/lang/ - Languages

>>180
There is no shortage of resources to learn Italian, just download a few ebooks and see what works for you. I tried Duolingo to learn German, ended up quitting after a couple of weeks because it felt like I was going nowhere. I've only used the Rosetta Stone demo, but it seems similarly flawed; good for gaining a little familiarity with a language, but you'll still need to pick up a grammar book at some point, so you might as well just start from there.

>>186
Any suggestions for learning tips?

I've never had to learn grammar before, I've heard that it's very hard, any tips?

>>186
I can agree with this
I started with Duolingo but dropped it after 2 weeks. You can start with it though, getting to know the language a bit. It's not too bad for a first contact imo. I used it every day for two weeks but I felt like it doesn't really teach conversational knowledge, you know? I knew how to say "I like fried chicken, fried chicken is good" but not "Hey, where are you from? How's it going?"
I think you should just get a book for beginners, I have one and it's pretty nice

>>188
I just completed up to "food" with Italian duolingo and I don't feel like I'm learning anything :S

>>190
Well. I think it's not like you'll feel like learning with any other resource. Language learning is very gradual and may be, depending on how much time you invest, slow.
I think you just study with whatever method and somehow, someday you just look at it and you find out you are way (or considerably) better than one year before.

>>187
I don't think our grammar is particularly hard to learn. However, the study of a foreign grammar is made easier or harder depending on how well you know your own language. If you're worried about encountering some difficulties, I would suggest brushing up on your first language's grammar rules before trying to learn a second one.

Another suggestion I have regarding language learning in general is that doing a little every day is preferable to doing a lot every now and then.

>>188
Duolingo teaches you how to actually speak a language, not tourist phrases. The actual content of each sentence really isn't that important. On Duolingo, you learn to construct sentences so that you can put together whatever kind of sentence you want, even a tourist phrase if you really want to.

Your father is Italian? Then speak Italian to him! Learn some basic phrases and try your hardest to speak only Italian. Don't be afraid of making mistakes either. As long as you can be understood, and you get corrected, you'll learn. I always preach immersion, not book-learning.

What I do:

look over the phonological rules of the language
see how the ipa corresponds to the orthography
listen to people speak it
compile vocab decks for srs programs that have sentences and practice speaking them
once I'm able to ask my set list of about 100 questions and give about 3-4 different answers to each of them I try to get a tutor for speaking practice and an online pen-pal

repeat for all languages that have latin orthography

something like a cjk language is a little more complicated

>>486
You take your language learning pretty seriously

>>488
no i just am not really interested in wasting time doing busywork

Does anyone have any good suggestions for Italian textbooks?