3 Minute Italian - Course 1 | Language lessons for beginners (Udemy.com)
Learn to speak Italian you can use in everyday real-world situations - all in just 3-minute chunks!
Created by: Kieran Ball
Last updated August 2026
Our take
Based on the ratings of 3,819 students, a sample of their written reviews and the syllabus, as the course stood in August 2026. No course pays to be reviewed.
Kieran Ball is a UK language tutor, and this is the Italian entry in his 3 Minute Languages series. The syllabus shows nine lessons, 98 lectures and about 4.5 hours in total, cut into clips of roughly three minutes each. Each clip adds one small chunk of Italian, and later lessons keep reusing earlier chunks so sentences grow longer without a big memorization push. It is pitched at complete beginners, especially holiday travelers and people who have bounced off language learning before. The first 15 videos are free to preview.
Reviewers like how quickly they start talking. Several say they retained far more than expected, and one who tried Rosetta Stone and other apps says they learn more here. One student who took his French course liked the bite-size approach too. The rating is 4.8 from 3,819 reviews, and about 92 percent are four or five stars. Complaints are small. One reviewer finds it a bit boring. Another wants a full PDF of all the words, and a third points out that the recap notes and vocabulary sheets at the end are required for the completion certificate. There are no quizzes, so the course is mostly watching and absorbing.
The format suits a daily habit, since each lesson takes only a few minutes. It was last updated in August 2026. It is a starter, not a route to fluency, and that seems fair for 4.5 hours. Anyone planning a trip or wanting a low-pressure first step into Italian is the target audience. People who want speaking practice with feedback will need to add something else.
Pros
- Three-minute clips make a daily habit easy, and reviewers say the words stick
- Students say they start forming sentences almost immediately, from lesson one
- Early phrases are reused in later lessons, so sentences grow without cramming
- First 15 videos are free to preview, and it was updated in August 2026
Cons
- Recap notes and vocabulary sheets are required to earn the completion certificate
- No quizzes, and one reviewer wants a full PDF word list
- One reviewer finds the format a bit boring, and it stops at beginner level
I'm truly shocked at how much I'm learning in just 3 mins a day. At first, I thought, 3 mins isn't going to do anything. But I've stuck to just 1 lesson a day and I'm retaining so much!
Suits true beginners with zero Italian and no grammar background. The course assumes you know nothing.
What you will learn
- Speak Italian confidently and comfortably in everyday situations
- Understand what's being said back to you
- Be more than just an average tourist when travelling to Italian speaking countries
- Go from complete beginner to building your own sentences after the very first lesson
- Build a solid base vocabulary of words and phrases you can use straight away in the real world
- Understand and use grammatical and linguistic features of the Italian language with ease
- Understand the structure of the Italian language
- Give your opinions in Italian
- Give descriptions of things in Italian
- Greet the locals when you are in an Italian speaking country
- Order food and drinks in Italian
- Get to grips with Italian pronunciation
Course content
13 sections · 98 lectures · 4.5 hours of video 12 articles
- 1Introduction to the course 1 free preview1 lecture · 5 min
- 2Lesson 1 4 free previews4 lectures · 14 min
- 3Table of Contents1 lecture
- 4Lesson 26 lectures · 18 min
- 5Lesson 37 lectures · 22 min
- 6Lesson 48 lectures · 24 min
- 7Lesson 512 lectures · 32 min
- 8Lesson 68 lectures · 24 min
- 9Lesson 710 lectures · 26 min
- 10Lesson 815 lectures · 46 min
- 11Lesson 98 lectures · 23 min
- 12Recap notes and Vocabulary Expansion Sheets (including pronunciation videos)13 lectures · 30 min
- 13Bonus lecture5 lectures · 8 min
Who it is for
The instructor says it suits
- You really want to learn to speak Italian in a very simple and very quick way
- You are going to spend a holiday/vacation in Italy or another Italian speaking country
- You have failed to learn Italian in the past, but really want to give it one more go
- You have no experience with Italian, but you would like to learn fast
- You have always wanted to learn a new language, but you are very busy and can never find the time
What you need before you start
- The good thing about this course is that it is taught under the assumption that you know no Italian and nothing about languages
- Everything is explained clearly and thoroughly without the use of confusing terminology
How it compares
Against the other 535 rated Udemy courses in Language Learning on CourseDuck:
- Rating4.8 out of 5higher than 82% of them
- Reviews3,819#76 of 536 by number of reviews
- Length4.5 hoursshorter than 55% of them
- Last updatedAugust 2026more recently than 87% of them
Course Description
Ciao e benvenuto :-)
(Hello and welcome)
There is nothing more thrilling than being able to speak to the locals in their own language when you visit a foreign country. Well, now you can experience that amazing feeling too!
My name is Kieran Ball and I’ve been teaching foreign languages in my hometown for over fifteen years. I love languages, I love learning and I love teaching. I also love chocolate, but this isn’t really the place to discuss my chocoholism!
I created 3 Minute Italian as a way to make learning Italian easier than ever before and accessible to anybody, especially people who have tried and failed in the past. My course is perfect for the complete beginner as I break down the Italian language into tiny chunks that I show you how to build back together again in a logical, simple to understand way. You can go from knowing no Italian at all to putting together your own sentences in just a few minutes. Watch the free preview lessons below and you’ll see what I mean.
TRY THE FREE PREVIEW LESSONS
I really want everybody to see that they can learn to speak Italian, so I’ve turned the first fifteen videos of this course into free previews, meaning you can watch them without even signing up. If nothing else, I just want you to see how easy it is to learn Italian.
HOW DOES 3 MINUTE ITALIAN WORK?
As the name suggests, each lesson in this course lasts just three minutes (more or less!). In each lesson, you learn a tiny chunk of Italian that you can use to build sentences. As you work through the course, you learn more and more little chunks and your sentences will gradually get longer and longer.
The chunks that you learn in the first lessons are carried through to the last lessons. This means you don’t have to worry about trying to remember everything; you will get so much opportunity for practice that you will find the words and phrases just sink into your brain.
The lessons in this course are focused, practical and effective, and you will build language skills that you can use straight away in real-world situations. You will be able to speak Italian comfortably and with confidence whenever you’re in a Italian speaking country.
WHY 3 MINUTES?
When you begin learning something new, you tend to start off with lots of excitement and motivation. You might spend a few hours on the first day learning, but then the next day, you can only manage one hour, and then that goes down to half an hour, and then you get bored and you give up. Well, the reason behind the very short lessons is that it helps you to stay motivated and it also enhances the learning process.
By keeping your learning to short chunks, you will find three wonderful things start to happen:
1. You will maintain enthusiasm
If you want to learn anything, you have to maintain enthusiasm or else you won’t continue. If you limit your study time to just three minutes, you’ll keep Italian fresh and exciting and you’ll be eager to learn. If you spend hours studying, very quickly you’ll get bored with Italian and it’ll turn into a chore.
2. You will study more consistently
It’s much better to study for just three minutes once a day than to study for three hours once a week. A spare three minutes is relatively easy to find even in the most hectic of schedules. If you make sure you complete at least one three-minute study session every day, it’ll quickly become a habit that you’ll do without thinking. It’s much easier to fit in a daily three-minute habit than a weekly one-hour habit. By doing this, you’ll become a much more consistent learner, and consistency is the key to success.
3. You will remember things better
This is my favourite reason as to why you should limit your study to just three-minute chunks. If you study something for just three minutes every day, you’ll trick your brain into memorising the information more quickly than if it were to see the information for hours each day. It’ll think, “I see this information every day so it must be important, but I don’t see it for very long, so I’d better hold onto it and make it into a memory fast!” You’ll be amazed at how much more easily things tend to stay in your brain if you limit yourself to just three minutes a day.
So, that’s why I keep the lessons to just three minutes.
A METHOD THAT REALLY WORKS
I can’t quite believe it, but over 130,000 people in more than 200 countries have now used 3 Minute Languages to learn to speak a foreign language. It still amazes me when I get an email from somebody on the other side of the world telling me how much they have enjoyed learning Italian with me. Apart from the thrill it gives me to find out people are listening to my voice in places like Mongolia, Peru and even Fiji, it also confirms to me that the 3 Minute Languages courses work.
So, if you want a course that teaches you to speak Italian you can use in everyday situations using a simple and fun method, then sign up to 3 Minute Italian today.
Grazie :-)
Kieran
Instructor Details
- 4.8 Rating
3,819 Reviews
Kieran Ball
Hello, bonjour, hola, hallo, ciao and olá!
I’m Kieran and I’m a language tutor based in the UK, and I also create online courses and write books to make language learning accessible to all.
My books and online courses are based on the method I developed for teaching languages, which I've been using in all my classes for many years. The method will get you speaking quickly, without the struggle normally associated with language learning.
I have created three series of language courses available in French, Spanish, German, Italian and Portuguese. They're called: '3 Minute Languages', 'Building Structures' and 'Quick Guides'.
I hope you enjoy, and "Happy Learning" :-)
Kieran
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Reviews
By Sharon Costigan on 9/11/2026
it took a while for me to realise to turn my phone sideways for the videos, otherwise, I am finding the course very useful
By Rula Magdy on 9/5/2026
im still into lesson 2, so far ive learnt 11 words i believe, and can make lots of sentences! its so easy to watch and memories somehow even though the videos are short, but great! è assolutamente fantastico! :)
By Udemy User on 9/2/2026
I would love the full PDF of all the words supplied with the course. Additionally how to find the e with the accent on the keyboard.
By russell humphreys on 8/20/2026
really easy to follow and you start talking immediately. I am finding my recollection of words is much higher than I expected and i can use them in everyday situations.
By Tan Weizhen Kathryn on 8/5/2026
Very comprehensive and structured guide to Italian! However, it would be better if the recap notes and vocabulary expansion sheets at the end of the course wer optional for obtaining the completion certificate.
By Luiz Claudio Pimenta Ramos on 7/3/2026
Excelente, já tenho uma base de italiano com outro curso da Udemy, e esse com inglês junto ficou muito bom para relembrar o inglês que aprendi em 1979... a long time ago... kkkk
By Monica Guthrie on 3/23/2026
I am a few lessons in and I have the words and phrases they have taught down pretty well I think. Honestly, they aren't the words and phrases I would have started with (it is, it isn't, here, good, bad, delicious, extraordinary, etc), but it is more fun than just learning "hi my name is" - although I do hope those more basic conversational parts are included later.
By Wiktoria Klimek on 2/23/2026
Bardzo dobry kurs dla początkujących, metoda zapamiętywania słów i wyrażeń świetna !
By Justina Gioia on 2/20/2026
Amazing course. Feels so good to feel like I am actually learning something for once! I love the way he makes you feel like a speaker from the get go.
By 有川佳子 on 11/18/2025
I'm Japanese and I can't speak English enough, but learning Italian in English is very fun and it's good to learn Italian and English at the same time. I'm sure I will be able to speak Italian before I visit Italy and watch Opera.
Quality Score
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Overall Score : 96 / 100












