Why did you start learning Italian?

[Akya]

I'm actually dating a wonderful Italian man, and he can speak perfect English but his parents can't. His friends can't communicate much English either but I know it's more important if I can communicate with his family. His grandfather can only speak Venetian and that might be a dialect I end up learning as well but I'm gonna focus general Italian first

[Czarownica]

Aww, that's pretty sweet.

My reason is more boring: I was a slightly rebelious and stupid teenager who was fed up with learning German, so when I went to high school and got the chance I've chosen another language to learn. It just happened to be Italian.

Now I kinda regret it. Not because I dislike Italian, but because I wish I studied German more. Now I can barely remember anything from it

[linguaholic]

I might start studying italian as well, as it is an official language of Switzerland. We speak french, german, italian and Romansh in Switzerland. I live in a bilingual city (Biel) and almost everyone speaks french and german there. We have a lot of italians there as well, so being able to communicate in italian would be a good thing.

Italy is just an hour away by train from my place in Switzerland, so if I would feel that I need some "immersion", it would be pretty easy to do so :=)

[rgaz83]

I've dabbled in Italian on and off because I know someone from Italy. One of these days, I'd like to actually go to Italy. (I'd like to travel just about anywhere, but that's beside the point.  )

[jodiann12]

I'm interested in learning Italian because I would like to travel there some day. I know that it's going to be quite difficult to learn the language because each region in Italy has its own dialect, but, hey, I love a challenge. 

[Androu1]

My story is quite simple and not that great or anything, like some people's. I started studying at college (I want to graduate as a translator) and they only had French and Italian at the time. Italian seemed easier and I liked it more so I went with Italian over French. As simple as that.

I do like the language, though.

[charahome]

I want to learn Italian because that is my ancestry. I want to learn French because the language fascinates me. My father could speak both with complete fluency. I would like to honor that by learning them, too.

I am already working on Italian. It seems simple, and similar to Spanish. I am enjoying the practice, and the spelling at this time. No grammar yet.

[thisladjoe]

Mainly due to my family ties within italy but also here in the UK. Despite having family based all around Italy who speak different levels of english the main part where i travel the most can speak very very very basic english as i am going back over alone in the summer to see them again i would like to hold a decent conversation for once. 

[yurithebest1]

Before starting learning Italian i was very confused because i didn't know if i should pick Spanish or Italian as a fourth language, but after thinking about it i decided that Italian would be good for me since it sounds more classy and it sounds more like singing when speaking it.

The good news is that i have already started leaning it and i am really enjoying it, but i should focus more on practicing it, so you will see me more often in Italian threads.

[Sandman]

I just really like the sound of Italian, I don't actually know anybody what speaks Italian so I am just learning it for myself, I enjoy different languages and have always liked to listen to people speaking different languages, I guess it intrigues me. Speaking only two languages all my life I decided that I'm going to make time for 2 more, then after that 2 more and so on and yes, it's a long term goal.

[mbnuss]

At my school, you are required to take a language. We were able to choose between Spanish, Italian, and French. Most of the people in my grade chose Spanish, but I didn't want to do what everyone else was necessarily doing. I had an interest in Italian culture, so I decided to take Italian. I am still taking Italian and I love it.

[alisawnn]

Well, in high school I wanted to study abroad and the choices were Italy, China, France, or Spain. Since Spain and France had a language prerequisite, I couldn't go there. My family is Taiwanese, so I speak Chinese at home and I studied it during the first two years of high school, so I picked Italian instead since I wanted to learn a new language!

[jgar06]

I started in high school taking Italian classes as a mandatory foreign class. I was originally going to choose French but the French classes all got cancelled due to a lack of interest. I really enjoyed taking Italian and wasn't extremely difficult because I was already fluent in Spanish and that helped a lot. I'm sure that it will all come in handy when I visit Italy one day of meet myself a nice Italian speaking girl.

[daisyt]

In elementary you get to choose if you wish to study a second foreign language. German and Italian were the only options, and I liked the sound of Italian a lot more. I studied it for 5 years there, but didn't put much effort so now I've forgotten most things. I wish to go back and fix that, though.

[amoredise]

I'm learning Italian so that I can talk to my grandmother in her native tongue. She was born in Italy and moved to America on her own. She is the only family member to leave Italy. She met my grandfather, fell in love and moved to Santa Barbara, CA. She speaks perfect English but I know how much our Italian heritage means to her and I know she misses her family. I want to surprise her this Christmas with a little conversational Italian!

[Colebra]

I've been a musician and I've toured Europe twice.

Whenever we went to Italy, like any other countrie, we started to learn the local language...

We would be long gone, already two or three countries after Italy, and we would still be talking Italian!

And even doing the hand signs and stuff...

It's just awesome... You might be just saying gibberish, still sounds like sweet poetry!

Plus chicks dig it... And I won't even get into Italian women. You guys figure it out for yourselves...

[Serenity Fay]

I started early because in Malta we watch a lot of italian TV. Being so close to Italy, a lot of people have italian heritage and a lot of Italian people visit our Island, so it's worth knowing. In fact a lot of Italians take it for granted that I know their language when I say I'm from Malta. Also in schools it is expected that we learn either Italian, French or Spanish, apart from the regular Maltese and English lessons. Being such a tourism centered country it's pretty important that we know as many languages as possible, even though nearly all tourists know English nowadays!

[monica88]

Because I'm a surgeon and I wanted to get a job here in Italy as a plastic surgeon

[alabala]

You have a very valid reason When I got to Italy I was 16 and I moved there to live with my mom.

I had just finished the 1st year in college in Romania, where I'm originally from and moved to Italy at the end of July. I looked for a school where to continue my studies and I enrolled in this turistic-commercial institute without knowing Italian. Because it's very similar to Romanian, I could understand 80% of what was being said, but I lacked a crucial 20% of refined words and expressions.

When I started college again I could pick up some very frequent words like "cazzo" and "minchia'- which are "parolacce" -bad words and were explained to me by my funny classmates.

[everybodyknows]

I started learning Italian this year, it was more in a conversational manner as I have travelled with my girlfriend to meet her friends and family in Italy. As I know a bit of French, it wasn't too hard for me to pick it up and after a few days I was already familiar with the sound of it and I could distinguish words and comprehend the meaning of phrases. However, I feel there is a deeper level of study which I didn't quite reach but I'd be looking forward to pursuing it in the future.

[jamesbonner]

Ohh I really love your reason to learn Italian, and I think you should talk Italian with him too so you can learn it quickly !

For me, I have a different reason, I'm a fan of AC. Roma, the Italian football club, and I always use google translate to translate their news, I tried to listen to their songs but I couldn't, and since I'm planning to visit Rome the next year, so at least I need to learn basics so I can deal with the Italians

[anna3101]

I'll add my own story: I started to study Italian because of my flying phobia At one of my previous workplaces we were supposed to start working with an Italian factory, and my boss wanted me to go there and do a training. Train tickets were out of the question as they were too expensive and I'm deadly afraid of flying, so I made a deal: I'll quickly learn some Italian to make work with Italian colleagues easier but instead I'll be allowed not to fly to Italy. And that's how it started. And then of course I got into it and went on with Italian long after I quit that job

[Mameha]

Ohh I really love your reason to learn Italian, and I think you should talk Italian with him too so you can learn it quickly !

 

For me, I have a different reason, I'm a fan of AC. Roma, the Italian football club, and I always use google translate to translate their news, I tried to listen to their songs but I couldn't, and since I'm planning to visit Rome the next year, so at least I need to learn basics so I can deal with the Italians

OMG, a fan of AC Roma from another country! That's great 

[atanas.velikov]

Wow, I am dating a South-American who only speaks Spanish and Italian. We get through on the little English he speaks but it would be great if we could communicate in one language. As I'm all for learning another language and have the time available I thought it would be nice to make an effort. I also think Italian is a very sexy language and I would love to sing my music in Italian. Not quite sure how that is going to work out though!

[Mereloshn]

I am interested in learning Italian because I have an Italian girlfriend and would like to impress her by speaking her mother tongue.  I'm also just very intrigued by Italian in general for its similarities to Latin.