Why? I mean it's not like you have to learn Italian to go to Italy. Or Japanese to go to Japan; or Arabic to go to Egypt or Morocco; or Spanish to go to Mexico; or Greek to go to Greece; or Turkish to go to Turkey; or Hungarian to go to Hungary, all of which I have done at one time or another. Going to these places has been an excuse to learn a bit of a new language and I like learning bits of things. And I like languages.
And besides, learning a new language is supposed to be one of the best ways to challenge your brain and keep it from deteriorating. I very much like keeping my brain from deteriorating So Italian it is.
Now how to go about it? A while back I'd joined Duolingo, a very cool web site that helps people learn languages. I used it to practice my my rudimentary Spanish, and found it enjoyable but not compelling. But then I didn't have a wedding in Mexico to go to, and I had lots of other things that I was doing to keep my brain from deteriorating. Now had a compelling reason. A reminder from Duolingo sent me back to sign up for Italian.
Duolingo has several things going for it. First, it's on the web, so it's everywhere. On my phone. On my tablet. On my computer. Even on my watch (though only for notifications). I'm just guessing, but it probably runs on your gear, too.
Second, it's free. So the price is right.
Third, it's effective. According to a study referenced on their web site, 34 hours of Duolingo is effective as an 11 week university course. Of course, they commissioned this study, so I take it with a grain of salt. But this one from the Economist's blogger on language is more credible.
It’s a joy to use Duolingo, in part because its phone app is not only convenient to use but full of new content. ...its lessons are deep—I haven’t even spotted the end-mark of my French lessons...On the downside, he says it's not ideal for building conversation skills. For that, the Economist's blogger recommends Babbel, which costs money--the price depends on your term of commitment. The costs could goo go as high as $13.00 a month if you pay month-to-month. But we'll come back to Babbel later. Right now, let's start for cheap with Duolingo.
Fifth, it's thorough. You won't get your PhD in Italian, but you'll get a pretty good education. There are exercises to help you listen and translate in both directions, read and translate in both directions. Exercises are interactive and use all the capabilities of modern devices. Some exercises have you point to things, using mouse or touch. Some ask you to speak a response and it will be uploaded to their servers for "sounds right" correctness.
Sixth, it's smart and helpful. It's got big data behind it and knows how people learn and how you are learning and what it needs to do to keep you working at an ideal pace. For example it knows that people start to forget things if they don't practice, knows when you last practiced certain words, and offers refreshers to make sure you don't forget.
Seventh, it's challenging. Duolingo dares you to translate text that is well beyond your ability. Its "Immersion"
feature lets you try to translate from the language that you are learning into English. You can point it to any web page web, and Duolingo will create a translation page for it. Once you're on that page you can point to any word, and Duolingo will translate it. You can take those words, apply your growing knowledge of grammar and language structure and idiom, and produce a complete translation.
Eighth, it's collaborative. Any document that you've pointed to can be worked on by anyone on Duolingo. They can help translate it, can proofread what you've done, can correct your errors. And you can help them with their pages.
For example, I found the home page, in Italian, here, for the wedding venue. I pointed it out to Duolingo, and within an hour, while I was writing this, five people had worked on it, and produced a good translation. You can see it here, and if you signed up, you could improve the translation or proofread it.
Ninth, it's social. Let's suppose you're going to the wedding in Italy that I'm going to. Let's suppose you think it might be fun to learn a little Italian and you have some friends who think so, too. Let's suppose that you all think it might be fun to do it together. Because it's free, and it's fun, and it's collaborative, and social, you can all join up and learn together.
If you're on Facebook, Duolingo has a way to let you authorize Facebook to send Duolingo your friend list; then Duolingo will show you the Facebook friends who are using Duolingo, and you can invite them if they aren't using it, and follow them on Duolingo if they are. You can also invite non-Facebook friends to join you on Duolingo.
(If you're on FB and friended to me, you're welcome to follow me. If you join up, I'll see you. Right now only one of my FB friends uses Duolingo, and he's not going to the wedding.)
Tenth, for those who benefit from competition, you can play the Duolingo competitively. You can compete with your friends for points earned per day. Or you can tell Duolingo to email you when someone that you're following passes you. Whatever challenges you to learn more Italian.
If you're going to the wedding that I'm going to, and if you are interested in having some fun learning Italian between now and then, let me know, and we can learn together. If you don't know my email address, send email to the bride- or groom-to-be and ask them to pass it on.
If you decide to get serious about conversational Italian I might be up to doing Babbel with a buddy.
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