re: I need to learn to speak Italian

Not gonna happen. I took 3 years of French, got straight As, and can not understand a single word that French people speak. Here's the problem with foreign languages: even if you can read it and understand it, those frickers always seem to speak so fast that you'll never know what they said, so you can't translate it. This aplies to every foreign language. You could practice for years climbing steps to board a train, but it still ain'y gonna help you board a moving train. If you want to try anyway, the first phrase you should learn is "slow the frick down."

Well, two of the references I wanted to use in this thread have already been taken, so I guess I'm stuck with...

I think there's an app for that.

Seriously

quote:

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those frickers always seem to speak so fast that you'll never know what they said, so you can't translate it. This aplies to every foreign language.

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The French do speak really fast and the problem is exacerbated by the fact that they use liaisons to run nearly every word into the next.

Italian is a little easier in that regard.

The best way to learn to hear is to practice listening. A lot. I use TuneIn Radio app to listen to talk radio from other countries.