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This will come as a shock to no one who regularly reads my posts, but ever since I got my C1 certificate in German about a year ago, I’ve felt so weird about it.

I often see people in the language-learning community, both on tumblr and on youtube, insisting that they’re not C1 yet because they still stumble over words, or still make a lot of mistakes, or don’t feel 100% comfortable in their TL as they would in their native language.

But like…. I do all those things in German? There is no way that I am as comfortable in German as I am in my native language. Ok in listening I’m actually pretty close, but in reading, writing and speaking - no way. And with this being said… it’s not like I just passed the C1 exam by the skin of my teeth, I passed it easily.

So I guess…. C1 is maybe not what I, and we, always expect/ed it to be? I wonder how many of you insisting that you couldn’t pass a C1 exam yet, actually would pass, if you spent some months studying hard the specific topics you need to know for a C1 exam, familiarised yourself with the exam structures, etc. 

Maybe what you’re considering as C1 is actually C2, and maybe if you want native-like comfort and fluency then C2 your true goal, not C1. Maybe CEFR testing institutions are marking us too easily or promoting descriptions of CEFR levels that aren’t accurate. I’m not sure what’s even the point of this post but it’s something I’ve thought about for a long time and I wanted to finally say something.

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How I feel about people learning my native language: 😍🥰😘🤗☺️💕

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It’s so sexy of people to speak multiple languages.

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B1/B2 is the worst level of language learning to be at bc when ur C1 and people ask you if you speak a language, ur like hell ya bitch i do, and when ur A1/A2 ur like umm not really, but when you’re B1/B2 it’s like??? do i speak that language???

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To everyone learning a language, who is getting frustrated and impatient and maybe even thinking of quitting: remember how far you have come (not how far you have to go), remember why you started and remember how fantastic the end product will be. Learning a language is difficult and the journey can be long but it is rewarding and it opens so many doors. You are capable of doing this, you can do this… don’t quit now

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In Polish too - drzewa liściaste i iglaste

Ok, research: do you (in your language) divide trees between those with “normal” leaves (like oaks and maples) and those with pointy leaves (like fir and spruce)? And I mean specifically, is this categorization of trees common for everyone or is it just something scientists might use?

Like, in Swedish it’s completely natural to talk about lövträd and barrträd, it’s a concept everyone knows and categorizes the world after. If I don’t know the name of a specific kind of tree but I see it has leaves I can be like “It was some kind of lövträd.”

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How to learn a language when you don’t know where to start:

General Plan:

Weeks 1 and 2: Purpose:

Learn the fundamentals sentence construction

Learn how to spell and count

Start building a phrase stockpile with basic greetings

The Alphabet

Numbers 1 - 100

Subject Pronouns

Common Greetings

Conjugate the Two Most Important Verbs: to be and to have

Basic Definite and Indefinite Articles

Weeks 3 and 4: Purpose:

Learn essential vocabulary for the day-to-day

Start conjugating regular verbs

Days of the Week and Months of the Year

How to tell the time

How to talk about the weather

Family Vocabulary

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Weeks 5 and 6: Purpose:

Warm up with the last of the day-to-day vocabulary

Add more complex types of sentences to your grammar

Colours

House vocabulary

How to ask questions

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Forming negatives

Weeks 7 and 8: Purpose:

Learn how to navigate basic situations in a region of your target language country

Finish memorising regular conjugation rules

Food Vocabulary and Ordering at Restaurants

Money and Shopping Phrases

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Weeks 9 and 10: Purpose:

Start constructing descriptive and more complex sentences

Adjectives

Reflective verbs

Places vocabulary

Weeks 11 and 12: Purpose:

Add more complex descriptions to your sentences with adverbs

Wrap up vocabulary essentials

Adverbs

Parts of the body and medical vocabulary

Tips for Learning a Foreign Language:

Learning Vocabulary:

What vocabulary should I be learning?

There are hundreds of thousands of words in every language, and the large majority of them won’t be immediately relevant to you when you’re starting out.Typically, the most frequent 3000 words make up 90% of the language that a native speaker uses on any given day. Instead try to learn the most useful words in a language, and then expand outwards from there according to your needs and interests.

Choose the words you want/need to learn.

Relate them to what you already know.

Review them until they’ve reached your long-term memory.

Record them so learning is never lost.

Use them in meaningful human conversation and communication.

How should I record the vocabulary?

Learners need to see and/or hear a new word of phrase 6 to 17 times before they really know a piece of vocabulary.

Keep a careful record of new vocabulary.

Record the vocabulary in a way that is helpful to you and will ensure that you will practice the vocabulary, e.g. flashcards.

Vocabulary should be organised so that words are easier to find, e.g. alphabetically or according to topic.

Ideally when noting vocabulary you should write down not only the meaning, but the grammatical class, and example in a sentence, and where needed information about structure.

How should I practice using the vocabulary?

Look, Say, Cover, Write and Check - Use this method for learning and remembering vocabulary. This method is really good for learning spellings.

Make flashcards. Write the vocabulary on the front with the definition and examples on the back.

Draw mind maps or make visual representations of the new vocabulary groups.

Stick labels or post it notes on corresponding objects, e.g when learning kitchen vocabulary you could label items in your house.

How often should I be practising vocabulary?

A valuable technique is ‘the principle of expanding rehearsal’. This means reviewing vocabulary shortly after first learning them then at increasingly longer intervals.

Ideally, words should be reviewed:

5-10 minutes later

24 hours later

One week later

1-2 months later

6 months later

Knowing a vocabulary item well enough to use it productively means knowing:

Its written and spoken forms (spelling and pronunciation).

Its grammatical category and other grammatical information

Related words and word families, e.g. adjective, adverb, verb, noun.

Common collocations (Words that often come before or after it).

Receptive Skills: Listening and Reading

Reading is probably one of the most effective ways of building vocabulary knowledge.

Listening is also important because it occupies a big chunk of the time we spend communicating.

Tips for reading in a foreign language:

Start basic and small.  Children’s books are great practice for beginners. Don’t try to dive into a novel or newspaper too early, since it can be discouraging and time consuming if you have to look up every other word.

Read things you’ve already read in your native language. The fact that you at least know the gist of the story will help you to pick up context clues, learn new vocabulary and grammatical constructions.

Read books with their accompanying audio books. Reading a book while listening to the accompanying audio will improve your “ear training”. It will also help you to learn the pronunciation of words.

Tips for listening in a foreign language:

Watch films in your target language.

Read a book while also listening along to the audio book version.

Listen to the radio in your target language.

Watch videos online in your target language.

Activities to do to show that you’ve understood what you’ve been listening to:

Try drawing a picture of what was said.

Ask yourself some questions about it and try to answer them.

Provide a summary of what was said.

Suggest what might come next in the “story.”

Translate what was said into another language.

“Talk back” to the speaker to engage in imaginary conversation.

Productive Skills: Speaking and Writing

Tips for speaking in a foreign language:

If you can, try to speak the language every day either out loud to yourself or chat to another native speaker whether it is a colleague, a friend, a tutor or a language exchange partner. 

Write a list of topics and think about what you could say about each one. First you could write out your thoughts and then read them out loud. Look up the words you don’t know. You could also come up with questions at the end to ask someone else.

A really good way to improve your own speaking is to listen to how native speakers talk and imitate their accent, their rhythm of speech and tone of voice. Watch how their lips move and pay attention to the stressed sounds. You could watch interviews on YouTube or online news websites and pause every so often to copy what you have just heard. You could even sing along to songs sung in the target language.

Walk around the house and describe what you say. Say what you like or dislike about the room or the furniture or the decor. Talk about what you want to change.This gets you to practise every day vocabulary.

Tips for writing in a foreign language:

Practice writing in your target language. Keep it simple to start with. Beginner vocabulary and grammar concepts are generally very descriptive and concrete.

Practice writing by hand. Here are some things you can write out by hand:

Diary entries

Shopping lists

Reminders

What could I write about?

Write about your day, an interesting event, how you’re feeling, or what you’re thinking.

Make up a conversation between two people. 

Write a letter to a friend, yourself, or a celebrity. You don’t need to send it; just writing it will be helpful.

Translate a text you’ve written in your native language into your foreign language.

Write a review or a book you’ve recently read or a film you’ve recently watched.

Write Facebook statuses, Tweets or Tumblr posts (whether you post them or not will be up to you).

Write a short story or poem.

Writing is one of the hardest things to do well as a non-native speaker of a language, because there’s no room to hide. 

There are lots of ways to improve your writing ability, but they can be essentially boiled down to three key components:

Read a lot

Write a lot

Get your writing corrected

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Libri Italiani 📚

Premessa ai miei connazionali che troveranno questo post: se conoscete libri di autori Italiani (non stranieri, è meglio far conoscere i nostri), sentitevi liberi di aggiungere le vostre proposte!

Hey everyone! In this post I’ll recommend some Italian books and I’m sorry if they’re not in a certain order lol, I basically wrote what was in my mind first, to be honest. Don’t worry for this, they all deserve a chance. 😉 Clicking on each title, you’ll be brought to a page where you can read the plot (which will be, obviously, in Italian), so that you’ll have an idea of what it talks about.

Enjoy!

• Io non ho paura

• Le città invisibili

• Bianca come il latte, rossa come il sangue

• Jack Frusciante è uscito dal gruppo

• Il barone rampante

• L’amica geniale

• La concessione del telefono

• Il passato è una terra straniera

• Caffè amaro

• Non luogo a procedere

• Nessuno si salva da solo

• Cuore

• Uno, nessuno e centomila

• Cose che nessuno sa

• Se questo è un uomo

• Donna d’onore

• E allora baciami

• La lunga vita di Marianna Ucria

• Bagheria

• Il treno dell’ultima notte

• Esercizi di memoria

• La mennulara

• La ruga del cretino

• La banda degli amanti

• Il diario lombroso e il killer dei musei

• Niente tranne il nome

• Conta fino a dieci

• L’ultimo respiro

• Non dimenticarti della vita

• La spina nel cranio

• Tentazioni proibite

• Non ti faccio niente

• L’amore addosso

• Rapita: parte 1  //  parte 2

•  Il gioco del ragno

•  Il sapore delle lacrime

•  Tre ragazzi e il ciambellone

•  Tracked: false verità

•  Dire, fare…ringraziare

•  La ragnatela del potere

• La Locandiera

Romanzi storici

• Il nome della rosa

• Valerio Massimo Manfredi’s novels

• Il ribelle - L’avventura della fondazione

• Il sole invincibile

• Invictus

• Cave Canem

• Il ritorno di Roma

• Spartaco il gladiatore

Fantasy

The most famous Italian writer in this genre is probably Licia Troisi, click on the name to find her books. The most read ones belong to the “Il mondo emerso” saga.

Other cool sagas are:

• L’Era della luna rossa (pt.1 // pt.2)

• Memorie di sangue (pt.1 // pt.2)

• Le cronache di Ansorac (pt.1 // pt.2 // pt.3)

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Wonderful things about people learning a new language:

 When they have no idea how to balance the formality of their word choices and the severity of their cursing, so it’s neutral at -

nvm I can’t explain it eloquently with words, I made a chart.

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If you’re reading this I hope in 2020 you get

Language books

Cute stationery

New friends to practice your target languages with

To travel to the countries where your target languages are spoken

Fluency

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concept: you’re not absolutely fluent, but now you don’t have to switch tabs 20 times to translate words in a ten minutes video in your target language. there’s still a lot of words and phrases and conditions you don’t know, but now you’re no longer afraid to strike up a conversation with a native speaker. yes, you have your accent but you know they can understand you and you can understand them. you can express your thoughts and emotions in your target language. you can even think in your target language. and most importantly, it doesn’t feel like a target anymore, you can feel it in you. it’s your language. 

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*changes languages mid-sentence*

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you know you start to get a language when you laugh at your first target-language meme

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la letteratura – literature la biblioteca – library la casa editrice – publishing house l'editore (m.) – publishing house il giornale – newspaper la libreria – bookstore / bookcase il libro – book la recensione – review la rivista – magazine il testo – text

PERSONE / PEOPLE

l'autore – author (m.) l'autrice – author (f.) il bibliotecario / la bibliotecaria – librarian (m. and f.) il correttore di bozze – proofreader (m.) la correttrice di bozze – proofreader (f.) il critico letterario – literary critic l'editore – editor (m.) l'editrice – editor (f.) il / la giornalista – journalist il lettore – reader (m.) la lettrice – reader (f.) il libraio / la libraia – the bookseller (m. and f.) lo scrittore – writer (m.) la scrittrice – writer (f.)

GENERI LETTERARI / LITERARY GENRES

la prosa – prose

il romanzo – novel il romanzo d'avventura – adventure novel il romanzo di formazione – Bildungsroman il romanzo epistolare – epistolary novel il romanzo gotico – gothic novel il romanzo rosa – romance novel / chick lit il romanzo storico – historical novel la fantascienza – science fiction il fantasy – fantasy il giallo – crime novel il racconto breve – short story la storia – story il thriller – thriller

la saggistica – nonfiction la biografia – biography il saggio – essay il trattato – treatise

la poesia – poetry / poem

l'epica (f.) – epic la lirica – lyric poetry / poem la ballata – ballad l'elegia (f.) – elegy il sonetto – sonnet

PARTI DI UN LIBRO / DI UN TESTO / PARTS OF A BOOK / TEXT

la brossura – paperback il carattere / il font – font la copertina – cover la copertina cartonata – hardcover la costa – spine / back il frontespizio – title page l'impaginazione (f.) – layout l'inchiostro (m.) – ink l'indice (m.) – index la pagina – page il paragrafo – paragraph la quarta di copertina – back cover la rilegatura – binding

PERSONAGGI / CHARACTERS

l'antagonista (m./f.) – antagonist il cattivo / la cattiva – villain (m. and f.) l'eroe – hero l'eroina – heroin il/la protagonista – protagonist, main character (m./f.)

VERBI / VERBS

correggere – to proofread (also: to correct) distribuire – to distribute leggere – to read pubblicare – to publish scrivere – to write stampare – to print

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Brutally Honest Rules for Language Learners

If you can`t make your own examples to a grammar rule, you don`t know this grammar rule.

Learning words without context is almost useless. You may repeat something like “road” or “deeply” millions of times and still forgetting them in the most important situations. Memorize phrases instead. e. g. “I crossed the road” and “to be deeply ashamed”.

Prioritize. There are almost 500 000 words in the English language and even more in some non-European languages. If you decide to learn 5 words a day, you`ll need a shitload of time to cover at least the third of the whole vocabulary. So, know precisely what words are the most frequent and the most important for you personally.

No, you won`t learn a language by listening to songs ONLY.

If your level of knowledge is Intermediate or higher, you don`t need the fucking subtitles. Well, in the beginning, you will have a terrible headache and doubts about the whole thing, but every video will be making you a little better. You`ll slowly get used to the accents and intonation. It`ll stop to sound like the endless phrase without any pauses. Just give yourself some time.

Translation from the native language to the target language is useless (if you`re not going to become an interpreter). Write the short texts in your target language instead.

Forget about boring topics from the textbooks. Argue with somebody in the comment section under your fav YouTube videos. Try to persuade me that the Earth is flat (I know it`s insane, but you`ll remember it much better than writing the essay “The current problems of ecology”). Rewrite your own posts. Write down 15 phrases do describe Donald Trump. I mean… Everything is better than a standard way of learning that doesn`t express your inner self.

Check the pronunciation of ALL the words. ALL the time. Your intuition is a great tool. However, it doesn`t cure all the irregular cases. Just look at English words “daughter” and “laughter”, “head” and “heat”, “though” and “thought”. They look almost similar but they sound in ABSOLUTELY different ways. There`s a possibility that your target language also has a lot of such cases. Just spend few seconds on looking at the transcriptions. It doesn`t hurt, I promise.

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Italian sayings that’ll make you sound like a real Italian grandma

A buon intenditor poche parole – A word to the wise (is enough)

Literally, “a few words to one who understands correctly (are enough)”. Someone who’s wise will heed a piece of advice, albeit a brief one.

A caval donato non si guarda in bocca – Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, beggars can’t be choosers

That is, a gift is always a gift and one mustn’t be too choosy about it. Since horses’ teeth grow over time, checking their length is a way of gauging old age. The original Latin quote can be found in Saint Jerome’s Commentariorum In Epistolam Beati Pauli Ad Ephesios.

A mali estremi estremi rimedi – Desperate times call for desperate measures

In extreme situations, even means that would look excessive at any other time might be necessary.

Buon sangue non mente – The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, like father like son

Literally, “good blood doesn’t lie”.

Can che abbaia non morde – Barking dogs seldom bite

Literally, “a barking dog doesn’t bite”: those who get angry and threaten easily rarely take any action.

Chi ben comincia è a metà dell'opera – Well begun is half done

Literally, “those who begin well have (already) done half of their work”.

Chi cerca trova – Seek and you shall find

Literally, “he who seeks, finds”.

Chi dorme non piglia pesci – You snooze, you lose

Literally, “he who sleeps doesn’t catch any fish”. A suitable English equivalent would also be “the early bird catches the worm”, although the latter is more similar in meaning to “il mattino ha l’oro in bocca” (lit. “morning has got gold in its mouth”).

Chi la fa l'aspetti – What goes around comes around

When you do something (usually bad), expect it to come back to you in some way.

Chi semina vento raccoglie tempesta – Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind

Literally, “he who sows wind reaps a storm”. Not unlike “chi la fa l’aspetti”, you could say that this saying is basically about karma: for every negative action, you should expect much bigger consequences.

Chi non risica, non rosica – Nothing ventured, nothing gained

“He who doesn’t risk anything won’t obtain anything”. While the most common meaning of rosicare nowadays is “to eat one’s heart out”, usually because of envy, here it’s more of a synonym of rosicchiare (”to nibble”).

Chi trova un amico trova un tesoro – Who finds a friend finds a treasure

True friendship is a precious thing, and those who are lucky enough to find it have a “treasure” on their hands.

Chi va piano va sano e va lontano – Slow and steady wins the race

“Those who walk slowly walk safely and get far”. Slow and constant effort will get you to your goal, while excessive hurry usually leads you nowhere; the saying is generally associated with Aesop’s fable The Hare and the Tortoise.

Gioco di mano, gioco di villano – Never use violence, not even when playing

Literally, “a game of hand (is) a game for boorish people”.

Il gioco è bello quando dura poco – Never take a joke too far, it is all fun and games until someone loses an eye

Literally, “a game is fun when it doesn’t last long”; it is essentially a call for moderation in all things.

L'abito non fa il monaco – You can’t judge by appearances alone

Literally, “the habit (religious clothing) doesn’t make the monk”.

L'erba voglio non cresce nemmeno nel giardino del re – “I want” doesn’t get

The much more colorful literal translation would be “”I want”-grass doesn’t grow anywhere, not even in a King’s garden”: it is used to teach children the importance of employing polite expressions such as “please” and “thank you” instead of just saying they “want” something.

Mal comune mezzo gaudio – Shared trouble is half a joy

A sorrow, when shared, seems less hard to bear.

Non c'è due senza tre – Good / bad things come in threes

Literally, “there is no two without three”: if a fortuitous event has already happened twice, it might as well happen a third time. This chance is regarded either with hope or with fear, depending on the positive or negative nature of the event itself.

Occhio non vede, cuore non duole – What you can’t see can’t hurt you

Literally, “(what) the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve (over)”.

Patti chiari, amicizia lunga – Clear understanding makes for long friendships

It’s better to be clear about everything right away, in order to avoid unpleasant surprises later on.

Quando il gatto non c'è, i topi ballano – When the cat’s away the mice will play

Literally, “when the cat’s away, the mice dance”: in the absence of the one who’s supposed to control them, people will take advantage of the situation.

Ride bene chi ride ultimo – He who laughs last, laughs best

Don’t go tasting victory before the whole affair has actually come to an end.

Rosso di sera, bel tempo si spera – Red in the evening, good weather is hoped for

When the sky is red at sunset, there’s supposedly reasonable chance of good weather for the following day.

Sbagliando s'impara – You learn from your mistakes, practice makes perfect

Literally, “you learn by making mistakes”.

Tra i due litiganti il terzo gode –  two dogs strive for a bone, and the third runs away with it 

Literally, “between two people fighting, the third one wins”. When two sides contend, it is always to a third part’s benefit.

Una rondine non fa primavera – One swallow does not a summer make

Literally, “one swallow doesn’t make a spring”. The allusion is obviously to the return of migrating swallows, and the saying roughly means that a single event doesn’t make a trend.

Una mela al giorno toglie il medico di torno – An apple a day keeps the doctor away

Pretty straightforward: eat healthy and you won’t get sick.

Uomo avvisato mezzo salvato –  Forewarned is forearmed

Literally, “a man forewarned is a half-saved man”. Knowing something in advance, or getting useful advice, is a huge advantage, but can only help us so much: we have to do our share by acting accordingly.

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ITALIAN EXPRESSIONS

Raga - short for “ragazzi”; literally: “guys” (probably the most used)

Dai - it can be translated to “come on” and it’s pronounced like the English word “die” (so yeah it can create a little bit of misunderstanding)

Meno Male! - literally “less bad!”; but it means “thank God!”

Magari! - literally “maybe”; it’s the italian equivalent of “I wish!”

Basta - it means “that’s enough” “stop it” “enough”

Boh - literally this emoji: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ or “to have no clue”. (“Did we have homework for today” “boh”)

Quattro gatti - literally “four cats”; it means very few people. (Alla festa eravamo in quattro gatti - at the party we were in four cats)

Come Dio comanda - literally “as God commands”; something done properly, like it should be.

Spettegolare - to gossip

Toccare ferro - literally “to touch iron”; italian equivalent for “knock on wood” (yeah we touch iron instead)

alzare il gomito - literally: “to raise the elbow”; to drink too much (if someone raised the elbow he drank more than he should have)

Siga - short for “sigaretta” which means cigarette (would be “ciga” in English? Did I just invented a new slang word? Idk)

Ci sta - literally: “it fits” it means “that’s cool” “sounds good”

Fatti furbo - literally: “make yourself smart”; it means something like “wake up!” “open your eyes!”

Un limone - literally: “a lemon”; it’s a make out session