“I’ve been in Italy for a while but I don’t seem to progress with my Italian”.

I’ve heard this so many times from a variety of folks recently. And they all had the following in common:

💛 They told me that Italy is their happy place.

🇮🇹 They know some Italian but…

⏫ They can’t  get beyond a basic conversation.

😬They feel intimidated  by how quick Italians speak — and they get lost!

🐌They translate everything in their head from English to Italian — which takes them soooo long.

🇮🇹 Some of them are already in Italy so they are having a “full immersion” in Italian but…

Things are not working as expected.

They are not making progress.

They feel that what they are doing isn’t working…

But why? 😲

They are “immersed” in the language after all.

Well, here’s the truth:

➡️ Immersion is truly effective only when it’s paired with the right skills and mindset.

Let me explain it in this way:

Let’s say you want to drive a Ferrari and you’ve already learned the rules of the street.

So…

🎁🚘 I get you the Ferrari!

However…

😖 You don’t  know how to drive the car at all — hence you need to learn some new skills.

😱You are scared of going on the road because seeing all those cars running around look scary  — hence you need mindset work.

I believe this is very similar to learning to speak Italian.

🇮🇹 You may learn Italian (in a course, for example), you may go to Italy but…

❎ You don’t have the skills you need to use the language in real life (aka speaking) and make it work for you.

❎ You don’t have the right mindset to face real life conversations (as you may feel nervous, not ready or just unable to deal with someone speaking so fast at you).

This is why, you may learn a gazillion of words and all the grammar in the world, but…

💡 If you don’t get the right skills and the right mindset, it will be very challenging for to progress and become a confident Italian speaker.

And by the way, I talk by experience: I myself have learned 4 languages( + taught Italian since 2012) and mindset and skills have always been the game changer…in combination with a few more things!

Would you like to learn more about these other things?

I’m organising a free workshop next week all in (slow) Italian called

“le 5 cose importanti per riuscire a parlare italiano… come per magia!”.

If you have an intermediate level of Italian and resonate with the above, you should join.  

It’s giovedì (Thursday), 15 June 2023.  Replay available if you cannot make it live – even though live it’s always better! 😉

We’ll cover the 5 important things you need to succeed in speaking Italian… like magic! 

Wait for my next email with the full outline (including some fun surprises (make sure you are on my email list here)

And if you already feel that this might be the workshop for you, here is already the link to book your spot.

A presto,

Ermy***