Italian

Learning Italian

A Guide to Start the Journery: AVAILABILITY does not always mean ACCESSIBILITY

With the Internet, there is now an  infinite number of authentic materials in a number of formats (audio, video, texts, etc.), constantly updated and increased. However this bounty of material does not automatically translate into easy accessibility for the language learner, who could find him/herself overwhelmed by the sheer volume of materials available, especially at the beginning and the early stages of the learning journey. The list of useful websites offered here will help learners to begin to explore what is available for their purposes and immediate fruition. It is kept short on purpose to avoid spoiling the pleasures that come from genuine discovery. Buon viaggio!

The Italian version of well-known search engine Google.

Another Italian portal and search engine is:Virgilio

Garzanti Linguistica is an electronic version of a reputable monolingual dictionary, with definitions, tables of verbs and synonyms. You need to register but it is free. Very useful.

The Wikipedia Glossary is an online dictionary of idiomatic expressions.

Matdid Scudit contains grammar and vocabulary activities, based on short articles (adaptations of authentic texts). The articles are graded according to levels (from beginners to intermediate, plus some for all levels). Useful indexes allow students to choose the level and the topic. The site is run by two published authors with solid credentials and it is updated every two weeks. The grammar and vocabulary exercises are quite traditional but useful with keys. 

Corsi Italiano, owned by the Department of Italian Studies of the University of Toronto, contains interactive grammar (especially verbs) and vocabulary exercises with keys, templates for letter writing (with useful expressions) and short biographies of famous Italians.

Italian Media

Watch RAI Tv , the Italian public broadcaster. You will find a vast selection of programmes, from the latest news, to documentaries, fiction and even cartoons. A must.

Electronic version of Corriere, one of the most prestigious and widely sold Italian broadsheets. There are also video - news.

The other prestigious Italian daily is Repubblica.

Website of the Italian Cultural Institute a Londra. This is useful for keeping up-to-date with Italian cultural events in the capital. You can choose Italian or English.

Videoclip Italiano has video-clips of Italian song, often accompanied with the texts.