Full transcript of “Improve Your Italian in 2026 with This Study Plan (A2–B1)”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 problem. It's difficult to improve your Italian when you're not sure what to do. [music] In this video, we'll share a step-by-step plan to help you take your Italian from beginner or advanced beginner level up to intermediate. But now I leave you with Katie. She's the best person to advise you on these because she's done it. >> True. You're Italian, so you basically got the language for free. >> I'll show you the changes that I made as an adult learner, which I think will help you move up to the next level.
0:49 >> Sorry. Bye. >> Okay. So, first of all, let's take a closer look at the level you might be at now and the next levels that you can get to. Here are the official descriptors in Italian. They go from A1 up to C2. We're going to look at how to go from A1 or A2. So, this kind of advanced beginner elementary level here up to this level of intermediate B1. Starting from A1, you're learning the basics. So, simple expressions, introducing yourself, asking and answering easy questions such as where you live and what job you do. Here at A2, you're getting a better grasp of the basics, so you can
1:35 understand short sentences about familiar things like family, shopping, or getting around town. And you can do simple daily tasks and exchange basic information in Italian. You might feel like you're doing this very slowly and with lots of mistakes. Don't worry about that at all. That's normal. Being at this level doesn't mean that you can do everything confidently, but it does mean that with a patient and friendly Italian, you could understand and make yourself understood when talking about these simple topics. These first two stages can feel frustrating because the conversations that you can have are very limited, but they're also exciting because every new phrase that you learn can make a big difference and it feels like you're making progress. Now, we want to get here, level B1,
2:22 lower intermediate, because here you're having more interesting conversations. You can manage most travel situations, follow the main points in everyday conversations, describe your experiences, and give short, simple reasons for your opinions and plans. So, for example, here when you talk to an Italian waiter or someone at the market store, you can move past things like what's your name and where you live, and you can start to talk about what you've been doing, what they've been doing, your thoughts on the area, etc. Again, this doesn't need to be perfect. You're allowed to have mind blanks and mistakes, but the communication happens. And even if it feels tricky, a lot of the time, you can mostly understand each other. I think this is a really nice level for traveling to Italy and being
3:08 able to enjoy interacting with the locals as you go about your day. If you keep going, you can reach B2. And this is the point where you can live your life in Italian, using it for work or for study. Again, you're not doing it perfectly, but you're doing it. And I think it's important not to make false promises or to put too much pressure on yourself, but it's a really nice goal to have. And if you keep pushing forward and spending a decent amount of time on Italian every day, you can get here, too. Especially if you're starting from a slightly higher level. So, we want to move from around here, A1 beginner or A2 elementary advanced beginner to here, B1 or maybe even B2. To do that, you'll need to change your approach.
3:54 At the beginning level, you rely a lot on short memorized sentences for everyday situations. And that's great because it helps you get by and to start communicating straight away. But to get here to the intermediate level, you need to learn how to speak in longer stretches so that you can have conversations about different topics. Talk about your weekend, what you've been up to, explain your opinions on things, and keep the conversation going in a spontaneous way, even when you don't know every word. To do this, here's a plan that you can follow. Five steps to help you get from here to here. Step one, plan your study time. It really helps to set aside time in your calendar. And the key here is
4:39 regularity. Learning a language isn't about talent. It's about steady exposure. And if you have limited time, it's much better to study 10 minutes a day than for an hour once a week. It might take you longer to move up a level, but it's still much more important to be consistent rather than studying in stops and starts. So, think about when during the day you'll study Italian and for how long. Putting it in your calendar can help you stick to it. And if you still struggle to be consistent, I find it really helps to combine your study with something like cafe, a glass of veno, and maybe something sweet and Italian like a canucho. Step two, move from memorizing to creating. So to get to the next
5:26 level, you need to go beyond those memorized phrases and start practicing building your own sentences. A great way to do this is to keep a short diary which you can do either written or if you want to practice speaking you can do it recorded with audio and practice saying a few sentences about your day. So what you did, what you think or what you plan to do and then try to link them with connectors like per because to in the sense of in order to po then so even if
6:14 while for example you can start with I went to the market. I bought fruit. Then you can change it to I went to the market to buy fruit. To create natural sentences in Italian, it's also really important to surround yourself with real life input. So, podcasts articles YouTube TV and making this jump can be tricky at first. So, just focus on catching key words and the gist of what's happening without worrying about every word. And you can
7:01 also try looking for resources with images that are short in length. So, instead of reading an Italian newspaper article, you could try a comic book. Or instead of trying to watch a full Italian film, you can try watching a YouTube video in Italian for learners. And you can find a few on this channel. Essentially, if you want to move up to intermediate level, you need to move your focus away from memorizing textbook phrases and towards trying to use the language in a more natural way. It's a hard switch to make, so think baby steps in the beginning. A lot of study plans risk fizzling out here because it's hard to find materials that you can get into a good flow with. Sometimes they're too easy or dry, like textbook dialogues, or too hard to follow, like podcasts or TV
7:47 shows for native Italian speakers. In our online Italian school, we share daily stories and mini conversations adapted to your level with transcripts highlighting the most useful bits for everyday conversations with Italians, so you know exactly what to do each day when you sit down to study. You'll also find speaking lessons where you can practice what you really need at this level, creating sentences and speaking spontaneously. Again, even if it's hard at first, that's completely normal. and you'll have guidance from our patient and friendly teachers. Enrollments are opening in a couple of weeks time and places tend to fill up quickly in the first day or so. So, if you think you might like to join us, you can click the link in the description to find out more. Step three, embrace the awkward.
8:33 So, when you start pushing yourself to make more progress in Italian, it's going to feel a bit or probably really uncomfortable. And don't be afraid of challenges or of feeling honestly sometimes quite bad about yourself like you're terrible at Italian and you're taking steps backwards and you don't know anything. I really understand that feeling and it's actually completely normal when you're starting to challenge yourself with harder stuff. At first it feels like you're going backwards, but that's actually all part of moving up to the next level. So you can think of these kind of uncomfortable feelings and thoughts about your Italian as normal growing pains. Step four, learn to keep speaking. So to get to the next level, you need to be really focused on
9:18 developing the skill of speaking spontaneously in Italian. I find it helps to think like musicians that learn to play instruments. They need to learn to resist the temptation to go back when they make a mistake and just keep going instead. Of course, if they're in a practice situation, they can come back to it later, but not during. And you need to think about the same thing when you're speaking to Italians. So, focus on ways to keep flowing and get your message across, even if you get stuck or make mistakes. Mom,
10:05 >> see See, [music]
10:55 You can practice using these phrases to keep the conversation going. For describing things, you can say or and if you want to paraphrase or try saying something better, maybe it didn't go so well the first time and you want to try again, you can say or and if you want to ask for help, for example, if you don't know a word, you can say or and if you're thinking and you want To
11:41 buy yourself some more time, you can try words like practice speaking for 60 seconds about your day. Don't stop. Push yourself to keep going even if you don't have the perfect words. And if you like, you can record yourself. You can actually do this on WhatsApp by sending yourself an audio message. And after you finished, you can go back and fix things and look up stuff that you didn't know. Step five concentrate. So do what you need to do to make sure that you can focus on what you're learning. Most of us feel like we don't have enough time to learn a language. And that might be true. But it's really easy to spend the little time that we do
12:27 have jumping from one thing to another or checking our phones, etc. So here are some quick tips to help you concentrate. You can close the door or use headphones so that you can isolate yourself from interruptions. And when you're watching a video, it really helps to go full screen so that you don't get distracted by that sidebar, especially on YouTube which is constantly trying to pull you away from what you're doing. And leave your phone away in a bag or in another room so that you're not tempted to keep checking it. I hope that was helpful. So, let's review quickly. If you want to move up a level in your Italian so that you can chat to the people you meet, it's important to be consistent. Ideally, putting aside some time every day in your calendar. Then you need to practice
13:12 building sentences, speaking and writing, talking about your day, and trying to link your ideas together. Listening to and reading natural Italian will really help with this. And you can start slow, for example, with short videos or comics. Don't worry if it feels hard and you feel bad at it at first. That actually means that you're doing it right and you're challenging yourself to move up to the next level. Then try to practice speaking without stopping. Even if you don't know the words, you can keep going with phrases like or finally make sure that you make the most of the time that you're spending on Italian by shutting out distractions and really focusing. Do you have any more suggestions for moving up a level in Italian? Write them in the comments if
13:57 you think they might help other learners watching this video. Ciao. >> But now [music] I leave you with Katie. She's the best person. [laughter] See?
