A little bit more about my approach before officially kicking off this blog

I minored in German in college, so I have the experience having learned a new language in an academic setting.

This is my first time "learning a language on my own," but having gone through the experience in German, I've learned a few lessons that will be helpful for me here.

1. Regular repetition is the most important thing - Especially in somewhere like the United States, where you likely won't speak a new language on a day-to-day basis, you need to find ways to expose yourself to the language as much as possible.
2. Experience the language in all its forms - By this, I mean you need to read it, write it, listen to it, and speak it. Failing to do any of these will introduce weaknesses into your learning that you will have to correct later.
3. Understand the "why" - My goal is eventually obtaining B1 proficiency, and it's exceptionally difficult to do this learning a language phonetically. It's important to have a grasp of the rules and nuances of the language.
4. Don't rush it - To use a horrible cliche here, Rome wasn't built in a day. Rushing through new concepts and vocabulary can ultimately prove to be problematic if it doesn't sink in.

So, with that all in mind, I'd describe myself currently as an A0 speaker of Italian.

I am learning with:

• Società Dante Alighieri's online, twice-weekly A1 course. This is conducted over Zoom with folks from around the world, two hours per session.
• Babbel's Italian mobile app course. I'm working in the clip of one full course per week.
• Lots of flash cards, posters and notes around my house. I'll share more on this later.
• Lots of children's books and elementary readers. Again, more on this later.

The idea with all of this is:

• The variety allows me to engage in regular repetition of the language without getting bored.
  • Dante Aligheri's course is an introduction to the elementary speaking.
  • Babbel and Dante give practice in listening.
  • The books help with reading.
  • And this blog will help with both writing, and exploring the "why" behind different language rules and mechanics.

So, that's the plan.

Starting tomorrow, I'll regularly update with explanations of how the Italian language works — told from the perspective of a total novice — to help with learning. (I'm also going to figure out a way to add comments to these, so if I get anything wrong, folks can point it out.)

That's all for today. Ciao!