Ad alta voce

One of my favorite Italian programs is Ad Alta Voce, a radio program on Rai Radio 3 in which you can listen to some of great works of literature read aloud. Recently, I found a recording of Leonardo Sciascia's Il giorno della civetta, and I was able to listen to the book and read it while it was being read to me. Listening while reading is a great way to hone your listening skills while at the same time enjoying some of the many jewels of Italian literature.

There are dozens of others titles, too, and you can listen to them directly from the web page for Ad Alta Voce (this link has the complete listing) or via Rai.tv (I find that Rai.tv works best in IE, but that's just my own opinion/experience). If reading and listening to Italian literature is daunting, there are several titles that are translated from English into Italian that might help to provide some context to what you are reading. It shouldn't be too difficult to decipher which of the titles are English ones.

Below is a partial list of some Italian classics that are my favorites -- I find listening with the book makes for a better experience. I've linked the titles of the books to the Internet Bookshop Italia:

Metello
Il deserto della Libia
Il cavaliere inesistente
Senilità
Le sorelle Materassi
L'isola di Arturo
La luna e i falò
Una storia semplice
Il giorno della civetta
Diceria dell'untore
Il giornalino di Giamburrasca
Amore e ginnastica
Il barone rampante
Il giardino dei Finzi Contini
Il mare non bagna Napoli

Repubblica Domani

A comment that I hear often from readers of my blog is that it is difficult for them to listen to a sixty-minute podcast or to watch 45-60 minutes of Italian television. I "feel" their pain -- it's difficult to find the time in the day. It can also be frustrating to listen to something and not understand much and become easily discouraged.

And I present to you Repubblica Domani. This is a short video that is done by the staff of La Repubblica which is a meeting between various correspondents, reporters and journalists that run the newsroom. They do their best to go over the main important news points of the day, covering not only events happening outside Italy but also domestic news, political affairs, the economy, sport and culture. The program is on the short side and varies between 5 to 10 minutes. At the start of each video, there's a summary of what will be discussed with photos so it helps to give you some context of what you will be hearing.

La Repubblica is also one of the few "independent" news outlets in Italy which generally does a good job providing balanced and fair coverage.

Below I've embedded the episode from Monday, May 24, 2010. To see the latest episode as well as the current list of episodes, click here.

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.