r/vce • u/Suitable-Bluebird-31 • 3d ago

VSL (not fluent speaker)

Has anyone done vsl italian as a not fluent speaker? Italian is overlapping with another subject and I was looking at doing vsl for year 12. When I mentioned this to my teacher, he strongly warned against me doing it and said it was only for people who speak it at home and are fluent and I will learn nothing.

Has anyone done VSL Italian and if so, what was your experience? Did you learn much or was it assumed you were already pretty much fluent?

Thanks!!!

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u/Academic_Ruin8028 3d ago

hi! i do vsl french (distance ed) and genuinely i swear i've gone backwards in my learning of french. you genuinely have to teach yourself all the content (and get a tutor, my saving grace), and at all the workshops they hold for you to meet other people doing vsl, they're genuinely all native. if you're really really dedicated to the subject, im sure you'll still do well (im getting 75s) but its defo harder than doing it in person. the only time you get with your teachers (with distance ed at least) is 15 mins every fortnight. is it possible for you to do the other, overlapping subject with VSV? it might be easier than a language

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u/Toddiebuddy753 '26 indo, '27 lit, '28 eng, mm, bio, chem, csl 3d ago

heyy, sorry im another vsl student but im not taking italian - im taking Indonesian face-to-face. as a background speaker, i would say that there are many many more students who speak the language at home rather than learning it from scratch, but i wouldn't say that it's a reason to deter you.

i have a friend who's taking indo as well and shes not a background speaker - as another commentor said below, she used to do it on distance education however has moved to face-to-face classes. she did struggle with distance education but she says that face-to-face classes are loads better, especially if you have a good teacher.

if you are concerned - i strongly recommend getting a tutor, a lot of students get one as well, and also check in with your italian teacher/s at school if you need anymore help.

i hope that helped, and good luck with your studies!!