For quick phrases, I recommend Lonely Planet’s Fast Talk Italian phrasebook for $8.99. This choice is obviously better than a dictionary because words are so difficult to find in the dictionary when you need them. Instead, pick up this book (pocket-sized) and flip through before you travel. Try to commit a few phrases to memory, and even sound them out loud a few times. Practice with a friend or relative can help too. This book can equip you and help you get the feel for the local language and some phrases you might need. |
| random Italian people |
Once you have that down, you can try to ad-lib a little bit. This is another beauty of the Italian language. Locals can be pretty forgiving when it comes to trying their language as long as they see you are trying and attempting to get your point across and communicate. In English, this kind of piecemeal approach has a worse effect. Words must be in the correct order for native English speakers to understand.
However in Italian, since some of the words have specific endings, sometimes it doesn’t matter as much where you put them in the sentence for every day conversation. Think of speaking the language as an art, and try as much as you can. Eventually you will start to get it.
Gestures in Italian are almost if not more important than the words themselves. Pay attention to people’s body movements as they speak to you in Italian, and see if you can pick up on some of that when you talk. Look up some of these gestures on YouTube and practice before you take your trip. Examples are concepts like hungry, go straight ahead, a long time ago, after, before, etc. Sometimes, a gesture is all you need to get your point across.
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| Pondering the Italian language in Venezia. |
