Barely progressing with listening comprehension

@tparillo

After watching the movie Tre Metri Sopra il Cielo, I gotta say that it did not motivate me one bit to want to read the book. I’m sure the book is much better than the movie though.

I loved Podcast Italiano as a beginner and lower intermediate. I didn’t mention it in my list as it’s already on LingQ. Just like I didn’t mention the podcast Salvatore racconta, as I already shared it on LingQ (with permission from the author). But maybe you’re right that I should add them.

With regard to Un po’ di più, I just shared the two YouTube videos they have with Italian subtitles for other users. If you have other YouTube channels with subtitles, which you like and would recommend to others, you should consider volunteering as a Librarian and sharing them with other users. (YouTube videos should be shared as external lessons for copyright reasons.) We could do with some more Italian Librarians. :smiley:

P.S. As you would be aware, you probably want to start transitioning away from educational/pedagogical content, such as Podcast Italiano.

The order of listening comprehension difficulty goes something like this:

  1. Beginner educational content
  2. Intermediate educational content
  3. A tutor speaking to you (clearly and slowly with a limited vocabulary)
  4. Audiobooks / advanced educational content
  5. Having a chat with one person, who speaks clear standard Italian to you (they unconsciously slow down their speech for you because you said “huh?” so many times)
  6. Single speaker speaking into a microphone, speaking clear standard Italian, improvised or semi-improvised (eg. single speaker YouTube channels, like Dario Bressanini, etc.) / standard Italian interview podcasts with only one host and the interviewee
  7. TV series
  8. Movies (harder than TV series, because you get used to characters’ voices and the way they speak throughout the series)
  9. Chatting with one person who has a strong accent because their mother tongue is dialect (again, they will speak slower to you, because you’ve asked them to repeat themselves so many times)
  10. Old movies (as sound was recorded different back in the day, so it’s less clear)
  11. Chit-chat podcasts / unscripted podcasts with multiple speakers, who often speak over top of each other, like the Cachemire Podcast
  12. Being in a group of Italians whose mother tongues are standard Italian (it’s harder because they aren’t speaking in microphones, so the sound volume changes, when people move their head away from you)
  13. Being in a group of Italians whose mother tongues are dialect, but they are from different regions, so they speak accented standard Italian
  14. Being in a group of Italians in a loud pub with music playing in the background
  15. TV series in dialect (some dialects are easier to understand than others. I.e. Veneziano is very comprehensible, Romano is mostly comprehensible with a little bit of practice, while Napoletano is pretty much incomprehensible)
  16. Movies in dialect (dialect dependent)
  17. Being with a group of people who are speaking in dialect (dialect dependent)

You want, over time, to keep moving up in order of difficulty of listening comprehension (you can skip TV series and movies, if you want). Also, most Italians understand some dialects, but not all. For instance, the vast majority of Italians would watch Mare Fuori (half in Napoletano) with Italian subtitles on, but would probably watch Strappare lungo i bordi (in a strong Roman accent / in Romano) without subtitles.

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