Hi, I'm Erin. I have permanent residency in New Zealand and originally from the United States. I have something of a chequered history when it comes to learning languages. I took two years of French in high school and learned nothing. When I met my ex-partner, we made learning French a goal but it went nowhere. I feel badly about not being able to speak a foreign language. I have two masters degrees but I can't even carry on a basic conversation in a foreign language. A lot of people tell me it's not a big deal, that English is the lingua franca of the world these days. I've noticed a lot of the people who tell me this speak more than one language. :-) Anyway, they're missing the point. The world is getting smaller and one way to reach out is to learn a foreign language. I picked Italian for several reasons. 1. I love art and history and lets face it; a lot of both come from or happened in Italy. 2. I enjoy opera and Dante and would like to appreciate both in their native languages (Excluding Carmen and Mozart's operas, don't care much for Wagner). 3. It's a beautiful language. 4. I feel pressure to learn French, like it's something I have to do because I've already put so much time into. I don't feel that pressure with Italian. I've been using the Fluent Forever system developed by Gabriel Wyner to great success so far. I used his pronunciation trainer to learn the sounds of Italian and how to make them. He uses a Spaced Repetition System with Anki flashcards. I'm now working on learning the 625 most common words. I'm about halfway through the list, I reckon. My goals are to build vocabulary, converse fluently, learn grammar and read in Italian at a high level. I'd like to at least reach B2 in the CEFR. Addendum, 2 January 2018: I met an Italian woman in a small NZ town yesterday. She understood me and we had a basic conversation! I'm so happy and inspired. :-) Cheers Erin