In today’s lesson, you’ll learn how to introduce yourself in Italian throughout a funny mini-story. You’ll learn a very cool effective technique that will help you to learn Italian fast. At the end of the lesson, you’ll start talking in Italian if you follow me. 

You will learn

• how to introduce yourself in Italian
• important sentence structures
• and cool memorization tricks

So, let’s get started!

Watch the first part of the lesson 

Here is the mini-story

Ciao! Sono Sissi. Sono un’agente segreta. Ho novantaquattro anni e lavoro come spia da cinquantadue anni. Parlo inglese, italiano, francese, spagnolo e russo. Mi piace ballare in discoteca, e ci vado ogni weekend. Mi piace la cucina italiana. Il mio colore preferito è il blu. Ho dodici fratelli, tutti maschi. 

Cosa hai capito? What did you understand? 

Watch the second part of the lesson so that you can understand the text better. 

In the third part, I’m going to teach you an effective learning trick. I’m going to ask you questions. Why? Because QUESTIONS make us think. Questions deserve answers instinctively and our brain knows it!

How do we structure these questions? In a simple way. Simple questions are good because they keep our motivation up. We like having positive feedback. If we answer a question correctly, we get positive feedback.

I am not a fan of studying grammar. It doesn’t mean I don’t study or I don’t teach grammar. I understand we have to feed our neocortex too, which is the most rational brain among the three brains (reptilian, limbic, and neocortex). The neocortex is the newest one, the modern one, the logical one. The neocortex wants logical explanations. However, it also gets bored. It gets bored fast if it doesn’t get results. By memorizing grammar rules, the poor neocortex won’t get any results within a reasonable time.

But I have a shortcut for you!

We learn the grammar rules and words automatically if we answer a yes-no question or a simple question. We practically repeat the same words of the question with a little correction to make an affirmative sentence. Your neocortex will get results super-quickly.

And there is even more!

What do you think is the effect of a yes-no question or a simple question on your brain?

Your neocortex will be happy because it’s a challenge that it has to think. Your limbic brain will be happy because the satisfaction of the neocortex caused an emotion. Your reptile brain will be happy, because happiness is one of the most ancient emotions.

So now, let me ask you questions then! You’ll start speaking in Italian at the end of the lesson!

Watch the third part of the lesson so that you master your knowledge.

Here are the questions:

• Sono Sissi?
• Chi sono?
• Che lavoro faccio?
• Ho novantaquattro anni?
• Quanti anni ho?
• Lavoro da cinquantadue anni?
• Da quanto tempo lavoro come agente segreta?
• Parlo inglese?
• Parlo italiano?
• Parlo cinese?
• Parlo spagnolo?
• Parlo giapponese?
• Parlo russo?
• Parlo francese?
• Che lingue parlo?
• Mi piace ballare?
• Cosa mi piace fare?
• Vado a ballare in discoteca?
• Dove vado a ballare?
• Quando vado a ballare?
• Mi piace la cucina cinese?
• Mi piace la cucina italiana?
• Che cucina mi piace?
• Il mio colore preferito è il blu?
• Qual’è il mio colore preferito?
• Ho due fratelli?
• Ho dodici fratelli?
• Quanti fratelli ho?
• Sono tutti maschi?

Tell me the story relying on the following questions

Chi sono? Che lavoro faccio? Da quanto tempo lavoro come agente segreta? Che lingue parlo? Cosa mi piace fare? Quando vado a ballare? Che cucina mi piace? Qual’è il mio colore preferito? Quanti fratelli ho?

Answer the following questions and build a me-specific intro

Come ti chiami? Che lavoro fai? Da quanto tempo lavori? Che lingue parli? Cosa ti piace fare? Che cucina ti piace? Qual’è il tuo colore preferito? Quanti fratelli hai?

Take-aways from this lesson:

1. Introducing yourself in Italian
2. There are many many cognates and similar words between Italian and English.
3. Asking questions
4. Answering questions
5. To be in 1st person
6. To have in 1st person (Italian uses ‘to have to express’ the age)
7. Lavoro come … 
8. Mi piace … 

For more tips on effective language learning techniques check this article out on Benny Lewis’s blog: 

If you like this topic, watch my video on How I learned Italian in 3 months