And very often, the English people do have is limited to what they need for their business; that someone can tell you that “your room is ready, sir” in RP doesn’t mean they’ll understand “what’s the weather supposed to be like, the next few days?”. I’ve even encountered people whose accent varied wildly depending on who they had learned a certain phrase from.
Oh for sure. Our last trip was southerly and I found less English being spoken. However, that could have had something to do with me speaking better Italian, and understanding what was being said to me.
I also found that inference plays a big roll in understanding what’s being said to you. I ignored that the first few times and simply tried to figure out word for word what was being said. That doesn’t work when words are coming at you a mile a minute.
So ya, focus on vocabulary related to how you’ll be interacting with people. Don’t worry so much about understanding everything.
The first step is the hardest part, so I’ll say again that Michel Thomas will get you over that hump. His method makes it so that you feel like you’re learning immediately. When you’ve worked through his lessons the jump into reading and listening is a piece of cake.
Parlare L’Italiano e comme bacciare unna donna bella!
Pickup line a used once.
Well, if you love Italian food you can start there. You’d know what pommodore, basilica or prossciuto is. From there go to the local supermarket and read ingredients. I’d say it is very good chance there is Italian and English description of contents. It is not uncommon here in Europe to put 15 languages on one packaging so bring glasses to zi shop.
I’ve tried some of the “fluency in 90 days” type of programs - and I’ve never been successful.
That said, I’ve seen people who have been successful. The big things they seemed to do (that I did not) were:
- being consistent (X minutes for Y times a week and don’t skip)
- speaking - the earlier and more often you try to just speak in the language, even with a ton of mistakes, the better you’ll do.
- not being afraid of making mistakes
for 2&3, there are a lot of places you can go online for cheap language tutoring, if you want it.
The exact method doesn’t matter as much as staying motivitaed and consistent.
Right now, I’m learning Chinese through a language exchange. There are a number of sites which are really good. I also used those sites to find people to help me keep up on my Japanese, although I don’t really have to “learn” much. PM me for recommendations.
For Chinese, I have a text book, we just Skype and spend half the time working on my stuff and then half on the partner’s. My current partner lived in the States for five years but doesn’t have anyone to talk to, so she’s fine with just chatting about the news or anything. Another partner is an instructor at a university and wants help with more difficult things. Both are really patient with going over pronunication many, many times!
These (2 & 3 especially) are really important. In languages, a brave failure “out in the wild” teaches you FAR more than staying home with your books and recordings ever could.