Italian

Benvenuti a Stanford!

Italian is the language of Dante, Verdi, and Fellini, the language of poetry, opera, and cinema. Spoken by over sixty million people worldwide, from Italy to Switzerland, South America and East Africa, Italian represents a key linguistic medium for international business, culture and fashion.

By studying Italian at Stanford you can fulfill the University language requirement, study abroad in Florence, enhance your personal knowledge of our fascinating culture, or pursue an academic major or minor in an uniquely valuable literature.

The Italian language program combines language courses with general culture sessions intended to place a vibrant emphasis on various aspects of the rich Italian historical and cultural heritage. The rigorous yet lively curriculum is carried out by experienced instructors, many Italian born and educated. Along with the introductory courses Italian 1, 2, and 3, they offer a variety of other courses aiming at a full and enjoyable documentation of past and contemporary Italian life.

We offer a very flexible course of study that will allow you to perfect your language skills within a broad interdisciplinary framework, integrating the study of Italian into majors such as Italian Literature, Political Science, International Relations, History, English, Communications or Psychology.

Course Offerings

First-Year Courses

Our First Year Italian courses will provide you with beginner to intermediate speaking, reading, writing, and listening skills. You will learn the language with an emphasis on communicative and interpersonal activities. Moreover, our courses will promote your acquaintance with Italy and its culture, and the exploration of cross-cultural similarities and differences between Italy and the United States.

If you have had some training in Italian before entering Stanford, you should take a placement test.

If you have not studied Italian before, but you have a strong background in another Romance language, you can fulfill the First-year requirement in two rather than three quarters, enrolling in our accelerated sequence (ITALLANG 1A, 2A), which also continues in Second Year.

Second-Year Courses

Our Second-Year Italian courses will provide you with an intermediate to advanced proficiency level in the four major language skills, speaking, reading, writing, and listening, with an emphasis on interpretational and presentational activities.

Our Second-Year courses place a strong emphasis on cross-cultural understanding of the various Italian-speaking realities all over the world.

Upon completion of our Second-Year sequences (through ITALLANG 22A, 22F or 23) you can then enjoy our several Third Year courses, choosing among courses on Italian literature and civilization, contemporary cultural studies, opera and cinema.

Third-Year Courses

Our Third Year Italian courses will allow you to refine and perfect your advanced speaking, reading, writing, and listening skills, in all of the three communication modes: interpersonal, interpretational and presentational.

Our Third year courses offer a wide array of cultural content, spacing from classical to contemporary Italian cinema, from opera to contemporary music, from cultural studies to academic reading and writing.

For further information on courses offered in Italian Language, please click on the Courses tab at the top of this page or contact the program coordinator with questions.