How I Learned Conversational Italian in Less than a Year (as a normal person)
In this post, I’ll describe how I learned conversational Italian in less than a year as a normal, unremarkable learner. My lessons-learned could apply to language learning in general, not just those who want to learn Italian.
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something I may earn a commission. I will only recommend products and services that I would [or currently use] myself.
Learning Italian – Introduction
I am not gifted with languages. Hell – I’m not gifted in most things. I am, at least I hope, a normal person. Everything I’m even slightly good at (mountain biking, guitar, Italian, forgetting umbrellas places, over-analyzing most things), I had to work pretty hard at. If you are reading this in search of quick entertainment from some freak of nature polyglot who claims to have learned a language in 30 days, you’ve come to the wrong place. This post is for the rest of us. I want to give you advice you can actually put into action yourself.
I’m 31 years old. 3 years ago, I spoke one language. I grew up, as most people in the United States do, with one language spoken at home. A few years of mandatory, half-assed Spanish in middle and high school, and a few episodes of Dora the Explorer, and I had just enough to annoy the staff at the local Mexican restaurant with. I think most people in the US can relate. If English was good enough for Jesus, it was good enough for me.
If you’re on the fence about learning a language, I can’t express enough how valuable it has been for me. In my year-and-a-half in Italy, my knowledge of Italian [and Spanish] gave way to experiences and friendships that I will never forget. From meeting online Italian teachers-turned-friends in person, talking to Italian shop owners, connecting with distant family, fellow travelers who don’t speak English, and more – it’s truly been a world-opening experience.
My Italian Language-Learning Timeline
Here’s the timeline of my Italian language learning adventure.
Before Italian: I first explored language learning during lockdown by dabbling in Spanish through apps, podcasts, and online lessons. This experience taught me the value of live video lessons and one-on-one practice, which became crucial when I shifted my focus to Italian.
October 2021: Inspired by a trip to Italy and the decision to move there, I began learning Italian. Note that prior this trip, the extent of my Italian was: “grazie”, “ciao”, and “dov’è il bagno?”
I started with Duolingo, podcasts like Coffee Break Italian, and three one-on-one video lessons per week through italki. I also watched Italian shows and practiced vocabulary with flashcards.
March 2022: After five months of study, I moved to Italy. Living in a small town with few English speakers accelerated my progress, especially in listening and speaking.
July 2022 and Beyond: Immersion helped me reach a conversational level, but I hit a plateau and realized I needed consistent lessons and exposure to native speakers. Traveling to all 20 Italian regions gave me firsthand experience with the incredible variety of accents and dialects, deepening my understanding of the language.
How You Can Learn Italian (or Any Language)
Let’s get this out of the way: I am not a professional teacher. I am not qualified to teach languages, I am not a linguist, nor did I study languages at a university level. I am a mechanical engineer who happened to pick up an interest in languages in his late 20s. My recommendations below worked for me – your results may vary.
Now that I’m an American who’s lived abroad, this is the part where I say, “You have to immerse yourself. You need to move to another country and speak with locals every day.”
Guess what – most people aren’t in a position to move to another country for the purposes of learning a language. And I’m sorry, but a 10 day vacation won’t get you conversational either (though it will give you some great exposure and perspective). Let’s assume you are not living in Italy and want to learn Italian. How do you do it?
The Recipe for Learning Italian
Phase 1
Duolingo
Language learning snobs like to frown on Duolingo, saying it’s too slow, basic, gamified, and elementary for real language learning. And it is all of those things. But I do think Duolingo is good for a few reasons. One – it’s a great way to learn vocabulary especially at the start. Due to it’s gamified nature, it’s kind of fun, and gives you a confidence boost. Second, as you continue learning and eventually lose motivation at times, it’s a good way to move the needle forward, even if ever so slightly, every day. Just have reasonable expectations for it and know that it’s just one small piece of the puzzle. I have always used the free version.
Cost: Free
Duration: 1-2 months at least (recommended you continue more for reasons mentioned above)
Optional alternative/supplement to Duolingo: Babbel
Babbel is another platform that I used to learn Italian. It’s a bit more structured and academic than Duolingo, but it’s not free. I would recommend if if you can afford it. You can at least try it for three months for free if you sign up with my referral link here.
Listen to a Podcast
You should also listen to a podcast – specifically, Coffee Break Italian. They teach Italian at the most basic of levels, and in short 10-15 minutes episodes (short enough to listen to on a coffee break – cute, right?), so it’s not overwhelming. I’m sure there are many others out there. The “Coffee Break” team in fact has the same format for Spanish, French, and a few other languages.
I don’t listen to CBI much these days because it is a lot of English that they speak on the podcast. Great for beginners though.
Cost: Free
Duration: 1-2 months at least (recommended you continue as long as it’s entertaining)
Follow a YouTube channel
Specifically, Easy Italian. These folks do a great job. It’s a combination of specific topic lessons as well as just interviewing Italians on the street about various topics of interest. All videos have both Italian and English subtitles, and the hosts speak at a reasonable pace. See also: Easy French, Easy Spanish, Easy German, and more.
Cost: Free
Duration: 1-2 months at least (recommended you continue as long as it’s entertaining)
Phase 2
Take live online video lessons.
Live, one-on-one video lessons were an absolute game changer for me while learning Italian (and Spanish). As mentioned before, I’m a big fan of italki (link). italki is simply a website/app where casual, amateur, and professional teachers can provide video lessons for an hourly rate determined by them. You can filter by language, level, qualification, and where the teacher is from (this is especially important for Spanish as country-specific accents and vocabulary vary quite a lot).
Or, skip the search and book directly with someone I highly recommend: my friend Giulia is an amazing Italian teacher who I met during my own learning journey. She’s patient, speaks clearly, and brings a lot of good energy to each lesson. If you’re looking for a real person with a personal connection to this site (and not just some random teacher on a platform), you can book lessons with her here.
Find a teacher for almost any language on italki here!
If you can find a teacher who will start with you from square one, you can start lessons right away. For most people, I would start this after 1-2 months of Duolingo and Coffee Break Italian. It’s important to find a teacher that you click with. They may turn into a friend that you meet in person! Global connections – I love it.
Cost: Depends on teacher – starts at around $12 per hour
Duration: at least a year (but keep going)
Watch Shows or Movies in Italian
People throw out this recommendation all the time. Take it from me: if the show sucks and you don’t enjoy it, this will feel like homework. You want to enjoy the learning, so don’t watch something that isn’t entertaining to you.
There are two versions of this. One is to watch a show you’re very familiar with, originally in English, but watch it dubbed in Italian. The second is to watch a show/movie which is originally in Italian, with English subtitles.
With content originally in Italian – you need to be careful here. Italy has some very diverse regional accents, dialects, and languages. In a show like Gomorrah (which is phenomenal), the actors speak almost exclusively Neapolitan, which has some similarities to Italian but is in fact it’s own language (despite HBO calling it “Italian”). Italians outside of the region of Campania usually cannot understand Neapolitan. As much as I love the Neapolitan language, it’s not a great starting place for learning Italian. There’s a show I like on Netflix, a short rom-com miniseries, called Generation 56K. Yes, it’s also filmed in Naples and the actors speak some Neapolitan but mostly Italian with a Neapolitan accent. It’s a great, light, and funny series.
Note: Netflix, especially Netflix original content, has the best selection and most thorough of shows with audio (dubbing) and subtitles in other languages. For example, Money Heist.
Cost: the cost of a Netflix subscription
Duration: Don’t stop.
Conversation Exchanges
When you’ve gotten to the point where you are conversational, you’ll want to maintain it. If you’re not living in Italy, you need to find a way to keep the conversation going. Conversationexchange.com is a great place to meet other people who want to learn your native language, while you want to learn theirs. It’s a free platform, so don’t let the 2003 web design aesthetic turn you off. While a bit dated, the site is super easy to use. You can find people with similar interests and goals, and set up ways to speak with them (video, email, etc.). Like italki lessons, it’s a great way to make a friend on another continent.
Cost: Free
Duration: at least a year, but keep going
Results
After a year of following my recommendations above, you should be conversational in Italian.
Warning about Italian accents and dialects
There’s a joke that Italian is the most widely spread foreign language in Italy. Italy unified in 1861 and prior to that was made up of a bunch of smaller nation states who all had their own languages. The Tuscan dialect was chosen as “Italian”, which was then taught throughout Italy in schools (this is a very abbreviated version of this history, FYI). If you spend any time in Italy today, you’ll still see very strong regional accents, dialects, and in some cases separate languages (for example Neapolitan). So much so that towns 5 miles apart can have different dialects.
An extreme example of this (shoutout to my friend Martina for this insider information) – natives of Monte di Procida, a Naples suburb, can tell by someone’s accent that they are from nearby Bacoli. If that doesn’t blow your mind, you should see a doctor.
Why am I telling you this?
Because most people in Italy don’t speak neutral Italian. The clean educational version of Italian, whether from podcasts or apps, doesn’t really exist. You can only expose yourself to all of the true variation if you’re in Italy.
If you’re learning Italian without living in Italy – try to expose your ears to as much variation as possible. Watch shows with actors from all over Italy (but be mindful of whether or not they’re speaking Italian with an accent, or another language like Neapolitan – see above: Gomorrah). If you can, after about 6 months of video lessons with a teacher, get a second teacher from a different region. Preferably one from the north and one from the south. Ask your teachers to speak in their natural accents with you.
The more you can get accustomed to hearing the way people actually speak, the more you will actually follow along in conversations with native Italians.
Fun Stories Thanks to Language Learning
Learning Italian (and a bit of Spanish) has opened doors to unforgettable experiences. Here are a couple of highlights:
Connecting with Italian Ancestors
In September 2021, my cousin Mike and I visited our ancestral town near Salerno, where our great-grandparents lived over a century ago. Not only did we want to explore our roots, but we also wanted to get some documents that we would need for our path to Italian citizenship (if you’re interested in learning about doing this yourself, read this). Meeting distant relatives, the mayor, and welcoming locals was incredible. A year later, I returned with my dad and aunt, this time acting as the translator. We visited the town cemetery, saw our great-grandfather’s childhood home, and shared coffee and gelato with locals. It wasn’t always seamless, but the effort to connect through their language made the experience unforgettable.
Making new friends
During a train mix-up in Pisa, I asked a fellow traveler for help in Italian, only to find she spoke Spanish. Testing my limited Spanish, I got my answer—and a dinner companion back in Florence. That dinner led to a spontaneous weekend in Venice with her and another friend, Sara, who gave us a private boat tour. The weekend ended with an impromptu music session overlooking the canals and later playing guitar at a Venetian restaurant until we were kicked out. Moments like these are what make language learning worth every effort.
That’s All For Now
While learning a language, especially while traveling, you come across some truly gifted people who know 8 languages and seem to have picked up a 9th since you met them 2 days ago. Admire, compliment, be impressed, ask questions, but don’t beat yourself for not being at their level.
I’ve accepted that I’m a slow learner with most things. I’m learning (it’s an uphill battle) to compare myself to my past self, not others, as much as possible. The “me” that went to my ancestral town in Italy in September 2021 couldn’t speak to anybody except two people who also spoke English. A year later, I could not only talk with the people in the town, but I could share and extend the moment to my dad and his sister so that they could experience long-lost familial connections in a way that none of us expected to ever happen.
Language learning is like exercise. The best exercise is the one that you actually do and continue doing. Just keep at it, even if slowly. Progress is more important than perfection. That’s it. It will pay off – I promise.
I sincerely hope you found value in this article. If you have recommendations of your own or have suggestions on what else you would like to see covered here, please write in the comments below. Additionally, if you’re planning a trip to Italy and need one-on-one support or guidance, check out my services page where you can get in touch with me.