Many people desire to learn a foreign language like Italian as quickly as possible. In this article, I will explain exactly how you can achieve the goal of learning fluent Italian in 3 months or less.
Many people end up taking foreign language classes for years and still cannot hold a basic conversation in Italian. On the other hand, I know of many people who have become fluent in Italian and a variety of other foreign languages in less than 3 months.
Before I get more into the plan, I should note that those of you who already know another romance language like Spanish or French will find this much easier to do. Also, if you have studied a foreign language that wasn’t necessarily a romance one, you will still have a slight advantage. For those of you who have never studied a foreign language before, you may find that the process takes you a bit more time because you are not used to learning foreign languages yet.
The bottom line is that it is possible to learn fluent Italian in 3 months but it will require a commitment to studying each day.
Now lets take a look at some numbers that will help you understand what getting basic fluency in Italian requires.
In European languages, the 1000 most commonly used words make up 85% of common speech. The 3000 most commonly used words make up 95% of common speech. In order to achieve basic fluency in Italian, we need to hit the 95% mark which means a total of 3000 words.
Also, many language experts tell us that in order for an English speaker to learn a European language like Italian, Spanish or French, it requires about 200 hours of active study time.
If you study Italian for 3 months, that means you get 90 study days. Since our goal is to learn 3000 Italian words, that means 33 new Italian words per day. If you study Italian every day for 2 hours, you will get 180 hours of Italian study by the end of 3 months which basically meets the 200 hour mark.
You may believe that learning 33 new Italian words per day is too difficult. However, remember that you have 2 hours of active study each day which means you only have to learn 16 new words per hour. This translates to 1 word every 4 minutes.
Also, consider that there are many cognates between Italian and English like the word “international” is “internazionale” in Italian. I bet that only took you 3 seconds or less to learn.
However, we should remember that you won’t have all 2 hours to devote entirely to the study of new words. Remember that you will want to review words that you have learned in the past and also make sure you are picking up important things like correct grammar. After all this, however, you should still have enough time to reach your goal of basic Italian fluency.
Given this goal of 2 hours of active study each day and a goal of learning 3000 words by the end of your study period, you will achieve basic fluency in Italian in 3 months. The important thing is that you stay committed to studying each and every day and make sure that you are continually progressing. If you stay true to your plan, you will achieve your Italian fluency goal.