If you had to learn a new language very quickly, where would you begin?

[strawberriesarenot]

Enough to get by with some manners etc. obviously not a whole new language.
I've got 4 weeks.
I can't get on with duolingo- the sound effects drive me nuts, that owl and all the squawking.

I would really welcome some advice and suggestions, thank you.

You need to be realistic with your expectations. You can’t learn a language to a decent level in 4 weeks. Even if you were dropped in Italy and had no choice but to converse in Italian, progress in 4 weeks would be limited. And that includes if you speak Spanish or another Romance language, although these would give you a head start.
Have you looked into online lessons with a native speaker? You could try a few hours a day and then self study outside of that, you would cover basics in 4 weeks.

Michel Thomas is very good, I’ve used the Italian one he does.

Use italki for cheaper lessons with a native speaker. You ideally need one lesson per week as a minimum, preferably more so that you can get your pronunciation right. Use Duolingo or Memrise during your coffee break at work for practicing vocab and grammar. Watch YouTube videos each day. Michel Thomas is great but costs money so you might be better off with YouTube and free podcasts.

Another recommending Michel Thomas - you can often borrow from the library as well.

You can get teachers on italki.

You can switch off the sound effects in Duolingo.

I used something called Rosetta Stone many years ago. Similar to Duolingo but no animation/owls etc. really improved my German

Baby's First Words In Italian, by Living Language. Learn all the songs. Copy the pronunciation. Read the CD notes.
There's a Living Language course online for adults, or you can buy the book etc. Is the best for Italian for what you need.

@Zezet

1. Focus on pronunciation first. Of words and of sentences. Repeat after people (or recordings) again and again. You will be much easier to understand, you will understand better, and you will get a sense of the language.

1. For the vocabulary, Anki is brilliant if you can find a good stack. Try to find a word stack with only nouns, they are easier to remember and most useful.

1. Then, for learning verbs, adjectives, prepositions and so on, find a way to learn full sentences. It can be an Anki stack, a Disney movie you know well in your own language, recipes if you like cooking, whatever. Pick the right type of subject to learn the right kind of sentences. You will soon be able to mimic the structure of these easy sentences while swapping the key nouns for others you have learned (see step 2) and this will allow you a much broader range of usable vocabulary more quickly.

Experience: I speak seven languages, to various levels, and have moved around a LOT for my job. This includes Chinese, Russian and a bunch of roman and germanic languages. My partner is a native English speaker with less language exposure so with him I've seen what's essential for those of us who don't have all grammar terms in their heads and still need to pick up a new language efficiently...

Forget declension and too much grammar. For now, focus on frequent sentences. You will pick up a lot to get buy, and the real grammar can come later. Also a waste of time: numbers (too hard), adjectives, typical expressions, children's books (way too specialised a vocabulary), apps that gamify but don't focus on one thing in particular (you don't have enough time to waste to spend it in such an untargeted way...)

This is really so helpful that I'm printing it out, thank you.

Duolingo is fab and free. I've never had any squawking! Persevere, it's really the easiest and cheapest way to learn.

@NotPennysBoat

Duolingo is fab and free. I've never had any squawking! Persevere, it's really the easiest and cheapest way to learn.

Really? Every time I do it, there are trumpets I am sure. I didn't know you could turn off the sound effects though. I thought that would mean you also turned off the lessons.

I will give it another try.
Have bought audiobooks (Baby's 1st words and Michel Thomas)
I can manage to get by in French, so perhaps that will help a bit.

Thank you so much, everyone. This has been really useful.

Also have a look at podcasts- I like News in Slow French - there might be something similar in Italian. Because you know the context- the week's news stories- it makes it easier. I'm still rubbish at french though despite loads of lessons and living in a Francophone country so am probably a bad example...

Duo lingo

Coffee Break Italian website has podcasts at different levels - I've not done the Italian but the French one is good so worth a try.

Paul Noble is brilliant

Paul Noble or Michel Thomas to learn to speak the language quickly. They both start from the premise that you already know 100s of Italian words, they are just pronounced differently. Paul Noble uses a native speaker to demonstrate, Michel Thomas uses students who make mistakes and he corrects them. Both have strengths.

I've been doing Duolingo for three years - no squawking ??

Lonely planet kids italian phrase book. These are for kids but incredibly easy to use to learn the basics

Watch Peppa Pig in Italian! You can find it on YouTube. Lots of normal everyday interactions.

I'm a language teacher and I'd always start with Duolingo.

Fluent Forever used to have pronunciation trainer decks on Anki - they’re not free but cheap enough and a good way to get started with that part of things.

Idk if the Audible version of Baby's 1st Words comes with a pdf of the booklets that come with the CD. The songs are lovely but it helps to have the Italian lyrics and the English translation. It's a systematic training in the sounds plus basic words/ phrases.

Listen and repeat the same passages, memorise them anf say them aloud, spend every spare minute listening to your language and reppeating what you hear.

Listening and speaking are critical

I have a method for this, 4 weeks is loads of time!
Start by learning around 100 common words, just words, by rote. You can learn a batch a day by typing them out, then the next day type out the ones you learned previously before starting on the next batch, and so on. Spend some time reading about basic grammar but don't stress if it doesn't make sense yet.
Once you have that bit of familiarity, get yourself a wall of Italian text - e.g. a Wiki article - and simply type it out verbatim, accents and everything. Have the web browser/PDF and a Word doc up side-by-side. Unless you're a flawless touch typer, you'll have to use your short-term memory to keep sentences in your head. Look up words you can't work out and add them to your next batch of words to learn. Ideally you'll start to get a natural appreciation for idiom and grammar once the same sentence constructions start to spring out at you. I didn't do this with Italian but it made the language fell into place for me when I'd always found grammar books incomprehensible. Also, don't stress when you're lost. It's normal to be lost but stress is a distraction and you will make progress.

The other suggestion I have is try to find some Italian forum or Reddit threads online, Youtubers etc.

Good luck!!

Earworms cd’s are excellent.

I agree with Michel Thomas cds. I found it very useful for Spanish