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Introduction To Italian Congratulations on starting your grand love affair with what is one of the most beautiful languages in the world! It may not seem like a love affair at first--beginning the study of any new language is a challenge that requires patience and fortitude. And, unfortunately, the older we are, the more difficult the task is due to the language acquisition centers in our brains being closed in adolescence. What we have to do as adult students is develop new neural pathways and that takes time and perseverance. What you get out of your study will be directly proportionate to what you put into it. If you come to class once a week then don't engage the language until next class, you will not be able to learn much. It may seem obvious but you will need to take notes in class. I will assign homework after each class and I suggest you do other things as you can fit them into your schedule. Engage all your senses: watch Italian movies or TV (U-Verse offers an Italian language addition, Time Warner does not), study with a friend over coffee, say the words aloud despite how silly it seems to you, listen to CDs of some kind. This class will go right along from Introduction to Intermediate for those who want to continue to gain fluency. I will have a special section for Traveler's Italian along the way but my own goal is that you learn to understand and speak Italian with a degree of comfort and self confidence to navigate your travels and engage Italians in real conversations--in Italian. If you continue to invest in time and effort, you will go from thinking in English and translating in your brain (no other way at first) to thinking (and even dreaming) in Italian. How fast you get there will be the result of how much time and energy you put into your studies. (That bears repeating.) As a group we can have Italian movie nights, pot lucks (speaking Italian--these will take awhile until we can have conversations), going to Italian restaurants, cooking classes, and maybe even, if we can do it, a trip to 1 Italy together for those who want to do that and don't have another trip planned. There's no better training than that not to mention how much fun it would be. A cautionary word about other Romance languages: knowing one or more of them is both a blessing and a curse. Generally, they will help in understanding the concepts of noun gender, use of articles, complexities of verbs and other things common to all Romance languages (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian and Latinate dialects like Catalan). However, Italian grammar is different (it is closest to Latin of them all) and even though you might hear some words in common, there are many, many false cognates (words that you think you know having an entirely different meaning) from one Romance language to another. I will not be teaching Italian in reference to any other language (except, by necessity, English) or comparing and contrasting Italian to other Romance languages. I urge you to leave your other Romance language back at your house if you can. It does cause interference and will confuse others in the class if we talk about another language they do not know. Because this is an Intro class, I will be teaching in English with lots of Italian sprinkled in. As we move to Intermediate level, we will gradually switch to Italian immersion as we gain enough comfort to do that. I am going to give you a list of materials BUT, please do not jump ahead of assignments. I will be teaching in a certain order and it is not always the same as the books use. For instance, both of them jump into Future tense early and Italians don't use it much. That is one of the last tenses we will tackle. I'll be teaching what is used most first. I've done the first three lesson plans in advance and they are included in this packet. I may need to adjust future plans in accord with the pace of the class. Va bene? Non vedo l'ora di vedervi. (I can't wait to see you.) Giuliana 2 Materials List Required for class: 1.) Easy Italian, Step-by-Step by Paola Nanni-Tate will serve as our text book. Available at Barnes and Noble and through Amazon. $15 at B&N, maybe less at Amazon. I will not be teaching this in their chapter order or from it exclusively. Please don't jump ahead for your own sake. 2.) Italian Verb Drills by Paola Nanni-Tate. This is also available at Amazon and B&N at about $8.00. As the title implies, this is a verb work book. Even with this book, the order is not what I will be using so don't jump ahead of recommendation or you will be confused and dilute your efforts. A notebook to take notes in. Pencils Eraser (I recommend those click erasers) You will also need: 1.) an English/Italian dictionary. There are lots of them. I have a huge one for reference and a small one to carry around and a pocket one for travel (even I need the dictionary from time to time.) You only need one dictionary to get by but you will need it. 2.) 501 or 601 Italian Verbs. This is a Barron's Language Guide. I have an old one (501) that cost $16.99. I'm not sure how much they are now. This book offers complete conjugations of commonly used verbs. Don't get freaked out looking at all of them; not all the 3 tenses are used (for instance Passato Remoto--or historic past--is rarely used outside of history books.) No need to tote these reference books to class. Nice to have: Sticky notes. We will also be using excerpts from Easy Italian Reader by Riccarda Saggese. ($20 at the usual sources) You may buy it but that is not necessary. It does have a CD ROM which will help develop your ear if you do buy it. Some Italian audio CDs will help you and are nice to use in the car. There are myriads of them out there. 4 Lesson One Class overview, managing your expectations, and learning goals. How to use the text book and recommended study aids. A brief history of the Italian language. The Italian Alphabet Letters Pronunciation Rhythms and word stress Sentence Structure Overview Chapter 1 of "Easy Italian Step-by-Step" (omit final exercise, page 23). Nouns and definite articles Masculine and feminine, singular and plural Personal Pronouns Descriptive adjectives and their positioning Starting the Verb System The big two tenses you must learn (the others are optional) Introduction to the first conjugation (the so-called 'a-r-e' verbs) Homework: 1) Finish the exercises in Chapter 1 that we will begin in class (excepting the final exercise) 2) Complete Pages 1-10 of the Italian Verb Drills workbook. Both books have an answer key in the back so you can self-check your homework. 5 Lesson Two Review of Lesson One, Q&A Chapter 2 of Easy Italian Interrogative Words Indefinite articles The Verbs Stare and Essere (Both are To Be. When to use which one) Appropriate book exercises. Introducing the vital verb "Avere" Introducing Passato Prossimo, the one past tense you must know Past Participle formation Which auxiliary with which verb? Introducing the Second Conjugation (so called e-r-e verbs). Homework: 1) Finish exercises begun in class 2) Page 13-20, 50-60 in Italian Verb Drills 6 Lesson Three Review & Q&A Chapter 3 of Easy Italian Step-by-Step C'e (there is), Ci sono (there are), and Ecco (here it is) Prepositions and combining them with articles The Calendar (Days, Months, Seasons, Times of Day) Possessives with nouns Introduction to the 3rd Conjugation (so-called i-r-e verbs) The two forms of i-r-e conjugations (woe is us) Review Passato Prossimo/ Avere and Essere as auxiliaries and review formation of the past participles of verbs. Reading Comprehension Il cinema (page 56) in text book Homework: 1.) Finish Exercises begun in class 2.) Pages 21-28 in Italian Verb Drills 7 For subsequent lessons, I will give you the lesson plan a week or so in advance but I need to stay flexible so I can adjust the teaching to the learning pace of the class in general. Even the above plans are a guide. We will cover as much ground as we can but we want to do justice to the subject matter. Giuliana 8