Genius Hour 2016 Learning Italian with Duolingo

Since my last post I have learned

Learning Italian with Duolingo Week 4

Ciao!
Come stai?

Posso offrirti una caffe?
 Si.
Caffe al latte.

Cosa fai?
Io scrivo
Qual e?
Una libro.

Mia cane bevo l acquo
Lui e Shiba Inu

Quale giacco?
e azzuri


Cuoco cucina cene e pollo, pesce, manzo non vegetariane
Pesce e frito

io lavoro

 I am trying to work on conversation skills, but my vocabulary is still very limited.  I have started to
learn more question words, clothing and color words.

Companiere una bottilgia e succo?
No. Vino.



 

Learning Italian Using Duolingo

      Ciao!
      When it comes to learning a language, I have learned that I need to practice more consistently.  When I a practice daily, I am able to remember better.  If I miss 3 days of practice, I forget word endings.  Duolingo can be set up to send a report to teachers to show how often and how well students are doing in their practice.
     The order of presentation of words in the Duolingo lessons is interesting.  I learned pronouns and just a few verbs; I know read, write, drink, eat, see and cook.  Travelers would benefit from the food and drink words, but I think it would be helpful to know more verbs.  To think, to learn, to try, and to go are some that I don't know yet.
      I know Chi (who)?, Come (how)? but not well enough to use.
      I am trying to figure out what conversation I want to be able to demonstrate at the end of the year. It would be logical to be able to recap some of the year or have a conversation about summer plans.  Mine would involve reading and writing. I am on my way to that conversation. Here are some of the sentences I can use.  Io legge libri.  Io scrivo.   I don't know the word and.  That is something simple, maybe they don't use it as often?
     I am going to branch into exploring places to stay and sites I'd like to visit.  I will try to learn related language for these topics.  I found a wonderful place to stay using VRBO.  It is near il Colloseo Foro Romano means Colliseum and Forum.  I saw the outside of the Colliseum the last time I was in Rome, but I arrived too late for the tour.  I also saw the Forum.  I would love to have a tour guide that can share Roman history with me.  I know just a little from teaching Julius Caesar.
      I just realized I also don't know how to upload pictures to my blog and some of my students do, so I will have to ask them to teach me this skill.  To me, this is why Genius Hour is great.  It is real world learning and sharing of meaningful/useful information.

Arrivederci for now.

Learning Italian with Duolingo Week 2

   
     I am continuing to use Duolingo to work on my Italian.  I also have Swedish and Spanish to work on.  I try to keep all of the previous learning solid as I add new words and phrases.  Tu can see that I am not remembering everything.
     Il bricchere, ciotola, piatti and forketta are all used nel mangia cena.   Cuoco cucino.   My favorite frutta e mele.  On my vacation io ho tempo de vendre.  Did you?  As you can see with your occhero, io scrive in my best Italian.  Io ho practiced several times during the week.  I have worked on phrases, animals and foods.
      As io scrive, io non remember the phrases in Italian, but I am learning It's always the same thing, Do you come here often, Sorry, I was lost in your eyes, complimenti alla mamma (my compliments to your mother), Chi non lavorna, non mangia, (who does not labor, does not eat) and several others.
     Orso is the Italian word for bear, leone-lion, gatto-cat, cane-dog, mucca-cow, formica-ant, ucello- bird and more.
Foods I have learned include:
Manzo is beef
Pollo is chicken
Pesce is fish
Mela is apple
Uva is grape or egg
Citron is lemon
Gelato is ice cream
Torta is cake
Formaggio is cheese
Latte is milk
Ciocolatto is chocolate
Creme is cream
Pane is bread
Burre is butter
Birre is beer
      I have reviewed Buena Notte, Ciao, Arrivedirci, Buena Serra, Grazi, Por Favore which are greetings and manner words.
      I am seeing some similarities with Latin root study and this is somewhat helpful.  I plan to keep learning more each week.

Learning Italian Using Duolingo

Feb/March 2015

     In the summer of 2014, I traveled to the Mediterranean to visit Italy, Spain and France on a Costa Cruise.  My parents, son and daughter accompanied me on this trip.  Little did I know how out of my element I would be.  The Costa Cruise Lines primary language was Italian.  English speaking passengers were few and far between and prepaid, planned excursions were cancelled because there weren't enough English speakers to make the trips worthwhile.  Although my son had taken two years of college Italian, he didn't have enough experience with native speakers to help out, so I found our party in Rome alone.  It was a challenging, but wonderful day including a family walking tour of famous sites and a lovely pizza at a family run trattoria.  However, I vowed, before I travel abroad again, I'd learn the language of the country I'd be visiting.
     Right now, I am working on Italian and Swedish.  I took two years of Swedish in college, so some of that is a refresher.  I am going to focus on learning Italian with the app Duolingo.  Duolingo is a free app.  The program begins with the basics: one, boy, girl, man, woman, I am, and the.  The second basic set includes apple, eat, he, she, you.  The third basic set is drink, eat, water, sugar and bread.  To study the words the program speaks phrases in Italian and you must translate in English or it gives you an English phrase and you must select the correct Italian.  It also has a microphone that you hold down; you speak the correct Italian phrase into the mike and it detects accuracy of your pronunciation.  Sometimes it shows pictures and you must identify the correct modifier and then type the correct noun.
   I find the feminine and masculine words as well as the tenses quite challenging.  Right now I am doing pretty well with Basic 1, and I am working on Level 2 it's about reading and writing, so it is right up my alley and the some of the words relate to Latin Root study. I've done 20 lessons in 5 days. It's quite fun, so I'm going to get back to practicing.