By Katie Harris
So you want to learn Italian in 2025?
Without a clear plan, progress can feel painfully slow. There are two main things that might keep you stuck:
Sound familiar? I’ve been there many times! This 3-month plan was always my go-to for speeding things up–and it works. You can use it to start speaking Italian with confidence this year.
Psst! If you’d like a done-for-you version with extra support, our Online Italian School is opening soon and we’d love to welcome you.
Your Weekly Routine to Learn Italian Fast
Do you know how to say “routine” in Italian? It’s easy… routine! Following this one over the next few months will help you understand Italians more easily, remember the most useful important words and phrases, and speak better Italian.
We suggest putting aside around 30 mins for your Italian, Monday – Friday. But there’s no need to be too strict about it. You can be flexible and catch up over the weekend when you need to.
Monday: Listen to an Italian conversation (with transcript)
Find a short dialogue in Italian that’s just above your level. You should be able to get the gist, but not the details. If you’re at a beginner or lower intermediate level you can use conversations which have been slowed down and simplified for learners . Ideally, it should be something interesting that you’ll enjoy listening to.
You’ll also need a transcript or subtitles, but don’t read them yet!
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Listen to the dialogue repeatedly, picking out a little more detail each time
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Focus on the sounds and rhythm of the bits you don’t understand yet
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After you’ve listened several times, read the transcript or subtitles
Next, review the dialogue and highlight any parts you didn’t understand. If there’s anything you’re really curious about you can look it up, but no pressure, we’ll worry about those details tomorrow!
Tuesday: Vocabulary
Listen to the same dialogue, first without the transcript, then again with it. You’ll probably understand a bit more today, ben fatto, well done! Next:
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Review the transcript and the highlighted parts
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Look up any words you didn’t understand
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Choose the most important ones you think you’ll use a lot in conversation
Next, write a list with the Italian on one side and the English on the other, like this. If you can include the phrase, this helps you learn how to use the word naturally:
| Italian | English |
| Le chiavi | The keys |
| Hai le chiavi? | Do you have the keys? |
| Ieri | Yesterday |
| Ieri ho mangiato una pizza | Yesterday I ate a pizza |
Then cover up each side and test yourself. Do this a few times during the week – it will really help you remember them.
Learning tip: Avoid making your list too long as it will become overwhelming. It’s important to prioritise the few Italian words and phrases you think you’ll use a lot in conversation.
Wednesday: Grammar – just one day
We promise to keep the grammar part quick and nearly painless! Listen to the dialogue again, first without, then with the transcript. Next, look for any grammar points you’ve already learned. Seeing them in use in new contexts is really useful for helping them stick. For example:
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Can you see the difference between masculine words and feminine words?
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if you’ve learned the past tense, can you see it being used in the dialogue?
Add these to your list of notes, for example:
| Italian | English |
| La sedia | The chair (f) |
| Il tavolo | The table (m) |
| Sono andato in stazione | I went to the station (past) |
You can keep learning new and useful Italian grammar by listening to lessons like the ones in our Learn Italian Podcast or in our Online Italian School (more on this soon).
Thursday: Review and Pronunciation
Now it’s time to review. Listen to the dialogue one more time, first without then with the transcript. You should understand it now, evvai! Yey!
Next, come to your list of notes, cover up each side and test yourself. Don’t stress about memorising everything perfectly though. It’s fine to browse for a little refresher.
Finally, la pronuncia, pronunciation. Listen to the audio and read the transcript aloud, speaking over the audio at the same pace and rhythm as Italians do.
This might be tricky in the beginning, so it’s enough to just try the first few lines a few times. It will really help you speak naturally like an Italian!
Friday: Practice Speaking Italian and Get Feedback
Time for the most important (and scariest!) step: practise speaking. Explain the dialogue you’ve been listening to in Italian, using some of the new words and phrases you’ve learned. This will be difficult (that’s normale ) but it will really help you remember them and start to use them in conversation.
You can practice this on your own, or ideally with an Italian tutor or speaking partner who can give you feedback. Start with simple sentences and don’t worry if you speak slowly and make mistakes—it’s all part of the process.
Improve Your Italian Over the Next 3 Months
È tutto! That’s all! Each week, just choose a new dialogue, repeat the steps, and watch your Italian improve quickly. We follow a similar routine in our Online Italian School and here’s what Melissa, one of our students, had to say about it:
“I enrolled last Spring and absolutely love it. I have learned so much and improved my Italian speaking skills more than I could have imagined. (Can you believe that everyone I spoke to during my trip to Italy in the summer complimented my speaking ability? I am still SHOCKED!)”
Bonus Tip: Join our Online Italian School
If you think you’d do better with more support and a done-for-you version, we’ll provide you with everything you need! As a member, you’ll get:
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New natural conversations each week at your level with transcripts
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Simple vocabulary and grammar lessons and a place to ask questions
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Kind teachers who’ll help you to speak Italian and give you personalised feedback
If you think you might like to join us, click here to learn more about our Online Italian School . We’d love to see you there.
K: Ciao a tutti e benvenuti! Hi everyone and welcome to “Learn Italian with Joy of Languages”. Before we get started, I just wanted to quickly let you know that registration for our Online Italian School is opening in a couple of days.
M: Evvai! That’s Italian for yey! We sold out in less than 24 hours last time, so if you think you might like to join us and you’d like a reminder so you don’t miss it, click the link in the description.
K: Now, let’s talk about the plan to help you learn Italian this year. The most important thing is la routine. You might have guessed, that means “routine” in Italian!
M: La routine (x2)
K: To make good progress I think you need to spend a decent amount of time on it. I see a lot of language companies trying to sugarcoat this and saying things like 5 minutes a day. It’s better than nothing, you can learn a bit and dabbling is absolutely fine, if you just want to pick up a few phrases. But if you’re serious about learning Italian, you’ll need to put in the time.
M: Ideally, you want to dedicate some time each day, say half an hour to an hour, because that helps you build gradually on what you know. But you don’t need to be strict about it. You can also catch up over the weekend if life gets busy.
K: OK we need la routine. We also need to make sure we’re focusing on the right things that will help us have conversations, so understanding and speaking, rather than memorising random vocabulary or grammar rules in lists. Here’s a weekly routine that you can do over the next few months.
M: If you keep it up, you’ll probably find that you can speak Italian much better by April!
K: On Monday, start by listening to an Italian conversation. This should be a short, natural dialogue that’s just above your level. This means that when you listen to it, you can get the general gist, but there are a lot of details you don’t understand.
M: If you’re at a beginner or lower intermediate level you can use conversations which have been slowed down and simplified for learners. Like the ones on this podcast.
K: You’ll also need a transcript or subtitles, but don’t read them yet! Listen to the dialogue repeatedly, picking out a little more detail each time. After you’ve listened several times and you can’t pick up any more by just listening, read the transcript or subtitles and highlight or note down any parts you didn’t understand.
M: If there’s anything you’re really curious about you can look it up, but no pressure, we’ll worry about those details tomorrow and Wednesday!
K: Tuesday is vocabulary day. Listen to the same dialogue, first without the transcript, then again with it. You’ll probably understand a bit more today.
M: Ben fatto, well done! Next, review the transcript and the highlighted parts, or the things you noted down that you didn’t understand. Look up any new and unfamiliar words.
K: And now here’s the really important bit, make a selection – choose only the most important ones you think you’ll use a lot in conversation. This is important because if you don’t prioritise, you fill your brain up with random stuff that doesn’t help you have a conversation.
M: Next, write a list with the Italian on one side and the English on the other. If you can include the phrase, this helps you learn how to use the word naturally.
K: For example, if you want to choose the word le chiavi (x2), the keys, you can also include the phrase that was in the dialogue, for example: hai le chiavi? (x2), do you have the keys?
M: Then cover up each side and test yourself. Do this a few times during the week – it will really help you remember them.
K: On Wednesdays, we have grammar
M: Nooooo!
K: Just one day, it’ll be quick and nearly painless. Listen to the dialogue again, first without, then with the transcript. Next, look for any grammar points you’ve already learned. Seeing them in use in new contexts is really useful for helping them stick! For example:
Can you see the difference between masculine words and feminine words? If you’ve learned the past tense, can you see it being used in the dialogue? Add these examples to your list of notes, with Italian on one side and English on the other.
M: You can keep learning new and useful Italian grammar by listening to lessons like the ones in our Learn Italian Podcast or in our Online Italian School, and we’ll share a bit more about this soon.
K: Thursdays are for reviews and pronunciation
Listen to the dialogue one more time, first without then with the transcript. You should understand it now.
M: Evvai! Remember what that means in Italian? Yey! Come to your list of notes, cover up each side and test yourself. Don’t stress about memorising everything perfectly though. It’s fine to just browse for a little refresher.
K: Next, la pronuncia (x2). Pronunciation. Listen to the audio and read the transcript aloud, speaking over the audio at the same pace and rhythm as Italians do.
M: This might be tricky in the beginning, so it’s enough to just try the first few lines a few times. It will really help you speak naturally like an Italian.
K: Finally, on Friday: Practice Speaking Italian and Get Feedback. This is the most important step! Try to explain the dialogue you’ve been listening to in Italian, using some of the new words and phrases you’ve learned. This will be difficult (that’s normale! ) but it will really help you remember them and start to use them in conversation.
M: You can practice this on your own, or ideally with an Italian tutor or speaking partner who can give you feedback. Start with simple sentences and don’t worry if you speak slowly and make mistakes—it’s all part of the process.
K: È tutto (x2), that’s all! Each week, just choose a new dialogue, repeat the steps, and your Italian will start to improve a lot in a short time. You can do everything we’ve talked about today as a diy version – for us the most important thing is that you learn Italian. But if you think you’d do better with more support and you’d like the done-for-you version, we can provide you with everything you need in the Online Italian School.
M: Yes, this is our bonus tip! We know that it’s not easy to find all these things together, so this is actually why we’ve created the Online Italian School. As a member, you’ll get new, natural conversations each week between us and the teachers, where we talk about everyday things that are sometimes funny, sometimes serious, but we always try to keep them interesting.
K: We have them at every level, even if you’re starting from “ciao”. For lower levels, there are two speeds that you can listen to: story speed, where we talk in a slower, clearer way, then the same conversation at “bar speed” so you can start to get used to how Italians speak in real life. And everything comes with transcripts.
M: We’ll also help you learn the most useful vocabulary and grammar in a simple, structured way, with a place for you to ask questions. And you’ll get to practice speaking, about the same topic, using the same words and phrases, with very kind, experienced teachers who’ll encourage you to speak Italian and give you personalised feedback.
M: If you think you might like to join us, click the link in the description to learn more about our Online Italian School. We’d love to see you there.
K: See you soon, or as we say in Italian:
K + M: A presto!
Time to check your understanding and remember everything you just learned! Below you’ll find a mini-quiz and some vocabulary cards to help it all go in.
Quiz
How much did you learn? Find out in the quiz!
Click here to take the quiz for this episode: Learn Italian Fast in 2025: Your 3 Month Action Plan
Vocabulary
La routine = (the) routine
La pronuncia = (the) pronunciation
È tutto = That’s all (lit. “it’s all”)
Evvai! = Yey!
Ben fatto = Well done
Normale = Normal
Flashcards: Learn Italian Fast in 2025
Not sure how it works? Click here to watch the tutorial
