/she learns to overcome their fear. I found a couple of language partners and native speakers online. I communicated with them regularly and they were also really helpful and this helped me a lot to polish my pronunciation. 

Many times I got discouraged by many people, even my close people discouraged me at times. Many people even told me that I was wasting my time trying to learn a foreign language at my age. But I did not break down, I never got demotivated, I just knew that I have to overcome all these to reach my ultimate goal of learning the language. 

My progress has not been very fast, but it was slow and steady, which is really important. I took my own time and learned each and every bit of thing at my own pace. I practiced a lot. I did not hurry, neither did my mentor. And yes I am still learning. And will keep on learning in the future too as learning a language. 

If you are also learning Italian like me, I would definitely suggest you take up a course or online training, make daily and regular efforts to learn the language. You need to understand the gestures of the Italians to learn the language in a better way. Read Italian journals and talk to native Italian speakers. You need to practice a lot. You need to stay motivated by listening to podcasts, radio, and music. You need to be aware and updated about various opportunities.