I often hear some students say: I want to speak Italian perfectely as soon as possible, I want to make conversation with Italians... How long does it take getting to an upper-intermidiate or to an avanced level? Then, how much time?

To be honest, when I hear questions like these I usually don't pay much attention about what students are asking, somtimes I just pretend not to listen because I'm pretty sure they hardly will learn Italian as well and maybe they are not even interested in the Italian language and culture.

Similiar questions are usually made by students who are almost always absolute beginners and most of the time they have never tried to learn a language before!

In actual fact these students quit studying Italian after a few days or, at worst, they never start.

They have what is commonly called a fake motivation. 

Before starting a course I use to ask them:

Do you love italian cinema? No.

Are you interested in the italian art? No.

Do you want to discover italian traditions and habits? No.

Are you passionate about italian opera? No, absolutely not.

Have you an italian girlfriend or boyfriend? No, unfortunately not.

Did you study other languages before? Yes at school, twenty years ago.

Have you Italian origins? Yes, it seems to me that my great grandfather was Italian.

So why do you want enrol in this Italian course?

Because I love the sound of the italian language, I always eat pizza and mozzarella, I love italian ice-creams!

Well, I love Spanish food too but I never could learn Spanish only because I love the so called "Paella valenciana".

This is an example of weak or fake motivation.

To start speaking Italian you actually need a pre-intermidiate level at least and to do this or improve your Italian you have to find a real motivation above all.  

I would say that motivation is the "petrol, the gas" of any learning process and you can't create it: it's something you have in your soul, something irrational that links you to Italy.

It's incredible to notice how the best Italian learners actually don't learn Italian because they have to work in Italy but because they have a sincere interest and curiosity for the Italian language and culture. They learn for pleausure, because they have in different ways a relantionship with the Italian world. Italy is part of their life and learning Italian is an authentic life project.