Almost a year soon, my desire to learn Italian brought me to Vika, a language tutor on Skype. This acquaintance prompted the idea to write a review about her on BlogoItaliano, and later Vika repeatedly said that students used this review to contact her. With many of them, she took her first steps in learning Italian, and with some - like me - she became good friends. Now, summing up the results of the year, I decided to once again turn to Vika to talk with her about Italian.
Vika, it's been almost a year since we met, and I wrote an article about you on BlogoItaliano. What has changed over the year in your life?
Much has changed. The most important event is the birth of a son. And in this regard, the image and rhythm of my life has changed. I stopped teaching courses, temporarily suspended trips abroad, but began to pay more attention to improving the language and studying with students via Skype.
In parallel, I continue to deal with the affairs of my travel agency, but now more responsibility has been placed on my partner.
Aren't you tired of tutoring yet?
Of course not. On the contrary, this is my favorite pastime: learning and teaching Italian is not only my job, but also my main hobby. Therefore, to engage with people who share this hobby brings me sincere pleasure.
I know that through BlogoItaliano, people who want to learn Italian also contact you. What level prevails?
Indeed, I have recently been contacted more often with BlogoItaliano. Apparently, the crisis is pushing people to move on and invest more in themselves. This is, in fact, a good time to devote to improving your skills and learning something new.
As for the level of proficiency in the Italian language, it is different and it is difficult to evaluate it “under one comb”. Most begin to learn the language from scratch, but students who already have good knowledge come - this is an advanced level that corresponds to approximately the new B1-B2 standards.
Victoria - Italian language tutor on Skype
What are the goals for those who want to learn Italian? How do they plan to apply it?
There is no single motivation, each has its own. Generally speaking, a significant portion of students want to learn Italian for travel. Most of them have already visited Italy, fell in love with the country and culture and want to make them part of their lives. They have very strong motivation, and therefore, with this category of students, language learning is moving very intensively. As a rule, they quickly learn to read Italian and in a couple of months they can speak quite well.
There are times when aspiration learn italian dictated by the prospect of promotion, the desire to get a higher education in Italy, find a job, communicate with relatives and loved ones, and sometimes even get married.
How hard is it to learn Italian from scratch? Personally, the language seemed simple to me.
If you think in associations, the vocabulary can be replenished quite quickly. But without knowledge of the rules of grammar it will be tough even with an extensive vocabulary: tenses, conjugations of verbs, articles, prepositions - all this must be known in order to build a competent speech.
The variety of Italian vocabulary also presents certain difficulties. In the sense that the same word can have several translation options, both in itself and in combination with other words.
As for the ability to communicate, the main thing here is the practice of communication, and this is the same for learning any language - not just Italian. Therefore, for my part, I very quickly try to switch exclusively with Italian with the students so that they get used to the speech, its sound and construction.
Of course, learning a new language is not an easy undertaking, but if you want to learn Italian, then with a certain perseverance and willingness to spend time on this, there is nothing impossible.
How long does it take to learn Italian at a conversational level?
Those who already have experience in learning European languages, of course, will learn Italian faster, but those for whom this is the first language will encounter similar difficulties.
As practice shows, in the presence of some kind of base, students begin to speak at an elementary level within a month after the start of classes.
After a couple of months, they already feel quite confident and can calmly express themselves on many domestic issues. Although, as I said earlier, the ability to quickly speak very much depends on the student’s motivation and regular homework.
What is most difficult for your students in Italian?
Most difficult are given prepositions to students. In Italian, they carry a large grammatical load, because in addition to the function of the prepositions themselves, they also control verbs and cases. Numerous exceptions and special use cases also cause confusion in verb management.
I remember that when we were just starting to learn Italian, the lessons via Skype were still a curiosity. What has changed over this year?
There are significantly more calls for lessons via Skype, and this trend continues to intensify. I think this is due to the fact that the world is accelerating: solutions that save time are increasingly dominant.
Now - with the onset of the crisis - there have become even more appeals: apparently people are not only trying to invest more in themselves, but they also realize that Skype lessons in most cases are cheaper than personal meetings with a tutor.
Finally, there are more tools for such classes: in almost every house, in addition to 1-2 laptops, there is also a tablet, or even two.
I know that in addition to studying Italian, you are still trying to develop your travel agency. What are your plans for the future? Are you closer to the travel industry or are you still languages?
The trip to Italy prompted me to open a travel agency. I myself really like traveling and wanted to help with these other people. The business went well, we have found our niche and are developing, even despite the crisis.
I like tourism. This is an interesting, though troublesome business, but, nevertheless, the real passion is language. I think that there is still enough space in my life for both classes, but if you ever have to make a choice, then it will be in favor of the language.
I wrote more about classes with Vika in an article BlogoItaliano will help you learn Italian online. And if you plan to learn Italian, I can recommend her as a good, talented and patient teacher. You can clarify all the details about the classes at Vicki herself by writing to her by mail email protected or through the feedback form below. Vika regularly checks the mail, and therefore do not have to wait long for an answer.
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