Jon-Milano

Hello...I'm new here

I've been living and working in Milano since the 1st January (designer), and I'm starting to get frustrated at not speaking Italian (I speak French & German ok)... the company I work for don't feel its important for me to learn Italian so they won't pay (they're serious cheapskates)

Is there a cheap way to learn? Do the government run lessons?

I have some CDs, so I can order things in shops or ask for directions but I need more.

duffer

Watch TV with teletext subtitles or rent some DVDs and watch them with English subtitles. Helps with sentence construction and develops your ear.

I also recommend Michel Thomas language course just because of his simple yet effective approach - no homework or memorising is required - just devote 45 minutes of your time per day to his CD.

There are Government run courses which are extremely cheap and usually run in the evenings (about 10 hours a week!). I attended one and it cost about Euro 30 for 1 term - about 3 months! However you get what you pay for! It was designed for 'stranieri' in mind but more specifically immigrant workers whose original language may not be based on the roman alphabet and who may need to learn to read and write Italian from scratch.

Having said this my Italian is terrible! The only thing that you need is free: will power!

Good luck.

Jon-Milano

Thanks for the ideas

I tried michel thomas when I lived in Germany and the guy really annoys me.............so I'm trying other cds.

But I would like to learn more, so maybe I should check out the stranieri thing.

Any ideas where I can look for it?


I guess I'm just frustrated at working in an Italian speaking studio...and feeling a bit alienated.

Grazie (see.. I'm learning!)

duffer

Yeah Michel Thomas has an accent.

The course I did (which I quit after 2 weeks - hey I paid only 30 Euro!) was at a middle school. I just got bored of doing monotonous drilling exercises. Constantly repeating after the teacher - it just wasn't for me. This is just my experience.

You could check out the notice boards of libraries and the comune.

Check out these sites:

http://www.comune.milano.it/webcity/...e?OpenDocument

http://www.lingueincomune.it/root/Li...er%20Stranieri

emmy123

How about trading conversation classes with an Italian speaker? that always works, and there are so many advertised all over the place.

Jon-Milano

Thanks for the info.

Its pretty likely that these Stranieri classes are terrible, but it might be worth a try (and if its really that cheap, then I've nothing to lose).

As for trading conversation classes, its a really good idea. But I think I need a bit more time so I can string together simple conversations first, then I'll definitely do it.

Grazie mille per l'ideas

mazi

I wouldn't recommend Michel Thomas - he makes me want to hit people, I can't listen to his Cds for more than 5 mins a day never mind 45.
I am currently going to one of those dirt cheap things (20 euro for 4 months) and it's fine. We certainly don't do drills constantly but it is also obvious that the teacher does no lesson planning whatsoever and there are some other students in the class who are rude in the extreme, allowing their mobiles to go off during the lesson and trying to get the teacher to translate everything into their own languages. I found it really helped after the teacher discovered I'm an English teacher - she really bucked her ideas up and even started using Cds with 'real' conversation on etc. She's also more serious about going through homework now.

So, join one of these, tell them you're an English teacher and watch them work!

Bob

http://www.rosettacourses.com/

Don't know if you can get them your way or what there really like, but there everywhere over here and they do seem popular and people have said they were pretty good for learning spanish around here, so it might be worth having a look?

Jon-Milano

Thanks again for the new ideas.

I think I'm next in the queue to punch Michel in the stomach, the learning Cds I'm using now are less annoying.

It seems like these Stranieri courses can vary alot, I had some friends in France that did a similar thing and seemed to get on well with it. I can only go along and see what I think.

Another thing.. I saw was an advert for a school running evening classes (30 euros a week for 2 hrs). I wasn't sure whether they would offer much of a better quality than the government lessons for this money www.ellci.com.

As for the rosetta courses I'm not sure they're going to be any better than the self learning stuff I have.............
.........I did enjoy the cheesy pictures on the website though

duffer

Sorry about the Michel Thomas recommendation. There must be someone who likes the geezer. Well just like him enough to pay him £18,000 for a 5 day language course!

BTW I think 30 euro for 2 hours is too expensive for a course. If you are considering paying this type of money it would be better to get private lessons. Even if the lessons are 45 minutes each if would be better value getting 1 on 1 lessons than a group of 5 to 10 people.

I was paying 13 euro per hour for private lessons from a school teacher - although her usual fee was 15 euro - she gave me discount because I spoke English!. Anyway, I could tailor the lessons in order to work on my weaknesses. During the week I might think of a problem or scenario and then ask the teacher about it.

The 'stranieri' class that I took had about 25 people. And yes mobile phones went off regularly. If there is a lot of word drilling then the size of the class is a problem considering you have to wait for 24 other people to repeat the same word in varying levels of competence.

mazi

One of the good things about my stranieri class is that so many of them couldn't give a stuff that they don't turn up from one lesson to the next so we only ever see a max of about 7 students but there are actually abut 25 enrolled on the course!

Hooray for crap students!

duffer

Unfortunately I was one of those crap students that stopped turning up. Maybe if I had stuck at it for longer I too would have seen a smaller classroom. It's no fun learning in a large group - the progress is too slow.

Think yourself lucky Mazi. How often is your stranieri class?

Regarding Michel Thomas - I got the CDs cheap off Ebay! What is it about him that everyone hates? His accent?? Poor old chap. Just thinking of him sitting there in his multi million pound penthouse in New York frustrated trying to find a new teaching technique makes me want to weep

mazi

My class is twice a week for two hours each time. I agree about learning with so many others - it's a nightmare and not good for anyone.

It's not Michel's accent that drives me mad, it's his bloody condescending way of teaching and the way he rises at the end of each sentence and tries to convince the people on the CD that his method works by saying (the equivalent of) "See?" all the time.

He's crap, that's his only problem.

jdr

I tried learning Spanish with him and fell asleep listening to the cd.

mazi

Did you learn subliminally?!