Italian is Italy's native language, and approximately 66 million people worldwide speak it either as their mother language or as a second language. It is the official language in 3 countries outside Italy, which are Switzerland, San Marino, and the Vatican City. It is also a minority language in Slovenia and Croatia. However, due to Italy's history of colonisation, Italian-speaking communities can be found worldwide, in North and East Africa, North and South America, and Australia.
Compared to other major European languages, Italian, as we know it today, is relatively young as it didn't become an official language until 1861, upon Italian unification. It is estimated that during this time only 2.5% of Italy's population could speak what is now known as standard Italian.
Whereas most alphabets of 'Romantic languages', such as French or Spanish, will add letters to the English alphabet, Italian takes them away. In fact, 5 letters (j, k, w, x, and y ) are removed, leaving the Italian alphabet with 21 letters. Interestingly, if you see these letters in the Italian text, it means this word has been borrowed from another language.
If you are an appreciator of ancient Western civilisation, then Italian is a language worth learning. A recent UNESCO report stated that over 60% of the world's art treasures are found in Italy, and the Italian language is key to study and research in the fields of art history, archaeology, and philosophy.
Italian is also widely known as the language of musicians and food lovers. Italian opera, and of course Luciano Pavarotti, are revered around the world; and there is a reason that the famous German composer, Mozart, composed so many of his masterpieces in Italian rather than German.
When it comes to food, if the taste of Italian food isn't enough to convince you that this is the language of food lovers, then how about the fact that the Italian language has the highest number of words for naming food, restaurants, and dishes? Pasta alone has over 350 different variants!
As with learning any language, the cost of learning is usually decided on a cost-per-lesson basis. Depending on what level of the language you already speak, the prices will vary.
For Beginners, online lessons on TutorExtra start from as little as £5 per lesson and can go as high as £40 per lesson depending on the tutor's expertise. At TutorExtra we aim to provide comprehensive access to tutors of all grades and levels in 1000s of subject areas.