From the mind of Roger Wyatt

One almost in the can

I am wrapping up Italian 101 finally. I started this new path on September 26th and has the time really flown by. I have completely finished 2 units (10 lessons) and 3 lessons into the last unit of Italian 101. I really can't believe how much material I have gotten through in a little over a month. From my month I have discovered quite a few things about language learning that have made it easier for me to make progress and where I have been stumbling.

The Good, bad, and funny

I am very much sold on this concept for learning. I really don't know why high school language classes are so boring and pedantic when there is a better way. My high school Spanish classes were rote recitation of verb conjugations that never really stuck. The reason is that you spend all your time translating - rather than thinking. I have found myself thinking in Italian from time to time when I'm studying. Without total immersion in the language (like traveling to Italy) it's quite amazing to be transitioning so quickly from translating to thinking. Having never been multi-lingual (high school Spanish doesn't really count), I've often wondered how the transition from stumbling to fluency happens. While I'm still very far from any semblance of fluency, I think I get the process that happens.

The bad part is that once you start down the path of language learning - you can't get off the bus and rejoin later. I got really busy and spent a week away from it and I had to refresh my memory and catch up. It wasn't that hard, but it does mean there is a commitment here. You need to make time frequently.

The funny had to do with some of the imagery. For the phrase "The woman is on the bed" there was a picture of a woman sitting on a bed. The next phrase was "The money is on the dresser". I just started laughing. LiveMocha could stand to check their phrases and images.

I'm a 3yr old Italian Child

I figured I would compare my Italian proficiency against my son, Beck. He's two years old and speaks very well for his age. By comparison, I figure I'm as proficient as a 3 year old Italian child in my speaking and grammar. I know some basics (I can count, know colors, basic sentences, etc), but make plenty of grammar mistakes. I'm finding that the masculine/feminine is really something that is foreign to me as I find myself wondering to a use "le","la","lo", "il" or "un". However, I have been reading some Italian blogs and are beginning to understand more and more - maybe not the specifics, but I'm getting some of the gist of various phrases. My vocabulary is still not sufficient - I have no idea how many Italian words I know - to converse adequately.

Continuing on

So I'll be finishing up Italian 101 and moving on to Italian 102. I'm in it for the long haul. One thing that helped me a bit was this article by Tim Ferriss "How to Learn Any Language in 3 Months". It had some good points to help figure out verbs and some other details to get past the more mundane aspects of learning a language quickly.

I signed up with LiveMocha.com yesterday. I have been wanting to learn Italian for a couple of years and have been trying to use alternatives to Rosetta Stone software becaue, frankly, $499 is out of my comfort zone to learn a new language for the fun of it. So, imagine my surprise when I came across LiveMocha.com. Here is something that uses the technique that I really like about Rosetta Stone - word association with images rather than translating. I have always felt that image association is a far superior way for people to learn the basics of language.

Lesson #1:
I sign up for Italian 101 for the free lesson and dive in. The look of the application resembles RosettaStone, but the quality isn't the same. The graphics need some work which makes me wonder if the quality of the lessons are going to be there. I not talking about the look of LiveMocha.com - that looks really well put together - I'm speaking of the language learning tool. It needs a little TLC. Anyway, I jump right in and start learning the words for Man, woman, boy and girl. In a few minutes, I've got the images presented with the Italiam word. In fact, when I think "L'uomo", I have the picture of the man from the lesson in my head ("L'uomo" translates to "the man"). And off we go.

There are four sections that must be completed in order to complete the first lesson. You have "learn", "review", "write" and "speak". So I go through the learn, then I dive into the review and begin to construct phrases that were presented in the "Learn" section. Once again, when the picture is displayed, I am immediately recalling the words that I saw with it. With no cross-reference I am getting through it quickly. Then  I go on to the "Write"

The community awakens
This is where LiveMocha really is great. I am asked to write a few phrases in Italian. The phrases no given to me in English, only a suggestion for a single phrase. It's up to me to make up my phrases. I really like this because I get to try and be creative to see how far I can stretch my newly-discovered language. I write my six phrases and then when I save it, the beauty of the community springs to life. I am asked to select native Italian speakers that I want to review my writing for me. I pick four or five suggested people and then I am asked to review another users submission. This user is learning English and since I am a native English speaker, LiveMocha has chosen me to ask for a review. I see a couple of mistakes and offer corrections. I'm wondering if my corrections, written in English, will make sense to someone trying to learn the language, but I submit them anyway. I made sure I didn't try and explain Southern dialect, but "y'all" should definitely be a part of the lesson (are you listening LiveMocha?).

Moving on
Now I get to practice by recording phrases presented to me. The application uses Flash and I allow it to access my microphone built into my laptop and I record the phrases. Again, I submit it to other users and am again asked to critique a fellow user's English submission.

I finish my first lesson in under an hour and off I go to bed.

A new dawn.
I awake to find my submissions have been critiqued by several users (thanks guys and gals) and they have spotted mistakes in my writing and suggestions on my speaking. My concerns about getting back a critique in Italian is unfounded. They have a translator that, if I needed, I could translate the critique into English. However, my critiques are all written in English (I wonder if LiveMocha translates it for us?).

I'm converted.
That's it. You've got me LiveMocha. Day 2 has seen me complete 2 more lessons and I am anxious to get even more in my head. I would like them to clean up the User Interface on the application - buttons need to be properly created rather than stretched. Sometimes it seems a bit slow going from exercise to exercise, but that it's much of a problem since once you get into the exercise I haven't experienced any glitches. Also, reviewing the audio submissions is a bit slow to start up. They might want to change the format and do it streaming or upgrade the audio server.

You really should check it out at http://www.livemocha.com