L'Italiano in famiglia

Today, I learned about this Italian resource from the blog, The Smiling Eggplant -- a TV show centered around a family living in Brescia that helps you to learn Italian. It is called "L'Italiano in famiglia," and it follows the daily life of the Frappani family. It was designed to help Italians living in South Africa retain their Italian and most probably was designed for young children or young adults who might lose some of their language skills living in a country where Italian is not the official language.

I listened and watched the latest episode and was pleasantly surprised and impressed. After watching the video, there are exercises, grammar explanations, a listing of some important vocabulary in which you can click the pictures and hear them pronounced (again), games to play to practice the language, as well as a recap of lessons learned from the two teachers, Manuel and Patrizia, which not only will help you learn new words and understand the language better but also understand the key points of the episode watched.

You can also download the episodes as podcasts as well as get a print out of the dialogue.

One of the things that I like most about the site is how well it works. It's a Flash driven site that has pop-ups which contain pdf's and games and other useful tools. Currently, there are 20 episodes! Hopefully, they will be producing more of them!

My own criticism is that sometimes the dialog seemed odd and a bit forced, but if you can get past that little bit of "corniness" of the dialog, it really can be useful in improving your listening comprehension. The actors speak at a fairly slow pace by Italian standards, and even I thought that they spoke slower than normal.

If you use the program, leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Emons Audiolibri

In a previous post, I wrote how useful audiobooks can be for learning Italian because, if you have the book handy, you can follow along with the book while you listen to the person reading it to you. This is a great way to hear the language while reading along and allows you to hear the correct pronunciation of the words while at the same time enjoying some great literature. You can also easily re-listen to sections that you miss or even practice listening without the book. There are many ways that these books can be helpful in improving your listening and listening comprehension.

Today, I stumbled across Emons Audiolibri, an audiobook publisher in Italy. You can purchase their audiobooks online through Internet Bookshop Italia or through select bookstores that they have listed on their web site. If you're curious to hear the quality, you can listen to short excerpts of various books on their web site. I listened to a dozen selections and was pleasantly surprised by the quality and the fact that many of the authors who wrote the books (at least the more contemporary and recently published ones) read their own books. And I think that that can be an experience itself.

If you're worried about understanding or enjoying it because of your level of Italian, they also have a section for Children's/Young Adults, too. They also read Italian translation of some English classics as well as some Italian children's books. You can find out more about this from their web site.

If you want to learn more about them, check out their YouTube page that shows some of the "Behind the Scenes" action that goes on in producing the book along with interviews with some of the readers/authors.

Laterza's Podcasts on Italian history and more

If you enjoy history as much as I do or are simply looking for some podcasts in Italian that involve more than just learning grammar, then check out the podcast page from the Italian publishing house, Laterza. They have a wide variety of podcasts about Italian history with many podcasts about the history of Rome, all of which are given by important Italian scholars. The lessons can also be found on Itunes, too.

One of my favorite lessons is on the Fire of Rome during the reign of Nero! With all the different subjects and focuses, you're bound to find something that you like. If ancient Roman history doesn't appeal to you, there are also lessons on more modern topics.

The podcasts are about an hour, some longer, some shorter, and they probably require a fair bit of Italian comprehension to understand them. I advise listening to them in short parts, perhaps 10 minutes at a time and doing your best to understand the gist of what is being said. Try to understand what is being said and do not translate what you're hearing word for word. Focus on understanding, not on translating! If you hear a word you don't know, try writing it down and looking it up later. Stopping and starting the recording to find words will take the fun out of listening.

They also have a range of audiobooks, but they don't allow American customers to purchase at this time.

Aldo Moro

Aldo Moro was an important Italian politician who was kidnapped on the 16th of March in 1976 and held for 55 days before his body was recovered, having been apparently kidnapped and executed by the Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades), a violent anarchist group bent on bringing down the Italian government. Mystery and suspicion still surround the death and kidnapping of Aldo Moro, one of Italy's most successful and popular prime ministers.

If you want to practice your Italian and learn something about this dark time in Italy history, then head to Rai and watch the program, Aldo Moro: Il Mistero -- a series of eight episodes about not only Moro but the people involved in his kidnapping, the aftermath, things that took place before and much more. While this definitely requires being able to listen and understand Italian at an intermediate or high level, with a little patience, you can probably learn a lot from these videos. I find them highly informative, and I think that it's important to learn about Italy's difficult and often complex postwar history.

Moro's kidnapping and subsequent execution is one of those stories that delights conspiracy enthusiasts. Even today there is some doubt as to who kidnapped and murdered him and why, but watching these videos will certainly give you a good grounding in the events that took place over a quarter of a century ago.

image credit: According to Wikipedia, image is in the public domain.

ooTunes

Sorry to beat to death the topic of the Ipod Touch and Iphones -- I know that they are not the "be all and end all" of mobile devices, but I know that a lot of people have them so it's why the focus is on that (also, I have an Ipod Touch). So, if you know of other mobile devices that use some cool apps that you think might be useful for improving and learning Italian, let me know so that we can let others know.

With that being said...

I want to bring everyone's attention to one of my favorite apps, ooTunes. ooTunes is a great app that contain over 15,000 radio stations from all over the world. The great thing about this app is that it's reliable, and it works! So many apps in the Itunes store have disappointed, at least in the area of transmitting Italian radio station reliably. You know much of a fan I am of practicing your listening and listening comprehensions skills in Italian. Radio is a great way to do this for many reasons, the most important being is that the Italian spoken will introduce you to a lot of words and expressions as well as get you used to hearing how Italian sounds outside the classroom. Using apps like ooTunes is a great way to connect with Italian content that is current and contemporary.

In a classroom setting, the Italian spoken is not often spontaneous. Listening to the radio with ooTunes (or your favorite radio/listening app) can help your ear process Italian as you might encounter it on the street or while meeting with friends. It's real, it's live, and it's a great way to train yourself. Remember, the point is not to translate every word that is being said but to understand what is being said. It's okay that you don't know every word or every other word. As you listen, pick out the words and phrases you know, and you will see over time that as you practice listening, the words you already know will register immediately allowing you to focus on the words you don't know which will help you understand what is being said. The best part is that there are radio programs and stations for all tastes, from sports to politics to cooking and current events.

ooTunes has a huge list of Italian radio stations! The Rai family of stations, Radio 24, Radio Italia and a host of others are listed, and I'm sure that you'll find many more that you weren't even aware of. You can also search and sort geographically, too, which helps in sorting through the stations. If you enjoy radio, then you can even listen to stations in your home country and around the world, too! There's also a great "buffer bar" that shows you the strength of the connection, and how well the signal is buffering. You can also save your favorite stations, use the app as an alarm clock, record your steam for playback later and a host of other options.

If you see a station that is not listed, send them an email and let them know. They have great customer service and respond pretty quickly to questions.

At only $4.99, you can't really go wrong with this app!

All opinions expressed in this post and about this app are my own.
I was not paid or compensated for my opinions by any party.
Any and all views and opinions that are expressed are my own and
are based on my own experiences.