Italian Learners, Be Like Nikolay!

Open Forum
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I’m not a LingQ admin, therefore I cannot crown any of my students with laurel wreaths on their avatars, but I feel I must write something on Nikolay ( Login - LingQ ), by far the most active Italian learner here on LingQ. I hope this suffices. Why is Nikolay such a successful Italian learner?

1 - He is not reluctant to invest (lots of) money in his learning (conversations + LingQ membership + books + subscriptions to Italian newspapers)

2 - He is perseverant. He started learning Italian when LingQ’s Italian library was still in an embryonic stage, yet he stuck to his decision.

3 - He makes (fewer and fewer) mistakes and laughs over them. He knows they are perfectly normal and essential to improvement.

4 - He clearly feels a very powerful cultural affinity with Italian, which goes far beyond utilitarian reasons.

5 - He enjoys his languages, especially Italian, also by travelling.

6 - He is audacious. He started booking conversations very early in his study of Italian.

7 - He is realistic. He knows one cannot become “fluent in 3 months.”

9 - He is meticulous. He doesn’t hate grammar altogether, he sporadically studies it.

10 - He is tough. A cold or a fever won’t stop him from having a conversation in Italian with a tutor.

WISHFUL THINKING ALERT: If only all language students were like Nikolay, language barriers would cease to exist.

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поздравляю Николай!

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Bravo, Nikolay!

I also want to echo the fact that “speaking with a tutor” is vitally important unless you have reached the advanced level. I myself did not do enough in the past (due to varies excuses), and now I have to play a lot of catch-up.

I also have this feeling that many LingQ members (including my past self) are too obsessed with inputs, and they are virtually taking the “input-only” approach. I personally think that if you pass the beginner level, you must be speaking with a tutor at least once in a while.

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I agree Edwin, that we all need to speak and write more. As we progress, though, I think we need more interaction, not less.

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A dire la veri… Cavolo! Devo scrivere in inglese qui!

Thank you, Adalberto, for all kind words!
I’m just a modest beginner, who’s vainly trying to restrain his laziness =) As a hungarian linguist Kato Lomb said: “Language is a castle”. You have to be very inventive to capture it.

My italian castle is under siege, but it’s far not surrendering :slight_smile:

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