How much will studying abroad for a semester improve my Italian?

Applying to College
1

<p>Hello everyone! So I'm considering studying abroad next Fall in Italy. It will be my first semester of sophomore year. I haven't decided where yet, but I am thinking either Rome (since I love the city and I have a good friend there) or somewhere low-key where nobody would speak English.</p>

<p>Anyways, I already speak Italian at a level between B2-C1. I never took it in school, but I've studied it intensively on my own through books, internet, family, etc. the past few years (since my family is Sicilian) and I've been to Italy three times to stay with my cousins (once I was there for a month straight). I know all of the tenses of course, I can read some decent-length books, know a ton of slang, have a few thousand words in vocabulary, etc. etc. I can have a normal conversation (I've done it hundreds of times.) However, I'm not "fluent." You probably know what I mean when I say this. I still have a lot of room for improvement.</p>

<p>I am planning on taking an intensive course next summer (in Italy) in advanced Italian for a month (5 days a week, 5 hours a day) to improve my general abilities (I'm hoping around C1-C2 level), then I might stay for another month in Sicily with my cousins. After that, I might come back to the United States for a few weeks, but only to return in August to begin my semester. I will likely return to America in January 2016. </p>

<p>So anyways the main questions I have:</p>

<ol>
<li> Would it suit me better to study in classes that are taught exclusively in Italian for my semester abroad? Or will this stress me out too much? How much less would I learn if I attended English-taught classes?</li>
<li> Should I study in a major city or small town?</li>
<li> If I speak nothing but Italian throughout this period,how much do you expect me to improve? (Feel free to give me details from your experiences)</li>
</ol>

<p>Becoming fluent in Italian is one of my greatest goals. It's the language of my family and I am even considering going to Italy for either an internship or graduate school in the next few years. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks.</p>

2

<p>Do the course exclusively in Italian, you will learn much more. It’s better to be worst in class than best.</p>

<p>People speak English everywhere in Italy, esp in places like Rome. There are many less touristy cities, like Bologna, which are very nice. If you have family in Sicily, why not do it there? With its poverty and crime, I would not recommend S Italy, though fewer speak English there.</p>

<p>If you do not hang out with anglophones, you will learn an immense amount, but that is up to you. </p>

3

<p>As a student, you can’t really get higher than C1. C2 is what professionals who have lived and worked in the country for an extensive length of time (5-10 years depending on country) would have.
C1 is already very very good. (To give you an idea, very few pre-study abroad college classes are at C1). Try to take a couple of direct-enrollment classes if you can (as long s your university counts them as P/F).
Yes, you should take the classes exclusively in Italian, unless there’s a type of Italian/English intercultural class taught in English, preferably open to both Italians and Americans, which would allow you to analyze cultural differences.
The combination of living there + studying there should greatly improve your skills but no one can predict by how much. :slight_smile: A lot will rest on you.</p>

4

<p>DS did study abroad one summer & lived w a non-english speaking host family. It did wonders for his speaking confidence & syntax. </p>

<p>My expat professional colleagues who attained proficiency in the host country all had local significant-others. So best thing would be to get yourself an Italian BF/GF. :wink: </p>

5

<p>“Becoming fluent in Italian is one of my greatest goals.” </p>

<p>Then do it all in Italian.</p>

<p>If you want your Italian to sky-rocket, spend as much time with Italians as possible. Live with Italian. Speak to your American (and other English-speaking friends) in Italian. Even if they speak English to you, keep speaking Italian.</p>

<p>Everytime you see a word or hear a phrase you don’t understand, jot it down. Everytime you want to say something but can’t find the words, jot down the English words for which you don’t know the corresponding Italian words. Then, look them all up and learn them - every day.</p>

<p>Grab a 1-page article every week from some reasonably interesting publication. Over the course of the week, learn every word in the article. Divide it all up into - vocabulary - phrases - idiomatic expressions - and (I forget what they are called) verbs and nouns that go together ( like “have fun”, “make a stop”, etc.)</p>

<p>Even if you forget half the words, one day you’ll hear someone use one of the words and phases, and you’ll know what it means. It will also stick in you mind and becaome a permanent word in your Italian vocabulary.</p>

<p>How much you improve is up to you. The more you bust your chops, the more you’ll learn. The more ITALIAN you speak, the more fluent you speech will become.</p>

<p>If you study Italian as hard as a medical student studies medecine, or as hard as a law student studies law, you’ll make a ton of progress.</p>

<p>Imagine all the vocabulary you’ll pick up if you take classes in Italian and have to read everything in Italian! And listening to lectures day in and day out will sharpen your ears.</p>

<p>(By the way, I speak several languages and all my friends say I have a “knack” for languages. Not so. I just busted my butt studying.)</p>