Speak Italian Magically!

Once Einstein said that if he was about to be killed and if he had only an hour of time to find a way to save his own life, he would devote the first 55 minutes to search for the right domanda. Once he’d found that domanda, said Einstein, finding the right risposta would take only 5 minutes.

Do you know what these two words mean? What is una domanda? And what is una risposta? And what would it be the right domanda to ask yourself to learn Italian faster?

In an online article about the power of le domande I found out about the several types  of domande. So you could have alcune domande like these:

* By looking at the cover of the Speak Italian Magically book, what do you already know? [Inference]

 * How would it be different if you had a mountain view instead of a sea view? [Interpretation and contrast]

* How could you speak Italian if you were already an Italian? [Transfer] 

* If the title of the episode is “In spiaggia a Tropea“, what do you think it would happen in this episode? [Predictive hypothesis]

* What do I know after listening to this episode? What don’t I know? [Reflective]

What happens when you answer all these domande? You’ll be more curious and you’ll learn something new! Besides, you will have guided your focus towards something you didn’t notice before.

Even the famous Anthony Robbins in his “Awaken the giant within”, talks about le domande. Actually he separates empowering questions from “lousy questions”. You could check this video out to get a gist of what he’s talking about.

Questions are a powerful tool to direct your focus. So if I ask you “what is the best domanda you can ask yourself to learn Italian faster?” I’ve guided your focus to learn Italian faster.

Knowing all that, I decided to put a lot of domande at the end of each episode of Speak Italian Magically…to direct your focus on the several points of the adventure…so that you learn Italian faster.

So, why dont’ you ask yourself more empowering domande to learn Italian now?

If you had only 30 days to learn Italian what would you do first? And then?

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When are you supposed to speak in Italian? Right away or after a while? What do you really think about it?

Well, there are people starting to imitate Italian pronunciation right away and other who wait for a while, before doing it. In which category do you belong? And why do you do this way? Do you think it is good to start and speak right away or you need to wait?

Have you tried to answer all these questions?

Well, now I can tell you what I think about it. It is true that in many Italian courses held in Italy, you are asked to start and speak right at the very first day…For instance a thing that you will usually learn in an Italian course is how to introduce yourself…So, COME TI CHIAMI? MI CHIAMO ANTONIO;-).  This is what usually happens in a communicative approach to language learning. Is it useful to do it? Yes and no.

Yes, because this way you will go home and be able to say a few sentences right after the very first lesson. No, because before speaking properly you are supposed to listen to a right amount of comprehensible input. And that’s why I suggest, if you use the Speak Italian Magically course, to follow the steps  and to speak only in step five, after you have listened to the same adventure several times and in different days (maybe also right before going to bed). Then at that point it would be useful to start and speak in chorus with the Italian only version of the adventure, while reading the text at the same time. This speak in chorus “thing” was used in schools in the past, but very little nowadays. It makes sense only if you do it after you have been exposed to the text and audio for a sensible amount of time. I know it may seems a little challenge, but it’s fun and it’s worth doing challenging things sometimes. This “waiting time” is what other linguists have called “silent period” (Asher, Brown).

As you know, I am very fond of accelerated learning methods, that is why I would strongly suggest to drink a glass of water (pure water, not coca-cola nor juice) and practise a bit of Brain Gym before doing this “speak in chorus” challenge. Well, you could do this: try to speak in chorus without doing Brain Gym and then speak in chorus after doing Brain Gym. If you notice any difference, then you’ll realize yourself whether it is worth practising Brain Gym before studying or not.

What is supposed to happen when you practise Brain Gym? Well, in several books ( Smart Moves, by Carla Hannaford; Brain Gym Teacher’s Edition, by P. and G. Dennison; and also in a book about medical NLP, Magic in Practice, by Thomson and Khan) you will find that you will achieve what in Italian is integrazione emisferica of your brain. This may be the reason why professor Arguelles, an american polyglot, suggests that when you “shadow” an audio, you walk at a swift pace while practising. Walking is an activity that both oxygenates your brain and integrates both sides of it. And even if you may look a bit crazy doing it, you should try it for yourself…maybe in a place where no friends of yours see you!

So, what are you waiting for? Listen, decode a fair amount of Italian, then go on and speak Italian!

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What does Daniel Tammet report about mental training?

Wait a minute, don’t you know who Daniel Tammet is? Then you should check this entry on Wikipedia (in Italian) or watch this 48 minute video, that I found on Youtube:

Well, today I started reading his second book (I haven’t read his first one yet), Embracing the wide Sky, available everywhere and about to be print in Italian too…

As usual I created a mind map before reading it, so that I can focus and get even more interested in the book…

Then, I started rapid reading it when I found about this experiment, that neuroscientist Alvaro Pasqual-Leone held.

“…taught a group of non musician volunteers to play a simple fivefinger piano exercise, then he had them practise in the lab for two hours a day for five days. After a week, brain scans of the volunteers showed an increase in the amount of territory the brain devotes to moving the fingers”

Nothing extraordinary till now, you would say. Read further…

“Pasqual-Leone then repeted the experiment with another group of volunteers, asking them this time to rehearse the same five-finger sequence in their heads, while holding their hands still and imagining how they would move their fingers. Subsequent scans of these volunteers showed the same result as for those who had played the sequence with fingers. The scientists’ conclusion: mental imagery may be just as good as actual practice”

Tammets goes on quoting what mental training athletes do to enhance their performances…but I already talked about it in this other article of mine…

I have read further and I have found the book to be quite interesting, so while waiting for a student of mine to show up, I found myself reading the first 76 pages…Great book! I am enjoying it very much!

And it gives even more fundation to the Speak Italian Magically approach;-)!

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When you speak, read or listen to Italian, who are you? Are you yourself? Why don’t you change identity while doing anything related to Italian?

Why?

Because…this way you will loosen yourself a bit and besides it will help you speak a better Italian!

One of the first things that Georgi Lozanov used to do during its suggestopedic learning courses was the identity change. And I love to do it too. For all the duration of my courses, students put themselves into an Italian’s shoes.

It’s fun and it helps the learning process. In fact, every time I call my students with their new Italian name, they always smile!;-)

So, before going on with the learning of Italian, you should shake off your past identity and slip into (= wear) a new one, all Italian.

You should choose a name, a family name, a new job and a new city of residence in Italy. Totally immerse yourself in this new identity.

Here you have a video of me doing something like that in course I held some time ago. We have identity change at the minute 3.40.  Of course, during the years I perfected the technique and my students are still having fun! Buon divertimento!

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 C’era una volta…

 ***Click here to listen to the Italian audio***

C’era una volta tanto tempo fa in un regno magico un principe azzurro. E c’era anche una principessa. Il principe e la principessa avevano un sogno, quello di poter parlare una lingua nuova, una lingua melodiosa e musicale che aprisse il cuore delle persone che avrebbero incontrato. E sai, a volte se hai un sogno, lo desideri così tanto e credi fermamente che il tuo sogno si avveri, succedono cose speciali. Un giorno il nostro principe e la nostra principessa stavano facendo una bella passeggiata nel loro giardino incantato. Gli uccellini cinguettavano e c’erano tantissimi fiori di tutti i colori. Il loro profumo si spargeva nell’aria. Il principe e la principessa erano così felici e innamorati che tutto era meraviglioso. Qualcosa all’improvviso attirò la loro attenzione. Era una musica che veniva dal centro del giardino. La seguirono e si trovarono davanti una scatola colorata di azzurro. Dall’interno della scatola si sentiva una vocina parlare…Apritemi, apritemi, apritemi! Il principe e la principessa si guardarono e decisero di aprire quella scatola. Dentro c’era un libro magico.Infatti il libro parlava in Italiano e loro capivano tutto quello che gli diceva…

 ***Click here to listen to the Italian audio***

Once upon a time…

Once upon a time there was in a magic realm a blue prince. And there was a princess too. The prince and the princess had a dream, that of being able to speak a new language, a melodious and musical language that would open the heart of the people they would meet. And, you know, sometimes if you have a dream, you desire it so much and believe so firmly that your dream will come true, special things happen. A day our prince and our princess were taking a stroll in their enchanted garden. Birds were singing and there were so many flowers of all colours. Their smell was spreading in the air. The prince and the princess were so happy and in love (with each other) that everything was wonderful. Suddenly something attracted their attention. It was a music coming from the centre oft he garden. They followed it and found themselves in front of a blue coloured box. From inside the box you could hear a little voice speaking…Open me, open me, open me! The prince and the princess looked at each other and decided to open that box. Inside there was a magic book. In fact the book was speaking Italian and they understood everything it told them…

Did you like the story? This is how I decided to start the new edition of the secrets of the Italian language, a bilingual ebook to learn how to learn Italian in Italian!  Imagine you could see Italian, listen to Italian and create your way towards learning Italian, while you understand everything you read! How is that possibile if you are an absolute beginner?

I was always intrigued by parallel reading books, the problem was that the language in those books was really outdated. You can’t learn modern Italian from books written over 3 hundreds years ago. It’s just not the same Italian we speak today.

By writing this book, I just wanted to put into practice what I learned by using mind maps and memory techniques. In the meanwhile I wanted to let you learn Italian while learning how to learn it.

I was looking for a multisensorial way to let you learn my own language. And it came into my mind that the best way to offer it, it was to write a book, read it and draw mind maps on it. And this is the result of my ideas! You will find a lot of FREE extras at the provided link if you buy this book!

This is actually the second edition, revised, expanded and updated with a new recording of the audiobook (which will be available at Podiobooks from 02/23/2011). The ebook is already available at a special introductory price at Amazon.com and at Smashwords where you can insert the following discount code to get 30% off: FN87U
(valid till March, 12th).

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What if there’s a wonderful place you have been to and you would like to come back everytime you want? And what if you would like to visit this place even if you haven’t ever been there? Let’s take Tropea for instance. Have you been here? If not, have you ever heard of it? Whatever the answer, read this article through and you will discover it.

Everyone knows that we have 5 senses and we can learn through them so that we have a multisensorial learning experience.

In fact, with your sight you can imagine a crystal clear sea and a sunny beach.

With your nose  you can smell  the salty air.

With your hearing you can hear the gentle waves splashing near you.

With your sense of touch you can feel the sand on your feet and even take it in your hands.

With your (sense of) taste you can taste a good ice cream or anything you would like to taste on a beach.

Now watch the following video by Franco di Capua and imagine you are there.

How do you feel? Relaxed? Excited? Describe your feelings…

Now if you use all your five senses you can be in Tropea every time you want. And all the warm people of Tropea are waiting for you to make your time here wonderful!

 Tropea, my beloved home town, is also in Speak Italian Magically. In the second episode you will be actually guided on Tropea’s beach to enjoy a nice day at the beach!

 And if you want additional Italian input, you can listen to Impariamo l’italiano a Tropea for free, where you can discover that Tropea is not only beach!

 Buona domenica a tutti!

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What has grammar to do with a storm? You may ask. I was thinking to the right way to tell you why I put so little grammar in the Speak Italian Magically approach. As usual something synchronic happens. In fact, I just happened to open the book The magic of metaphor [Le parole portano lontano in italiano] and come across the grammarian story. Let me tell it to you in Italian-English, as I did for each episode of Speak Italian Magically.

I strongly suggest to listen to it in Italian first and at the end, ask yourself: What is Antonio telling me about?

Click here to download and listen to the story.

Then you can listen to it again while reading it below. Have fun.

Un uomo d’affari ha invitato un amico, un insegnante, a fare una gita in barca. A businessman has invited his friend, a teacher, to do a trip on (his) boat. Mentre l’uomo d’affari si occupa della navigazione, l’insegnante si rilassa sul ponte. While the businessman takes care of the navigation, the teacher relaxes on the deck.

Dopo un po’ l’insegnante chiede: << Che ne dici, che tempo farà?>> After a while, the teacher asks: “What do you say, what the weather will be like?”

L’uomo d’affari guarda il cielo, annusa l’aria e controlla la direzione del vento. The businessman looks at the sky, sniffs the air and checks the direction of the wind.

<<A me mi sembra proprio che ci sarà un temporale>>, dice. “To me myself really seems that there is going to be a storm”

L’insegnante rimane scioccato. <<Non si dice ‘a me mi’! Non la conosci la grammatica? Si dice:’ a me sembra…a me sembra proprio che ci sarà un temporale’. Amico mio, se non conosci la grammatica hai perso metà della tua vita>>.The teacher is shocked. “You can’t say ‘to me myself’! Don’t you know grammar? You say: ‘ it seems to me…it really seems to me there’s going to be a storm’. My friend, if you don’t know grammer you’ve wasted half your life.”

L’uomo d’affari scuote appena la testa e continua a portare la barca con abilità, guardando l’orizzonte. The businessman merely shrugs his head and carries on navigating the boat with skill and looking at the horizon.

Un po’ di tempo dopo, come l’uomo d’affari ha previsto, si scatena un forte temporale. Some time later, as the businessman has predicted, a huge storm blows up.  Il vento è impetuoso, le onde enormi e la piccola barca viene sballottata dall’acqua.The wind is high, the waves (are) huge and the little boat is swamped with water.

Sovrastando il rumore della tempesta, l’uomo d’affari chiede all’insegnante: <<Sai nuotare?>> Over the roar of the storm, the businessman asks the teacher: “Do you know how to swim?”

<<No, perché mai dovrei essere capace di nuotare?>> “No, why on earth should I be able to swim?”

<<In questo caso>>, dice l’uomo d’affari, <<hai perso la tua vita del tutto, perché a me mi sembra che stiamo affondando>>. “In this case“, says the businessman, ” You’ve wasted all your life, because to me myself it seems we are going to sink.”

So why didn’t I talk a lot about grammar in Speak Italian Magically?

Let me tell ask you another question. When you were a child, did you know which grammar part you were using when you were saying “mamma”? Did you first learn grammar and then you spoke? I don’t think so…That’s why you need to focus on listening first, to acquire the Italian language. Later you could also work on grammar…but then it will be a refinement work and the storm (like in the above story) will be over. And you will Speak Italian Magically!

Photo on this page by toasto.com. Music in the story by: Kevin Macleod

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That is a strange question, indeed, if you think about the fact that a few years ago the only thing you could have was a book in paperback. When I was a teenager I didn’t even have  an mp3 reader! We had cassettes that could only give us 60-90 minutes of music. Well, if I think how the world has changed, my mind starts to wander and let me feel that we dreamed of the future, but we may not have realised that the future is here.

You can have everything you want today. You can if you want. Let me tell you the secret history of this book. Ten months ago I had an idea. Well, it was a question to answer after all. How can you learn and speak a language faster than you do now? Then I had the idea…I saw my self already having the answer to that. I saw myself as vividly as I could and with all my senses. I saw my self with this book in my hands, I heard what I could hear having this book in my hands (I even listened  to what my wife could tell me in such a case) and I felt as if I had already done it. Given the results, I think that this is really the secret to achieve anything in life. To see yourself having already done what you want to achieve. After all, didn’t they say “the body won’t go where the mind has not gone first”? And if you want to Speak Italian Magically,why don’t you imagine yourself as if you already speak Italian and fluently?

What about me then? What happened to me after this visualization then? I just found the right books, the right web links and the right ideas to create an improvement of other ideas and approaches to learn Italian faster. I just found my self at the right moment and at the right place. I also had an intuition about the book title. I remember as if it was now, I was in my car and I had what people call it an AH AH moment and I thought: “This is the right title for this book!”

Then I used Mary Loverde approach and I broke what I had to do into several micro-actions and only did those.

Four months ago I managed to publish the digital version  of the book.

As you may have realised by reading the first part of this post, I grew up in a different world (even though I like today’s world too), so I felt as if something was missing. When I imagined myself having this book in my hands, it wasn’t a digital version, it was a proper paperback and I could touch it, smell the paper pages.

How could I have a paperback without spending much money?

I found the answer for this too: print on demand!!!

So for those of you who, like me, want to have something in your hands, I am proud to announce that the paperback version of Speak Italian Magically is available!!!

Go to https://www.createspace.com/3497042 e insert the following discount code to get 30% off: ZHC3APRR Valid till January 15, 2011

The main difference with the ebook version: Beside being it in paper;-), I decided to give to you included in the price all 20 audio files, almost 3 hours of guided phantasies into Italy and Italian!

Here you have a video where I touch with my hands both versions! Enjoy!

And, by the way, BUON NATALE!!!

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In Speak Italian Magically you also have a mind map in each adventure.

What are mind maps and what are they useful for?
Invented by Tony Buzan, a popular English psychologist and mind researcher, they will help you involve all your senses. When you learn new words, you can draw and write them (to engage your kinaesthetic preferences), speak them aloud (to engage your auditory preferences) while listening to some classical music or the Speak Italian Magically adventure you just listened to and then look at (to engage your visual preferences) the mind map you realized.
Please notice that the drawings I put in the book are in black and white for you to have fun and colour them (in the paperback version). Have more fun and create your own. Also remember to write a word on each branch of the mind maps, as I didn’t do it on purpose.

In my other website and on Youtube I uploaded a video on how to create a mind map and practice your Italian. I did it with the following story. Do you understand it all? You can also watch the video about the creation of the “spoken” mind map. Thank you very much for reading this post! If you enjoyed it, feel free to write below!

http://www.youtube.com/v/0DJrnYxsuPc

La storia dell’asino caduto nel pozzo

Un giorno un asino cade in un pozzo. Il povero animale si mette a ragliare sconsolato, mentre la sua proprietaria, una contadina, riflette su cosa fare. Alla fine decide che il pozzo è secco e l’asino è vecchio, e quindi non vale la pena cercare di tirarlo fuori. Così chiama i vicini e dice loro di aiutarla a riempire il pozzo di terra, per farla finita con quella faccenda. Alle prime palate di terra l’asino raglia più disperato che mai, perché ha capito che cosa stanno facendo quegli uomini. Poi stranamente sta in silenzio. Dopo un po’ mentre gli altri continuano a gettare palate di terra, la contadina guarda nel pozzo e si meraviglia. L’asino sta facendo una cosa incredibile: ad ogni palata si scrolla la terra di dosso e risale di un passo. Arrivano altre palate, l’asino si scrolla e fa un passo più in alto. Infine tutti vedono con stupore l’animale che sporge la testa dall’apertura del pozzo, scavalca il pozzo e se ne va trotterellando.

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What is spaced learning? Have you ever heard of it? Do you practice it? If your answer if no, what could it be? Whether you know spaced learning already or not, say or write the first things that come into your mind now.

Have you done it?

I think you already know that the brain learns in layers, that is why it is good to be exposed to the same input in different ways: from the big picture to the detail is usually best.   But what about revising the material? When should you revise it?

Now, I can tell you about spaced and my experience with it. I’ve always known that to make something stick in your long term memory you need to revise it and repeat it. But when? Let’s say that you listen to an episode of Speak Italian Magically, when should you revise it again?

A couple of years ago, when I first read  Tony Buzan’s books I discovered about spaced repetition.  Basically he talks about the five-times repetition formula. He says that you should revise:

- the first time within an hour or so you’ve first read or learnt something;

- the second time the day after;

- the third time about a week later;

- the fourth one month later and

- the fifth and final six months later.

Based on this, if you listen and understand the first episode of Speak Italian Magically now at 10.36 a.m, you should:

- revise it within an hour today, 16 November 2010, that is 11.36 a.m.

- revise it tomorrow, 17 November 2010;

- revise it next week, 23 November 2010;

- revise it next month, 16 December;

- revise it after  6 months, 16 May 2011!

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