Introduction:

Italian, a romance language, is a very beautiful tongue. It is the closest language to Latin in terms of vocabulary. It is also the third most spoken language in the world with 85 million speakers. Although so widely spoken, it can still be challenging to learn Italian. Read this blog to know what you should focus on next as you start learning the Italian tongue.

• What you should focus on next 

Since you are someone who is learning Italian and you must be at the beginner or intermediate levels. This is the right time to start polishing your language skills. The sooner you start the better it is by the end of your learning program. So what exactly is meant by polishing your language skills? It basically is a mixture of reading, speaking, writing, and understanding abilities that one must possess while acquiring a language. You need to understand which area or skill you want to work on and according to that choose the right way to practice it. There are various ways associated with each type of practice that you might need to master your Italian language skills which we will discuss in this blog.

• To practice your reading skills 

Italian is not very difficult to read, unlike some languages it does not comprise any special characters. Hence this step should be easy for you. As a beginner you can try reading Children’s books, that will help you as they use very simple words and grammar. To practice your reading skills as an intermediate or advanced level learner, you can subscribe to Italian dailies, you can subscribe to them online or you can also check if you can get the hard copies. These come extremely handy, as you will come across a lot of words on a daily basis. This will not only strengthen your reading but also your grammar and your vocabulary. Another way to practice your reading skills is to read books in Italian.

• To practice your writing skills 

To practice your writing skills, as a beginner you can follow any kid’s Italian books, these usually are beginner-level friendly and are written in simple language. You can solve the exercises given at the end of the chapters. 

And as an intermediate or advanced level learner, you can give yourself random topics to write essays or articles on and get them checked by someone who is fluent in Italian. You can easily find topic ideas online as well in case you are confused with that. 

Also maintaining a journal right from the beginning of the learning is very important and helps a lot. This also ensures written practice as well as guarantees memory. It becomes easier to remember and recollect anything that is written down. 

• To practice your listening skills 

To practice your listening skills, you can rely on Italian movies, songs, OTT platforms, and news. If you are someone who is at the beginner level, you can listen to Children’s bedtime stories and shows, these shows use simpler language and are also spoken in a slow tone, that will help you understand each melody of the language and enhance your listening skills to be able to differentiate between various words. As an intermediate or advanced level learner, there are some fun and interesting things that you can watch. From some great movies and series to beautiful music and songs, the list is very big. The plots are very nice and entertaining with some very unique stories. Apart from these, you can also follow daily news channels in order to learn the formal language. Speeches by politicians, celebrities, sports persons can also help. 

• To practice your communication skills

To practice your communication skills, the best way is to take help from social media. All level learners can benefit from this option. There are various cultural and language exchange groups on various social media platforms. You can join one or some of those and start communicating with a group of Italian learners or Italian locals. You can also easily do this if you already know someone who is well versed in Italian. 

Another way of doing it can be enrolling for any session that is specially designed just to enhance your communication skills. There are various paid sites and tools known as online language exchange partners that provide the learners with this option. 

• Conclusion 

As a newbie, one can find the task of learning Italian very overwhelming and might confuse you with what you should learn next. The order that you should follow is focused on reading first, then move on to the writing part, then the listening skills, and lastly the communication aspect should be tackled. This way you will have a linked learning experience and not get confused while learning the language.