Learn Italian with me in 30 days (resources, methods, and study plan)

I've decided I'm gonna try to learn Italian in 30 days. Honestly, I don't know why I keep doing this to myself. I'm actually headed to Italy for a short trip in about a month's time. And since I've been trying to take language learning a little bit more seriously, I thought, why don't I try to learn as much Italian as I can in the next 30 days so that I can actually try and speak the language when I'm there. I honestly got really excited to study Italian, so I booked a class that I found that was happening today at 4 p.m. since I just finished work, and I'm feeling energized. I am going to be using Lingoda for all of my group classes, and I'm looking through their platform right now, and I'm actually gonna do some of their practice, like vocab trainer practice. Nella parola, caffè. Certo. Wait, I'm killing it. Vorrei un acqua. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Come on. That was pretty good. Three for three. Okay, I have like 15-ish minutes before my class, so I'm just gonna prep for that, and we're gonna take our first class together. Ah. Okay, perfect. I just finished my first class. Okay, I was really, really nervous at first, but my teacher, Laura Maria, so nice, so supportive. That was honestly such a nice experience. I think that's one thing I really, really love about Lingoda is even when I was learning German last year, I just, I loved every single teacher. They are all so nice, so supportive. They're all locals, and I don't know. I just, I have such a good experience with all my Lingoda teachers. I recently made a video on how to learn more effectively, and so I thought I would take all of the research that I did for that video and create a framework to see if it'll help me learn languages quicker, and the framework is called the noob method because that's what I am, a noob. Here is our plan for the next 30 days. So the first step of the noob method is to nerd out, aka meta-learning. We wanna spend some time researching all of the most efficient ways and tools that I can use that'll help me learn Italian quicker. Now, I'm definitely not a language learning expert by any means, so we're gonna have to count on people like Nathaniel Drew and others who are polyglots so I can see how they are learning languages. So one tip that I did find, which I personally think is very cool and one that I think I can really easily work into my daily routine because it's something that I already do, is to journal in the language that you're learning. Not only is writing down the words that you're learning and actually using them in sentences is going to help you remember them, having a journal that's dated is really going to help you see your progress over time as well. Obviously, because I'm just starting out, I will be using a translator. I use Context Reverso to find the words that I don't know. But what I'm gonna do is if I have to search up a word, I'm going to either highlight it or underline it so I know in the future that I had to look up that word. Then step two is to actually encode, specifically in multiple formats. Because I don't actually have the ability to immerse myself in the language in Italy while I'm learning, I'm gonna try to find other ways I can immerse myself. So the group classes are great for speaking. I'm also going to watch videos, listen to audios, and then try to do some reading as well. Step three is to identify your weak points and drill them. As I'm learning, I'm gonna get a clearer and clearer idea of things that just aren't sticking. And so once I actually identify those things, I'm gonna make sure that I drill them so that I can get more practice doing the things that I'm not good at. Lastly, the B in noob stands for to let it all bake. Josh Kaufman said in his TED Talk that to go from complete beginner to moderately good at something, you need to spend 20 hours practicing that thing. So outside of the group classes that I'm gonna take, I'm gonna spend 20 hours just self-learning and self-practicing so I can let all of that Italian really bake in and set into place for my trip. And at the end of it, I should hypothetically be able to speak a little bit of Italian. Okay, let's quickly talk about Lingoda because they did so graciously sponsor this video, aka they're helping me learn. Like how amazing is that? Lingoda is absolutely one of my favorite places to go learn languages. I did do 30 days of learning German with them last year, and it was so much fun. I just love the structure of their classes. I feel like they must vet their teachers because all of their teachers are so nice. Honestly, I think that it takes dedication and consistency to learn anything but languages specifically because you have to be able to put in the time to practice and to study. Otherwise, it's just not going to stick. I have also tried the self-guided workbooks, which I think are great for side practice, but I think the most important thing that you could have as a language learner is a feedback loop. So aka your teacher is giving you feedback and correcting you as you go, and then also the opportunity to speak it. Because unless you're learning some dead language like Latin, why would you be learning it if you're not practicing speaking it? Their curriculum was also designed in a way where it's really, really thorough, but it's also really well-paced. So even though I feel like I'm constantly being pushed forward and learning new vocabulary, I also don't feel like I've skipped a level or like skipped some things that I shouldn't have. All the teachers seem really, really aware about, okay, if I'm teaching this class today, they probably already know this, this, and this. Lingoda also offers several different learning paths that you can choose from. So there's Lingoda Flex, which is the most flexible option. So you're choosing the time of your classes, the frequency of your classes, what order you want to take the classes in. Then there is Lingoda Teams, which is a bit more of a structured program. So you're going through either an eight-week or a 12-week program, and it guarantees that you'll actually complete one whole sublevel within that program. Then there is the Lingoda Sprint Challenges. This is a two-month challenge for you to really accelerate your language learning journey. So you can either choose to take classes daily or every second day, and Lingoda will actually incentivize your challenge. If you're able to meet all of the requirements, I think there's like an attendance requirement, and you actually succeed in your goal of taking a class every day or a class every other day, there's actually a really big reward. Like you can either win 50% of your tuition back, or they'll actually give you credits towards taking more classes. I honestly think all of their learning paths are so well-designed because each of them were created for a specific student in mind. So no matter how you like to study or how much time you have to dedicate to studying a language, they have an option for you. If you're watching this video, I'm gonna assume that you're also interested in learning a language. So Lingoda actually gave me a really great offer just for my community. So if you sign up using my discount code and the link in the description, you can actually get 20 USD off your course. And if you sign up for Lingoda Flex, you can get up to 20 free private classes as well. If you've been flip-flopping about whether or not you want to start learning a new language, this is the sign you're looking for. This one right here. I'm telling you, do it because it's so much fun. Malata, adjectivo femenile. Malate. Prendo medicina perché sono malata. I just finished class two. Okay, so I will say, I have taken some Italian classes before. I wanted to start at the beginning of Lingoda's kind of course load because I wanted a review, I guess, some practice, and then sort of start at the beginning so I can build up my confidence again because I haven't done it in so long. I think I might skip forward to chapter three or something where we're introducing ourselves with personal details just because I've learned a lot of this already so I don't want to spend all of my time just reviewing. I want to make sure I'm pushing myself and maybe I'll come back to the reviewing as well. Voglio abito in Milano. So coniugare il verbo avere a presente. So parale della mia età e del mio stato civile. As I was making my way through the 30 days, I tried to build two habits into my daily routine. One was the journaling in Italian. I wanted to make sure that I was actually using the vocabulary that I was learning in classes. And the other is actually just listening to podcasts, music, or even like audio books in Italian to try my best to immerse myself and be constantly listening and trying to understand the language. I am so sleepy today, holy crap. I did not sleep well last night so I'm hoping that my brain is working enough for me to learn the 1,000 most common Italian words. All right, 1,000 words, let's see how many I can do. Here we go. Doppio, double, store, negozio, forse, perhaps. Giovane means young, wow. Okay, I spent like a solid amount of time and I made it through 159 words, so almost 160. Damn, there's a lot of simple words that I don't understand or that I don't know yet. So I think this is a really good way for me to continue to drill these words because these are so important. I do have a class a little bit later today, which I'm very excited about. So I'm also gonna prepare off like that. I'm not feeling the most confident about speaking on the strip yet, but we'll get there. Disponibile, disponibile, disponibile. Good morning. I don't have any classes booked for today, so I thought I would do a little bit of self-studying today. I have been sort of listening to whatever Italian music and podcasts that I could find while I am walking the dog and just doing stuff around the house. But yesterday I actually went and downloaded a bunch of Italian worksheets that I found online and I ended up downloading some of the classes that I skipped on Lingoda. And so I think what I'm gonna do today is actually just go through them and fill out the worksheets and just try to do as much self-study as I can. I've actually really been enjoying using my iPad for like language studies, because there's just so many ways that you can use it that's super helpful. For example, I can actually have a like Italian book or a worksheet open and then have a notebook or a Quizlet open in the split screen view. And so as I'm going through the worksheet, I can quickly create like a flashcard deck for any new vocabulary that I'm learning then and there. It's also way easier to quickly look up what words mean, because there is the define feature that the iPad has. Or even if I'm using something like context reverso to quickly look up the words meaning, I can also have it in the split screen. So I can do that quickly without having to like look up, do it on my computer, look back down, write in a separate notebook. It's pretty much all living on my iPod. This worksheet is only five pages. So that's what I'm gonna work on first. I'm getting pretty close to my trip and definitely a little nervous. So I think today while I'm having lunch, I'm gonna put on this Italian show that I found called Baby, throw on Italian subtitles first to see how that goes. And then probably switch to English because I doubt I will understand all of it. But I just really need to get in more practice for kind of like listening comprehension. I'm a little worried about like how quick they'll speak and whether I'll be able to keep up. I'm sure I could just ask them to slow down and be nice about it, fingers crossed, but we'll see. Anyways, any opportunity to practice my listening comprehension, key. The fact that I'm leaving on my trip tomorrow is insanity. Oh my gosh. I actually still kind of need to pack which is not good. If you wanna follow along my Europe adventures, make sure you go and follow my second channel which is kind of where I put like more casual blogs. But okay, here is how far I got with my Italian. By no means am I fluent at all. The two things that I've pinpointed that I still struggle with the most is definitely conjugations. Oh my gosh, it is so hard conjugating. I can really only like remember present tense for most of the basic verbs. When you get into past, present, present with intention, like there's just so many different tenses, so many more tenses than there are in English. So that has been a really big challenge for me. The other thing is when people are speaking really quickly, I still struggle understanding. So I think that just needs to be drilled more. I need to actually go there and speak with people and ask them to slow down. So let's see how much I can actually speak. Preface, I did have to look up some of the like past and present tenses of the verbs that I know because there was just no way. Ciao, mi chiama Angel. Sono 29 anni e lavoro in marketing e sono YouTuber. If someone asks, di dove sei? Abito in Vancouver, Canada, ma nato in China. Sto imparando italiano perché voglio vivere in Milano un giorno. I actually don't know if un giorno is the same meaning as like one day, but we'll go with it. Domani parto per la mia vacanza. Sono entusiasta, entusiasta. Visiterò Lisbona, Copenhagen, Berlino, Milano e Torino. Voglio parlare, parlare, parlare, parlare. Voglio parlare italiano in Milano e Torino con i locali. Questo anno, we know. Questo anno voglio passare più tempo per imparare l'italiano. And then of course, very important that I know how to say. Scusa, posso avere un caffè normale, per favore? E cornetto alla Nutella. I think that's what it's called. Honestly, that was really hard. My hopes is that I'm able to string things together as easily when I'm actually talking and not just when I'm in my room talking to my camera with like zero pressure. I know this is really just the beginning of my Italian learning journey, but if you enjoyed this video and you wanna see more of me learning Italian and my progress as I go, because truly my goal is to be fluent one day, then let me know in the comments down below. I honestly can't thank Lingoda enough for supporting me as a creator, but also just for creating so many amazing resources and classes and incentives for students to learn languages. I think it's so, so cool to be able to travel somewhere and at least speak it a little bit or have the goal of being able to speak multiple languages fluently. So thank you, thank you Lingoda for making this all happen. They were super nice and provided an extra discount just for my community. So if you sign up for Lingoda using my link and my discount code, which are all in the description box below, you'll get $25 off your subscription and you can get up to 20 free private classes when you sign up for Lingoda Flex. If you do decide to learn a new language, please, please, please join our discord or comment on this video and let me know what language you're learning and how it's going, because I would love to know what everyone has been learning. But that's it for this video. I really need to go and pack now. Wish me luck talking to locals. Honestly, still nervous, but I feel a lot more prepared than I did 30 days ago. Thank you so much for watching. I hope you're having an amazing day wherever you are in the world and I will see you in my next video. Ciao.