Week 2 Update: What Worked and What Didn't

So its been one week since I officially started studying Italian. Over this time I've aquired about 200 words even though I only studied half the time I planned on.

What worked:

Livemocha, Unit 1, lessons 1-5: I found it helpful to listen to the audio on livemocha several times, finish the lesson and then listen to the audio again. The audio and text feedback is extremely helpful and encouraging.

Learnitalianpod, Beginners 1-8: These are extremely simple lessons [I already knew most of the info] but it's helpful to hear how a conversation sounds and how to pronounce the words. The online section has extra words which are nice to add to my vocabulary.

Google Excel Sheet: This is extremely helpful review trick! It's been a week and I've copied about 200 words down onto this online sheet. It's split into 4 sections: words I've learned from Livemocha, words from LearnItalianPod, words i learned elsewhere, and a list of verbs. I've also included the word in a Italian sentence next to it. This way, if I forget the word or how to use it, I just read the sentence in Italian!

Forvo: this is an excellent website that has "All the words in the world. Pronounced." A definite must. Check out all the languages Here.

yearlyglot: This is a fellow blogger who began his goal of learning Italian in the beginning of this year. He has a lot of good posts, such as pronunciation guides, noun genders, verb conjugations, and more! Check it out

If I remember more, I'll add it here, alright?

What didn't work:

My family celebrated my younger brothers birthday over the weekend, and so I didn't stick to my plan… but I'll work on that =]

Livemocha is beginning to get boring and repetitive, but the feedback is helpful, so I'll continue to use it until it becomes a waste of time.

If I remember more, I'll add it here, alright?


So that's it!

7 days = a better understanding of learning + some grammar + ~200 words