x
Toggle Content Register or Login  -  March 28, 2024, 5:06 pm
Toggle Content User Info

Welcome Anonymous

Nickname
Password

Membership:
Latest: LucilleDZ
New Today: 0
New Yesterday: 0
Overall: 2016

People Online:
Members: 0
Visitors: 212
Total: 212
Who Is Where:
 Visitors:
01: Community Forums
02: Community Forums
03: Community Forums
04: Community Forums
05: Community Forums
06: My Account
07: Community Forums
08: My Account
09: Community Forums
10: My Account
11: My Account
12: My Account
13: My Account
14: My Account
15: Community Forums
16: Community Forums
17: Community Forums
18: Community Forums
19: Community Forums
20: Community Forums
21: Community Forums
22: Community Forums
23: Community Forums
24: Community Forums
25: Community Forums
26: Community Forums
27: My Account
28: My Account
29: Community Forums
30: Photo Gallery
31: My Account
32: Community Forums
33: Community Forums
34: Community Forums
35: Photo Gallery
36: My Account
37: Community Forums
38: Community Forums
39: Community Forums
40: Community Forums
41: My Account
42: Community Forums
43: Home
44: Community Forums
45: Community Forums
46: My Account
47: My Account
48: Community Forums
49: Community Forums
50: Community Forums
51: Community Forums
52: Community Forums
53: Community Forums
54: Community Forums
55: Community Forums
56: Community Forums
57: Community Forums
58: Community Forums
59: Community Forums
60: My Account
61: My Account
62: My Account
63: Community Forums
64: Community Forums
65: Community Forums
66: Community Forums
67: Community Forums
68: Community Forums
69: Community Forums
70: Community Forums
71: My Account
72: My Account
73: Community Forums
74: My Account
75: Community Forums
76: Community Forums
77: Community Forums
78: Community Forums
79: Community Forums
80: Community Forums
81: Community Forums
82: My Account
83: My Account
84: Community Forums
85: Community Forums
86: My Account
87: Community Forums
88: Home
89: My Account
90: Community Forums
91: Community Forums
92: Community Forums
93: Community Forums
94: Community Forums
95: Community Forums
96: Community Forums
97: Community Forums
98: My Account
99: My Account
100: Community Forums
101: Community Forums
102: My Account
103: My Account
104: Community Forums
105: Community Forums
106: Community Forums
107: My Account
108: Community Forums
109: Community Forums
110: My Account
111: Community Forums
112: Search
113: My Account
114: My Account
115: My Account
116: Community Forums
117: My Account
118: Community Forums
119: Community Forums
120: Community Forums
121: My Account
122: Community Forums
123: Community Forums
124: My Account
125: My Account
126: Community Forums
127: Community Forums
128: Photo Gallery
129: Community Forums
130: My Account
131: Community Forums
132: Photo Gallery
133: My Account
134: Community Forums
135: Community Forums
136: Home
137: Community Forums
138: Community Forums
139: Community Forums
140: Community Forums
141: My Account
142: My Account
143: Statistics
144: Community Forums
145: Community Forums
146: Community Forums
147: Community Forums
148: Community Forums
149: Community Forums
150: Photo Gallery
151: Home
152: Community Forums
153: Community Forums
154: Community Forums
155: Community Forums
156: Community Forums
157: My Account
158: Community Forums
159: Community Forums
160: My Account
161: My Account
162: My Account
163: My Account
164: My Account
165: My Account
166: Community Forums
167: Community Forums
168: My Account
169: My Account
170: Community Forums
171: Community Forums
172: Community Forums
173: Community Forums
174: My Account
175: My Account
176: My Account
177: Photo Gallery
178: My Account
179: Home
180: Photo Gallery
181: Community Forums
182: Community Forums
183: Community Forums
184: Community Forums
185: Community Forums
186: Statistics
187: Community Forums
188: My Account
189: Community Forums
190: Community Forums
191: Community Forums
192: Community Forums
193: Community Forums
194: Community Forums
195: My Account
196: My Account
197: Community Forums
198: Community Forums
199: Community Forums
200: Community Forums
201: Community Forums
202: Community Forums
203: My Account
204: Photo Gallery
205: Community Forums
206: Community Forums
207: Community Forums
208: Community Forums
209: Community Forums
210: Community Forums
211: Community Forums
212: Community Forums

Staff Online:

No staff members are online!
Toggle Content Main Menu
Toggle Content Last Posts
Last 10 Forum Messages

bocca
Last post by tennino in General Discussion Groups on Jan 16, 2021 at 16:56:41

Towns in Frosinone that were part of former Vatican States a
Last post by Italysearcher in Central Italy on Feb 19, 2019 at 09:15:58

Dual Citizenship
Last post by Curci-Ghio in General Discussion Groups on Nov 18, 2018 at 15:30:54

Please Help Translate Letter
Last post by nuccia in Translations on Oct 20, 2018 at 06:18:43

Family in Cittanova
Last post by russojoseph1 in Translations on Oct 14, 2018 at 12:28:20

DNA Testing
Last post by nuccia in General Discussion Groups on Sep 29, 2018 at 10:39:30

Trento -Atto di Nascita - Frazione di Poia, Comune di Comano
Last post by exevans in Northern Italy on Mar 28, 2018 at 00:45:37

Translating written postcard
Last post by mekanic in Translations on Jan 18, 2018 at 13:58:50

Translating written postcard
Last post by mekanic in Translations on Jan 18, 2018 at 13:53:38

State of the Family Record & Other State Records
Last post by debbiemfit in Northern Italy on Jan 02, 2018 at 23:14:28

Toggle Content Help Support this Site
Please support GentediMareGenealogy
Help us by supporting the future development of this site, or simply to say thank you.
Toggle Content EStore
Community Forums › General › General Discussion Groups › Anyone learning Italian with Rosetta Stone?

     Forum FAQ   Search   Log in to check your private messages   Login  
Anyone learning Italian with Rosetta Stone?
Want to share something new or just have fun? You can do that here.
Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4  Next

Post new topic   Reply to topic    Forum Index General Discussion Groups Printer Friendly Page

View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Robert
Explorer
Explorer


Joined: Jul 12, 2008
Posts: 55
Location: London, UK

PostPosted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 2:25 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone learning Italian with Rosetta Stone? Reply with quote

DonnaPellegrin wrote:
Nuccia, I'm sure it will be a very, very long time before I could participate in Italian. I can now ask people how old they are and what they are doing but I'm not sure they would appreciate that. Wink But I am sure that an Italian forum would open up new opportunities for people to come on board that cannot speak English. So... why not? Seems like a good idea and a very thoughtful suggestion.

Robert, I am curious, what program are you listening to? Quanti anni ha? Lei che cosa fa?

Donna

Hi Donna,

I am using Pimsleur - I found it is the one that I remember the most from. Plus it is teaching you 'real' Italian in the sense that you can actually understand the responses you are likely to get to your questions...

I am very very rusty with Italian now as I have not applied myself to lessons in just over a year now. That said, I attended the Procession for Our Lady of Mount Carmel at the Italian church in London yesterday and understood around 70% of what was said (which was a heck of a lot more than I expected to).

_________________
Researching: Amato, Vergottini, Zazzaretta
Back to top
View user's profile Visit poster's website
DonnaPellegrin
Mem
Mem


Joined: Feb 02, 2009
Posts: 66

PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 11:21 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone learning Italian with Rosetta Stone? Reply with quote

I looked up the Pimsleur Approach website. It looked very good also and the price was again comparable to Rosetta Stone. I guess there are several good programs out there.

I too wish I had started sooner. It would have been nice if my high school had offered Italian. My high school French did prepare me a bit for learning Italian. For example, I did know what to expect for the various verb tenses and feminine/masculine nouns. On the other hand, I keep wanting to say "Qu'est-ce que c'est ?" instead of "Che cos'è?" What your mind learns young it does indeed hold on to, Eleven!

I'm about half way through unit 3 of Rosetta Stone Level 1 now. Which means, I suppose that I am about half way through Level 1. It's still fun and I am still enjoying it. The difficulty is ramping up a bit but so far I can still handle it. The program now uses complete sentences fairly often, such as, "Lei dove scrive?" and "Di mattina, io scrivo al parco." But sometimes it still introduces one word at a time. I continue to be impressed with the photographic images. When introducing, "un piede" for example, they showed a close up photograph of the tiniest, most precious baby foot. I just wanted to reach out and touch it. And the concept of "puzza" was introduced by a child holding up a stinky fish. The look on the child's face conveyed the entire message. I'll keep you posted on how the program progresses. So far, I still give it a thumbs up.

Donna
Back to top
View user's profile
Eleven
Explorer
Explorer


Joined: Jul 11, 2007
Posts: 959
Location: New York

PostPosted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:06 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone learning Italian with Rosetta Stone? Reply with quote

I wonder how much of this you will retain in the long term. Most of what you typed, I understood. I wasnt sure about "parco" tho. But, I learned all of those words as a child. My husband and I slip a lot of Italian words in with the english..so even my children and their children know a little.
Back to top
View user's profile
Carole
Admin
Admin


Joined: Jul 10, 2007
Posts: 1662
Location: Valtellina - Near Lake Como

PostPosted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 5:12 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone learning Italian with Rosetta Stone? Reply with quote

I still feel that it helps learning a language to read it as a 'story'. Of course it has to be simple and if the story is known - so much the better. If it is written for children - another plus.



I can remember reading Italian childrens stories to my nieces when they were little and I was still floundering around with words - never mind 'whole' sentences. But their childrens books really DID help.

Here is a link to some of the kind of books you may find useful - these include an illustrated vocabulary. They are a bit expensive, but maybe they can be found on eBay too!
>Story Books<

_________________

Researching: EDMED, SAVILL, TYSON, NEWCOMBE, STAPLETON, GUNTER, STAPLES
If you think education is expensive -try ignorance!

>Expats in Italy<
Come and join 'Dork and Friends'! >New Blog<
Back to top
View user's profile
MariLouise
New Member
New Member


Joined: Jul 13, 2009
Posts: 18
Location: Ohio

PostPosted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 10:43 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone learning Italian with Rosetta Stone? Reply with quote

Hi everyone!
I tried Rosetta Stone--didn't work for me. Gave it to one ofmy students. Using Pimsleur and Michel Thomas, but admittedly I don't spend enough time on either! Went to Scuola Koine in Italy in 2007 for 7 weeks. I forgot a lot, but it's coming back. If you have the chance, attending school while on vacanze is great. Most schools will let you choose # of days you want to attend. A great book to buy is Pirandello's 11 short stories. It has the English translation on one side, Italian on the other. And they are WONDERFUL stories that are quintessentially Italian. And classics. Stories you can read to kids. Amazon or B & N would have it.

MariLouise
Back to top
View user's profile
nuccia
Admin
Admin


Joined: Jul 09, 2007
Posts: 4375
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 11:47 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone learning Italian with Rosetta Stone? Reply with quote

Thanks for the info MariLouise and Welcome to Gente! Glad you finally made it.

Head over to the About Us board and tell us a bit about yourself. I know you're a friend of Carole's so any friend of Carole's is a friend of ours!

Enjoy Smile

_________________
nuccia
Italian Surname Database

Calabria Exchange
Back to top
View user's profile Visit poster's website
DonnaPellegrin
Mem
Mem


Joined: Feb 02, 2009
Posts: 66

PostPosted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 5:00 pm    Post subject: Re: Anyone learning Italian with Rosetta Stone? Reply with quote

Welcome, MariLouise, I would love to know more about your experiences with Pimsleur and Michel Thomas. I've heard good things about Pimsleur. How does the program compare to Rosetta Stone? I've never heard of Michel Thomas.

I also have a couple dual language short stories books that I got from Amazon. One is simply called "Italian Stories: A Dual Language book." Pirandello is one of the authors. I loaned my copy to my mother with the warning that most of the stories did not have American happy endings. They were all quite memorable and moving though.
Donna
Back to top
View user's profile
MariLouise
New Member
New Member


Joined: Jul 13, 2009
Posts: 18
Location: Ohio

PostPosted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 11:41 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone learning Italian with Rosetta Stone? Reply with quote

Hi Donna, and thanks for the welcome. I would have to say that Pimsleur is VERY thorough, always reviewing--which I find helpful, as repetition is the key to recall. Pimsleur and Thomas are also very thorough about pronunciation. Michel Thomas gets mixed reviews from a lot of people. He himself is a character with an interesting history. Thomas' lessons puts together entire sentences rather quickly, so many find they are able to converse early on. For me, a combination of Pimsleur and Thomas seems to be working. As for Rosetta Stone, it's a great concept (pricey, whereas you can find Thomas cheaply on Amazon, and a friend gave me her Pimsleur), but it just didn't work for me. Others swear by it. I guess--for me--I need to know verb tense, which is guesswork with Rosetta. I never got through the 1st level (I got too frustrated), so my review probably doesn't do it justice.

Pirandello is wonderful, and yes, many of the endings are not happy ones (much like life). I love the Eleven Short Stories. I agree they are memorable--I laughed and cried!

MariLouise
And thank you also, Nuccia, for the warm welcome! I am so pleased Carole pointed me in this direction. This is an amazing site!
Back to top
View user's profile
nuccia
Admin
Admin


Joined: Jul 09, 2007
Posts: 4375
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 5:45 pm    Post subject: Re: Anyone learning Italian with Rosetta Stone? Reply with quote

MariLouise wrote:

And thank you also, Nuccia, for the warm welcome! I am so pleased Carole pointed me in this direction. This is an amazing site!

Glad you like it here! It really is a great group of friends so enjoy!

_________________
nuccia
Italian Surname Database

Calabria Exchange
Back to top
View user's profile Visit poster's website
DonnaPellegrin
Mem
Mem


Joined: Feb 02, 2009
Posts: 66

PostPosted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:38 pm    Post subject: Re: Anyone learning Italian with Rosetta Stone? Reply with quote

Thanks for your input on the Pimsleur and the Thomas, MariLouise. I find it very useful to compare notes with others.

And, I agree with you about this site. It is very special here. Enjoy!

Donna
Back to top
View user's profile
DonnaPellegrin
Mem
Mem


Joined: Feb 02, 2009
Posts: 66

PostPosted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:46 pm    Post subject: Re: Anyone learning Italian with Rosetta Stone? Reply with quote

Progress Report
Today I finished another unit of Rosetta Stone’s Level I. Only one more unit to go in Level I. The title of this unit was “Work and School.” I worked on it for 30-60 minutes per day for about 2 weeks. I’m still very much enjoying the program. Somehow I actually find it relaxing. The difficulty is slowly ramping up. After sailing through the numbers from 1-100, the seasons, the days of the week, and a few countries, I got tripped up by some challenging new vocabulary. And the grammar is getting more complex. For the first time I had to repeat a couple lessons. For whatever reason, I had a lot of trouble learning the words assaggia, sveglia, asciutte, bagnati, asciugamano, and lenzuolo. I don’t know why but the words just wouldn’t stay with me and I had to do some extra work outside the program to retain them. I think I finally have them now.

I have kept a little notebook of the nouns and verbs that I have learned. It helps me to easily review what I’ve learned so far. So far there are about 150 nouns and 35 verbs. I have not been writing down any of the adjectives, pronouns, articles, etc. I had my little girl quiz me today on the nouns. I did pretty good, and I feel good about my retention so far, but screwing up the gender continues to be a problem for me. I have not had a problem with the verb conjugations…but the grammar is killin me.

I sometimes get frustrated with the “total immersion, no grammer rules” method. I usually tell myself, “trust the method, trust the method,” and most of the time the method eventually comes through…but if the method doesn’t clear up my confusion pretty quick I get out my reference book and I cheat. I find the cheating to be very helpful. Smile So…onto the last unit which is called, “Shopping.”

Donna
Back to top
View user's profile
nuccia
Admin
Admin


Joined: Jul 09, 2007
Posts: 4375
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 3:18 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone learning Italian with Rosetta Stone? Reply with quote

Donna..there is a shopping unit? Awesome! Bet you will sail through that one! lol

As for the words you had trouble with before..it made me think. I have trouble with them! But I can say the in Calabrese with no problem (well a few of them anyway). God..you're making me think. Stop..its hurts too much! lol lol

_________________
nuccia
Italian Surname Database

Calabria Exchange
Back to top
View user's profile Visit poster's website
DonnaPellegrin
Mem
Mem


Joined: Feb 02, 2009
Posts: 66

PostPosted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 7:52 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone learning Italian with Rosetta Stone? Reply with quote

Nuccia, that's funny! I've been wondering how much of this stuff is problematic for Italians also. Yeah, I'm looking forward to the shopping words also. There should be some fun stuff in there. And I can practice on the Italian ebay. Wink

I've been using Italian with the kids here and there. I didn't think they were paying much attention but yesterday I told my son to shower because he was puzzo and he told me that I was pazza, so perhaps they are listenting. (Puzzo was a word from Rosetta Stone. Pazza was a word that was used with great regularity in my home growing up. Pazza and Madonna were both words that my mother used often. Both were accompanied with great gestures and an eyeroll. Rolling Eyes )

Donna
Back to top
View user's profile
Eleven
Explorer
Explorer


Joined: Jul 11, 2007
Posts: 959
Location: New York

PostPosted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:54 am    Post subject: Re: Anyone learning Italian with Rosetta Stone? Reply with quote

My kids know those simple words, too. They are probably used in every italian household.

When we first moved into this area, about 30 years ago, there was this car, that we saw regularly in the area with the license plate DO Z POTS

We used to crack up.
Back to top
View user's profile
nuccia
Admin
Admin


Joined: Jul 09, 2007
Posts: 4375
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:34 pm    Post subject: Re: Anyone learning Italian with Rosetta Stone? Reply with quote

Eleven I love how the Italian words got North Americanized.. Do Z Pots! Thats a hoot. Donna, my mom used a few hand gestures of her own while we were growing up but I have to give her credit..she NEVER swore and can not until this day, understand where I got my "potty" mouth from!

I spent a lot of time talking in Italian to my parents about the kids when I didn't want them to understand something. I don't know why I didn't teach them - I think I just was always ashamed of the dialect. But it came back to bite me in the a$$ a few times. My husband (and I didn't know this since he didn't understand a word of Italian) actually now understands everything I say and the kids understand quite a bit so I got caught in a few little situations a couple of times.

*sigh*

_________________
nuccia
Italian Surname Database

Calabria Exchange
Back to top
View user's profile Visit poster's website
  Page 3 of 4All times are GMT - 4 Hours

Post new topic   Reply to topic    Forum Index General Discussion Groups Printer Friendly Page

  
 
Jump to:  



You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You cannot download files in this forum



Hosted By Site5.com
The logos and trademarks used on this site are the property of Gente di Mare Genealogy.
We are not responsible for comments posted by our users, as they are the opinions of the poster.
Interactive software released under GNU GPL, Code Credits, Privacy Policy
TCD_ItalianGene © Gente di Mare Genealogy