Day 3 - How To Begin Any Language: And the World of Perfect Accents

What is the easiest way to begin speaking a language?

Most language courses will begin with memorizing lists of vocabulary and a handful of conjugations for each verb, but this is the exact opposite of effective! If you want to learn to speak a language you have to speak that language from the beginning. This is the most important and usually skipped part of learning a language. Many students study for months or even years without ever practicing with a foreigner, speaking at a normal pace, or speaking a normal amount per day. Not only is it ineffective, but its downright boring.

Just like riding a bicycle we learn by our mistakes, therefore we want to make as many mistakes as possible. If we begin before we even understand the grammatical structure of Italian we will learn at an abnormally faster rate with the benefit of sounding more native. Do you think babies study the grammar in a sentence? Or do they begin with the sounds? "Ma'ma." Unlike a baby, we can us our already learning ability to speak in our native language and wider variety of already learned sounds as a boost for learning others. We can move from sounds to sentences very fast.

But how do I begin speaking a language when I don't know it?

With these two simple answers, beginning to speak your target language will be far from impossible:

1. The Phrasebook.

I picked up a small Italian phrasebook by Lonely Planet from Barns and Noble for $8.99. It was recommended by Benny (who knows over a half dozen languages), but any phrasebook should do.

2. The Dictionary.

A dictionary isn't as critical at this stage, but I definitely recommend buying one. I purchased a small Italian Dictionary by Langenscheidt for $7.95, also from B&N. Both this dictionary and the phrasebook are compact so I can carry them with me; this is an important feature because you are going to become great friends with these two books.

If you really don't have the money, then you can always use google to find "common italian phrases" and an "online italian dictionary".

Already have your books? Great! Have fun with them. Make silly sentences and ask funny questions by mixing up the phrases. This is what makes learning fun! Don't worry too much about how you pronounce the words, just follow my instructions and do your best

Carry your phrasebook everywhere you go. If your waiting in line, pull it out and practice a little. I can't stress this enough. We need to begin using the phrasebook as often as we can. Now that we're ready to start speaking, lets talk about the sounds.

Accents

Yes, I'd eventually like to sound like a native speaker, but when do I start practicing?...

Now!

The most important part of an accent is the pronuciation of the Vowels and Consonants. Over time, listening to the way natives talk and the way the produce each sound will greatly improve our accent as long as we listen carefully and change our habits.

[Here's my detailed description of how to create accents]

Italian Pronunciation:

Vowels or Consonants?

Italian is a beautiful and flowing romantic language. And like most romantic languages, the vowels are pronounced clearly. Unlike Italian, in English we rely mainly on consonants, for example:

Comfortable is pronounced "kuhmf-tuh-buh" or "kuhm-fer-tuh-buh"

As long as we pronounce all the consonants, others will understand and believe we are native. In European languages, not pronouncing your vowels crisp and clearly is a dead give away that your foreign.

Rolling your "R"s

The second and biggest give away is not rolling your "R"s. To many foreigners, the English sounding "R" is "like a lazy dog howling". (visit Benny's post on accents for details on these two descriptions)

If you can't roll your "R"s, learn how by visiting this site.

Arrrrrrre you rrrready? All rrrright.

So back to number 1: Pronounce the vowels and consonants correctly

There are many youtube videos that can help you with pronunciation, such as this or this. So if your having trouble with the below, check those links out.

Vowels and Consonants

Many people mistakenly suggest that Italian only has several sounds, but like English there are a lot of variations (just not soooo many). Although there are many sounds, it is easiest and most effective to begin with only the basic sounds. Therefore as we listen to natives, we will pick up the 'less' important sounds later.

There are many websites that help with pronuciation, I actually read several different phrasebooks, dictionaries and used Wikitravel, About.com, and this site.

So we want to practice rolling our 'R's and pronouncing our vowels and consonants and compare ourselves with natives (such as youtube videos). Remember, we can't be perfect, we are aiming for similar. Do your best!

Do you think this is an effective way of starting a language? Is there a better way for learning pronunciation? Have you found any good resources for comparing your pronunciation with a native? Is there something I missed? Please give me feedback, I Enjoy reading everyones comments!