When learning a foreign language, it is crucial to stay motivated by focusing on activities and subjects that really interest us. For example, if you’re like me and are already an avid reader, you may want to incorporate a variety of reading exercises into your daily study routine.This may include reading uncomplicated short story in your target language or try a more complex novel Apps like LingQ.
For those who are passionate about Italian art, I highly recommend a grammar textbook: “Learn Italian through art – the language of Renaissance masterpieces“My Italian circle.
In this book, authors Anna and Diana take you on a journey through Italy’s most outstanding masterpieces. As you explore these works of art, you’ll also gain the language skills needed to master descriptions of paintings, sculptures, or architectural wonders. Ready to learn more? let’s start!
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About “Learning Italian through Art”
Learning Italian with Art is a supplementary grammar textbook designed to complement a comprehensive grammar and practice guide or formal Italian course.
Since its target audience is A2-B1 level learners, it is crucial to have at least a basic understanding of Italian before diving into this book. If you don’t do this, you may become confused or overwhelmed while browsing the materials.
As you may have guessed, the focus of this book is on traditional Italian art. Each of its six chapters centers on an academic text describing a unique masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, covering Sandro Botticelli’s famous “Birth of Venus“Caravaggio’s spine-tingling”Medusa”.
Additionally, each chapter is accompanied by a video in which Anna reads the text aloud and provides an English translation. After each sentence, she identifies key terms and grammatical elements and explains their function. While portions of the video course can be viewed for free on YouTube, the full video can only be accessed via a QR code in the book.
Why I like “Learning Italian through Art”
it puts language into context
The problem with many textbooks is that they often fail to provide meaningful context for the vocabulary and grammar being taught. They may give you a list of words and grammatical rules, which when studied alone will not make much sense to someone trying to learn the language.
This particular textbook takes a different approach. It introduces new vocabulary and grammar as interrelated pieces of information, giving you the opportunity to see how they can be used together in real-life art-themed situations.
Anna made it clear
In the corresponding video, Anna’s speech is very clear and easy to understand. She speaks slowly enough that A2-B1 learners will not face significant challenges in understanding meaning, especially after hearing it several times. If you do find yourself having difficulty, we recommend pausing the video from time to time to fully understand the text being spoken. The following is a sample of her speech in the first video course:
Listening to Anna speak and repeating after her can also help you improve your pronunciation.
Comprehensive and complete
Although this is not a textbook that you can use on its own, it does succeed in covering almost all of the most important grammar topics, from basic simple present (present tense) and present perfect tense (present perfect tense) is more challenging distant past (distant past) and pronoun verb (pronoun verb). This means you can put into practice everything you learn in your exercise books or formal Italian lessons.
includes exercises
It’s one thing to understand the rules of grammar or hear a passage read aloud, but it’s quite another to apply your newly acquired knowledge effectively. To help memorize vocabulary and grammar, each chapter is accompanied by a set of concise exercises designed to reinforce what you’ve learned. My mother has an A2 level of Italian and she successfully completed these tasks effortlessly.
What can be improved?
Missing some English translations
Although the book contains extensive English translations, I noticed that a large portion of the vocabulary required to successfully complete the exercises at the end of each chapter has not yet been translated. It is true that some words may be easy to understand due to their similarity to English, but this is not always the case. This problem may deter some learners from using the book, as they may become frustrated by constantly searching for unfamiliar words.
The material in the book and the video are sometimes inconsistent
For the most part, what Anna says in the film is consistent with textbook material. However, some passages quoted in the film are on different pages than expected.
For example, on page 16, Anna skips cultural fermentation arrive powerful and Favored Explained in video before returning to previous page four centers.
Thankfully, this doesn’t happen very often and doesn’t really hinder the learning process.
final thoughts
Needless to say, “Learn Italian with Art” is a niche product within a niche. This book is not written for the typical Italian learner, but specifically for those with a unique passion for art. In fact, a large portion of the vocabulary taught is probably not very useful in everyday speech, unless art is a frequent topic of discussion among your friends.
In my opinion, there is nothing objectionable about this approach. Considering the wealth of Italian grammar textbooks available, it is refreshing to encounter some that offer a unique perspective. Will it sell millions of copies? Maybe not, but it will undoubtedly resonate with a specific audience keen on combining language learning with art appreciation.
I only wish I had discovered this book before our visit to Italy last spring because it would have enhanced my knowledge of the city and these great masterpieces!
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Heather Broster is a graduate with honors in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, fluent in English and Italian, as well as varying degrees of fluency in Japanese, Welsh and French. Originally from Toronto, Heather has lived in several countries, notably Italy for six years. Her main research areas are language acquisition, education and bilingual teaching.
