Some tips to improve your Italian by watching The Trial and other TV series
Have you always dreamt of learning Italian by watching TV? Do you remember what we told you about immersion? Watching a TV show in Italian will help you boost your linguistic skills if you know how to do it.
How to learn Italian with TV series
Choose a title and learn Italian with our tips
If you are a beginner, try watching a scene or an episode in Italian with English subtitles. You aren’t cheating, you’re learning – and, hopefully, enjoying the show. This will allow you to get familiar with the language and understand what’s going on. Real beginners should also consider cartoons as valuable educational tools: the language tends to be easier and episodes are usually shorter than those of a TV series, which makes the feat of listening to a foreign language less overwhelming while boosting your motivation. If you feel more confident or you have already watched the episode with English subtitles, set subtitles to Italian to connect spoken and written form, and write down some interesting words and expressions you’d like to remember. If you find some words you don’t know, look them up in a dictionary after trying to guess their meaning from the context, and write them down adding a definition or translation, accompanied by the whole sentence to remember how they are actually used. After going through these two steps and as your Italian skills advance, try watching the show without subtitles and celebrate your progress!
Extra tip: you can improve your reading skills by reading Italian reviews of your favourite series.
Il processo – The Trial
The Trial is set in Mantua, Northern Italy
We have discovered that many of you are enjoying The Trial, the first Italian legal drama available on Netflix. We recommend this to intermediate and beginner learners alike, because the formality of the setting makes the dialogue’s pace easier to follow and reduces to zero the use of slang or dialects. For those who haven’t watched it yet, The Trial revolves around the murder of a 17-year-old girl investigated by prosecutor Elena Guerra, a strong female character connected to the victim.
Basic legal vocabulary
Let’s learn some italiano giuridico
Although we suggest that you build your own glossary as you watch The Trial to make it relevant to you, here you can find some inspiration to get started. Since alphabetical order may not be the best strategy when trying to learn new words, create meaningful associations that work for you (synonyms, antonyms, word clusters, etc.).
processo: trial
tribunale: court
sentenza, verdetto: judgement, verdict
legge: law
giustizia: justice
legale: legal
illegale: illegal
diritto: right
dovere: duty
colpevole: guilty
innocente: innocent
assolvere: to absolve
condannare: to convict
arrestare: to arrest
scarcerare: to release
carcere: prison
reato: crime
scena del crimine: crime scene
indagine: investigation
omicidio: murder
assassino: murderer
vittima: victim
avvocato, legale: advocate, attorney, barrister, lawyer
pubblico ministero: prosecutor
giudice: judge
toga: robe, gown
imputato: defendant
testimone: witness
complice: accomplice
accusa: prosecution
difesa: defence
patteggiare: to plea bargain
fare ricorso: to appeal