1. The Achievable Goal

Most of us cannot afford the luxury of spending more than four to six weeks abroad. So I think the first question we have to ask ourselves is why are we going to Italy to study Italian? Let’s face it, if it is to study Italian language and grammar, we could save the cost of travel and board by studying in our own country. Universities, school boards, and colleges offer a wide array of classes that would give us a good grounding in Italian. As far as learning to be fluent in conversational Italian, a four to six week course, however intensive, is not going to transform us from tongue-tied earthlings into eloquently fluent Italian speakers. However, if we choose the right place, and if we make the effort, we can at least break out from that embarrassing predicament that we find ourselves in when we try to speak a foreign language. We’ve all experienced it -- we just can’t find the right word and everything goes blank. At least by the end of our stay we should be speaking not fluent Italian, but halting, limping Italian -- not always grammatically correct, but still Italian! Most importantly, we won’t be afraid to speak! Hallelujah!

Now, even if you study in Italy for a longer period, you probably will start by taking a short course either as a primer or for review purposes. And unless you are already conversant in Italian, your target will also be to acquire the achievable goal of speaking unabashedly and without hesitation. In this respect, you share the same need as the short-term student: a school that will give you a good grounding of the language and enable you to speak however haltingly.