Italian

I have just completed nine weeks of Italian language class. I can recognize some words, conjugate no verbs and respond only minimally when spoken to. How do immigrants do it? I really admire them.
My next session begins in January. In the mean time, I am taking my study book with me to Phoenix and practice with Francesca. She tells me that her children have no interest in learning the language. Pity. I would like to have learned from my parent another language. But they were Americans from long ago and had no European language to pass down.
Ciao.