Introduction

Even if you are not into gastronomy, you will one day have to learn more about Italy. In fact, you may already know a few Italian words yourself. Why learn Italian? Well for one thing it is a truly beautiful and expressive language.

It is also one of the easiest languages for people to learn especially if you speak English as your native language. Not only is the Italian language beautiful, pretty much everything about the country is absolutely lovely. You will appreciate the music, romance, history, art, architecture, culture, and of course the food.

To completely immerse yourself in that one of a kind Italian experience, you also need to learn the language.

In other words you need to enhance and grow your Italian vocabulary. And that is the huge emphasis being made in this book. You can’t expect to learn Italian without increasing the number of Italian words you know.

And one of the best ways to improve your vocabulary is to read stories—even short stories. The more you read them the more you understand how phrases formed and how words change in form as they are used in different sentences. You don’t really need to be completely fluent in Italian to use this book.

Why learn the Italian language?

Here are a few reasons why.

• Italian is the fourth most studied language – estimates show that the interest in this language is still growing. Actually, it is growing at the rate of 20% each year compared to other languages.
• If you love music then you might already know some Italian – forte, mezzo forte, piano, pianissimo, andantino— those are some very familiar words if you have taken up some sheet music reading. Yes, those are Italian words and the art of writing sheet music of course comes from Italy.
• Cradle of the Renaissance – oh, speaking of music, the era in which classical and other finer forms of music started during the renaissance. A lot of the musical development of course happened in Italy. But music isn’t the only art that grew there. There’s painting, sculpture, and a host of others as well.
• Beautiful Relaxing Flow – the Italian language flows from one syllable to the next along with different intonations. It is rather relaxing to ears and it reflects the “il dolce far niente” mindset in the local culture. It means taking joy in doing nothing. It’s more than just idling your time away—what it really means is that you learn how to take your time to enjoy life instead of rushing from one appointment to the next.

This book walks you through 25 stories which will help you not only to learn and improve your skills in the Italian language but also to immerse you into the culture embodied in the language.

So, How Do You Use This Book?

This book was designed with the beginner in mind and so the lessons are easy. On top of that there is a huge emphasis on building your vocabulary, which is why you can benefit from the exercises presented in this work.

1. Each story is in Italian of course. It is first broken down in different parts. These sections will be in italics. Each section of the story will have some of the words defined or translated in English. Read the section first even if you don’t understand a lot of the words.

2. Go over the definitions that follow and then read the section again. You should note that context trumps definition in any language. That means the words can change its meaning depending on how it is used in a sentence.

3. Move to the next section repeating the same process. But make sure to pay attention to the flow of the story. Don’t worry. The stories aren’t complex. In fact, a lot of them involve the things that you would do and say in case you visit Italy. The goal is for you to understand the flow of the story and not just the meaning of the words.

4. After going over all of the sections of the story you will have a summary of the story that you have just read. One summary will be in Italian and the other one will be in English. See if your understanding of the story is similar to the summaries that follow.

5. You will also have a few multiple choice questions. Try to answer them as best as you can. The answers to the questions follow.

6. Finally, a complete translation of the entire story will be at the end of each chapter. Read the story in its entirety and see if you can understand the flow and as many of the Italian words as you can on your own.

You can check for the correctness of your understanding by comparing what you understand with the English translation that follows.

A Final Word

Note however that this is not an exhaustive resource. It serves as an introductory book with tools that will help you work your way to Italian language proficiency. But don’t expect to become instantly fluent in the language after going through what you have learned here. It takes time, practice, and actual conversations in the language to help you truly master the language—any new language for that matter.

Remember that the goal here is to expand your vocabulary and learn language tools and skills that you can use to master the Italian language.

Thanks for downloading this book, I hope you enjoy it!