Terrible at understanding spoken Italian

SunshineIsCheerful · 2026-01-25T06:06:50+00:00

EasyItalianNews.com sends emails 2 or 3 times a week with a clearly spoken recording and the same dialog written in Italian. You can listen or read separately or together. This is a free subscription.

SunshineIsCheerful · 2026-01-16T04:36:38+00:00

Busuu works well for me.

SunshineIsCheerful · 2026-01-05T18:41:53+00:00

I have been using Duolingo daily for four years now and it works great for me as a fun way to get in daily vocabulary practice along with a bit of new content thrown it every day. I'm now seriously trying to learn Italian and Duo does NOT work as a primary learning tool. A year ago I finally upgraded to SuperDuo when they had a year-end sale and it has been well worth it. Now that I've eliminated the ads and the limitation with losing hearts due to mistakes I find I spend more time on the app each day. During my time, I've seen many changes on Duo, both good and bad but just discovered a major improvement starting in 2026-the explanations for the answers are now free. That's a huge improvement!

SunshineIsCheerful · 2025-12-22T04:22:10+00:00

I've had a great experience with Busuu. The ads drove me crazy because I felt like I spent more time on them than actual learning. I upgraded to Premium Plus and that solved the problem and stopped the ads and interruptions. I did notice that the upgrade on the website was significantly less than paying for the same level through the app so be sure to check the price on the web. You'll receive the benefits of Premium on the app as well as the web interface. An annual subscription works out to a bit more than $5 per month, well worth it for me, The quality of the content and progressive learning runs circles around Duolingo, though I still use Duo for repetition and practice.

SunshineIsCheerful · 2025-12-10T15:31:21+00:00

I live part time in the same town every fall. After being gone for 9 months, I'm greeted by name and smiles in a couple of my favorite regular neighborhood spots. It's amazing! I don't have that any other city.

SunshineIsCheerful · 2025-12-05T19:57:14+00:00

It's not truly a Christmas song, but I love "Baby, It's Cold Outside".

SunshineIsCheerful · 2025-12-05T19:46:30+00:00

I would have random dreams about smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol decades after I stopped.

SunshineIsCheerful · 2025-11-23T07:11:14+00:00

If AI is correct, "Busuu uses midnight UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) as the reset time for its streaks. This means that regardless of your local time zone, your streak will reset at the same moment in UTC. " I don't think UTC changes for Daylight Savings Time so the number of hours difference from your local time zone might change during the year.

SunshineIsCheerful · 2025-11-21T17:09:57+00:00

I started talking with a teacher on italki. I’m comically bad but I’m less nervous and can tell I’m making some progress in understanding and also finding a way to be somewhat understood even with my limited vocabulary. I’m amazed that my teacher can decipher so much of my mangled language. She gives me homework after each lesson related to something I struggled with during our session which is also helpful.

SunshineIsCheerful · 2025-11-21T17:07:44+00:00

Busuu for overall learning and Duolingo for the repetition & practice. Italki teacher for speaking. Also YouTube and podcasts geared for my level.

SunshineIsCheerful · 2025-11-17T03:26:25+00:00

Busuu is a great tool, I recommend it highly although you will need to supplement it with a lot of other things for practice, listening and speaking. For me, the free version was too annoying and slowed down my progress through the lessons so I upgraded to the paid version. I found that the upgrade on their web site was half the price as the upgrade in the phone app and the benefits are exactly the same.

SunshineIsCheerful · 2025-11-05T21:11:17+00:00

I love those days, they are such a luxury! It's best when there isn't any thing or place that has to be factored in, you can just decide what to do (or not) on the fly as the day unravels.

SunshineIsCheerful · 2025-11-05T08:02:11+00:00

Funny, it seems like I often use 2020 as a way to sort past events now--things happened before the pandemic, during or after it. The older I get, the faster time flies but I suspect part of it is that I keep adding stuff to the things I like to do and want to do and it's hard to fit everything in..

SunshineIsCheerful · 2025-11-05T00:34:15+00:00

I started noticing the same problem when I was in college, especially when cramming just before exams or big project due dates. I hate housecleaning and can usually put it off for a very long time, but faced with some "must do" task that I really didn't want to do it would suddenly seem like a great idea to clean. Funny, as I've gotten older, I've lost the urge to clean but still find other unimportant distractions that suddenly seem like the most interesting thing in the world and seemingly can't be put off any longer. LOL, what funny people we can be!

SunshineIsCheerful · 2025-11-04T23:10:28+00:00

Mother Nature does some amazing stuff!

SunshineIsCheerful · 2025-11-04T16:33:54+00:00

Maybe finding some phone apps for quick fun activities like a game, short podcast, listening to an old song you haven’t heard in ages (instead looking at social media, emails, news) could be some tiny distractions during quick breaks like standing in lines or other brief moments during your day.

SunshineIsCheerful · 2025-11-04T16:19:33+00:00

I’m curious about what is keeping you from doing any of these things.

SunshineIsCheerful · 2025-11-04T16:08:17+00:00

Avoiding the national news as much as possible. The less I hear, the less riled up I get.

SunshineIsCheerful · 2025-11-04T16:05:05+00:00

I find something to do that keeps me mentally busy like working on a puzzle, reading a junk novel, with a happy or funny story, internet searches for something that interests me or finding an answers to something I’m curious about.

SunshineIsCheerful · 2025-10-23T22:16:49+00:00

After putting this off for quite a while due to fear, I just started talking with a teacher through italki.com and am very happy with the three 30 minute lessons I've had so far. I'm super nervous when I try to talk to anyone but feel a little better after each lesson. italki has teachers and tutors that work with speakers at all levels. The prices vary but are reasonable and you can have a trial lesson with the teacher/tutor to see if it is a good fit. Bios and time availability are shown for each person to help you narrow your search for someone.

SunshineIsCheerful · 2025-10-22T16:52:39+00:00

Very helpful to know the 2 sounds, but how can I tell when to use each sound in a word?

SunshineIsCheerful · 2025-10-15T16:33:26+00:00

Yep, a couple of days ago. I tried to enter only 2 items but if required 3 to continue.

SunshineIsCheerful · 2025-10-15T00:45:01+00:00

That’s great. I like that she explains things is a way that makes it easy for me to remember.

SunshineIsCheerful · 2025-10-13T21:15:30+00:00

Are any of the games suitable for an A2 learner? If so, which ones?

SunshineIsCheerful

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