Since the last time I posted here, I have been starting to use PhotoReading for books in English, so I have not been spending much time PhotoReading Italian. However, last week I PhotoRead an Italian phrasebook with about 1500 entries in PDF format. The next day, I watched a new 5-minute talk from one of my Facebook friends. In the past, I understood little or nothing of what she was saying, because she talks so fast. But this time, I was able to follow along with it and learn from it. There was still a lot that went over my head, but I felt like I understood what she was talking about, and I could have taken notes on some of the material. Maybe the most interesting thing was that I recognized words that I have trouble pronouncing, including one word which I could not figure out how to pronounce before. When I heard her pronunciation, I instantly recognized the word, and it seems easy to pronounce now. Another thing I noticed was that I was using her intonation to increase my understanding and comprehension of her talk.
While I expected PhotoReading to help with my reading skills, I did not expect it to help much with my listening skills.
Over the past month, I have continued to see improvement with my reading skills in Italian. Some days are better than others. I think a lot of it has to do with my mindset when I am reading something in Italian. When I am in the PhotoReading mindset, I read something in layers, I don't try to understand everything in the first reading. I can then do additional readings / passes to get deeper comprehension, if I have the time and interest. While my comprehension level in Italian is not nearly as deep as in English, I am finding some of the Italian materials to be just as interesting and engaging as many English materials, so my Italian comprehension level is "good enough" in some cases.
I recently purchased the Easy Learn Languages course, and I am interesting in trying the Easy Learn Languages Paraliminal. I expect this Paraliminal to be helpful in learning Italian, as well as being in an optimal mindset when I am reading or listening to Italian.
