It’s almost the middle of September and I’m very excited because I’ve finally progressed to the point where I can speak for a few minutes on a familiar topic. I would still not place my speech at the B2 level but I’m nearly there. My reading ability has absolutely skyrocketed. I’ve been reading a book called Geografia Italian per Stranieri and I don’t even realize I’m reading in Italian. There may be one or two words I need to look up in each chapter. I’ve also gone back to Io Non Ho Paura and feel I understand the vast majority of it now. There may be a few words per page that I’m unsure of or need to look up. All-in-all, I feel my progress over 9 months has been substantial. I’m feeling fresh, I’ve revamped my study habits and fall is upon us.
This means that it’s time for another 90 day challenge. This one will go from October to December and I’m really excited about this one because it’s going to include frequenting the Italian course offered by School Amici in Cincinnati. Thanks to Reddit, I’ve found some strategies that have been helping me get past my bad habits that I feel have been holding me back the most. If you’ve been following my progress you know that I have always had issues writing frequently, reviewing my lessons, and organizing/preparing for my lessons. In my last post, I mentioned the Reddit user who studied for and passed the C2 exam for Italian in 2 years. I got 2 very good ideas from him that I have already integrated into my routine that have helped me immensely: using videos from EuroNews to write the transcript for or a summary of short videos and giving a 3 minute monologue in my lessons.
Writing the transcript or summary has been helpful because I do it with pen and paper only. Then I can look back at the transcript provided by the video and ensure that I am not consistently misspelling any words. It also helps improve my listening comprehension as well as boosting my vocabulary.
The 3 minute monologue has helped because I simply cannot do it if I have not done some sort of preparation. I’m learning set phrases, conversational connectors, and finding chronic issues in grammar and pronunciation all of which give me the required motivation to go back and review my lessons.
This will be my study routine for the Fall Language Challenge.
- Using Memrise to add another few thousand words to my vocab. I’m doing Memrise daily.
- Using EuroNews videos every day to boost my writing.
- 2 conversation lessons per week with monologues. I’m not quite certain that I will be able to maintain 2 lessons like this per week but I am going to try.
- The School Amici class, which will certainly have homework/exercises at the B2 level. I am excited that I placed in the upper-intermediate class.
- Using Ascolto Avvansato 3 times per week to help my listening comprehension.
- Extensive Reading with books like Geografia Italiana.
- Every other weekend I want to take a B2 or C1 practice exam. If I am lucky, I’ll be able to pass one of the C1 practice exams by December.