Italian

[Liliandra]

**Didn't know where to stick this, so move if ya want, lol**

I'm taking an Italian class, supposed to be 101 but we're two months in and know nothing about sentence construction, not much vocabulary and at the same time the teacher doesn't speak in/hardly knows English. I'm not following the class at all, but don't want to take a GPA hit, so anyone have any thoughts on how to keep up?

Grading in the class is pure tests, 4 tests (oral) I believe, homework is optional and not worth squat.

 

[Luis G]

You can 'guess' a great deal of words in Italian by simply knowing their latin or greek roots, in general, the structure of the word remains the same.

Here are some examples in spanish (italian should be extremely close)
biology = biología
physics = física
mathematics = matemáticas

 

[Liliandra]

They actually are really close, and I can pick those up fairly well (took Spanish in highschool too). A lot of the trouble is that she associates words (Italian) with actions or pictures, I best associate words (Italian or other language) with other words (English) but she doesn't write anything out, and does not exactly encourage note taking.

 

[Liliandra]

Doesn't help at all either that the entire book is in Italian (designed for people vacationing or moved to Italy and learning more of the language) so all the instructions for homework and everything are in full Italian as well.

 

[Luis G]

Google is your friend
http://translate.google.com/translate_t

It helps to translate a few words/sentences in the beginning, but after certain point you need to STOP doing it, otherwise you will never learn the language properly.

I take myself as an example, whatever I write in english was thought in english, not thought in spanish and translated to english. Whenever I read something in english I understand it in english and I'm in no way translating in my mind back to my primary language.

A good idea is to make an imaginary conversation in italian, think the meaning of the sentences and try to say/write them in italian. If help is needed there's google, it might not be perfect, but can give a fairly good accurate on short sentences.

 

[Liliandra]

At least I'd be able to understand the homework instructions.... *sigh*

 

[Liliandra]

Another thing is that the teacher finally figured out that I didn't have a clue so picked on me all class. Didn't help any, just left me frustrated.

 

[tommyj27]

I take myself as an example, whatever I write in english was thought in english, not thought in spanish and translated to english. Whenever I read something in english I understand it in english and I'm in no way translating in my mind back to my primary language.

damn, i wish i could do that.

 

[Luis G]

It isn't that hard, in the beginning it is HARD, but with time your language improves a lot.

An analogy is mecanography (typing on the keyboard properly, in case the word doesn't exist), when you learn you are slow and you can even type faster with "2 fingers", but with practice, patience and time you end up typing extremely fast with all your fingers. No way anyone can beat you with only 2 fingers

 

[Liliandra]

Crossword

If I take the time to make a few different ones of these, it could possibly be helpful in the end. I know it is with my medical terminology class.

 

[Liliandra]

Ok, first test today, wish me luck *shudders*

Ciao!

 

[HomeLAN]

Good Luck!

 

[chcr]

In bocca al lupo!

 

[Liliandra]

I... think it went well?? I don't think anyone has a clue how that went... screwy test, think it's the first the teacher has had to give because it really didn't make any sense, lol.....