Learning Italian
By sylvie | January 24, 2013
This was the second week of our Italian courses (Mondays and Wednesdays until March). Up to now we have learned the days of the week, the months, the seasons, and how to say the time; a few verbs (to be, to have, and a couple of others); the names of various members of a family; and a bunch of other nouns. Oh and how to make male and female words plural and how to use definitive articles (il, lo, le).
Of course, it’s impossible to live in a country and not pick up words on your own. Doors are marked with spingere or tirare to explain how to open them, the next bus station is announced with prossima fermata, shops are covered in signs at the moment for saldi and svenditi as they try to get rid of their old stock.
Our teacher, a middle aged woman, tries to keep us from speaking English, though that isn’t working very well. Those of us who speak a Romance language (there’s me and André and a Brazilian guy) have a definite advantage since many of our words are similar to Italian ones, and we know all about verb declinations and other fun grammar rules. For the others, I imagine that it’s a struggle to make sense of all these rules.
I spend a lot of time reviewing my lessons and trying to learn everything by heart.
March 19th, 2013 at 4:01
It is nice to read about your efforts to learn Italian. It is a great choice of language. Italy is a great place to live and if you know the language is even better.
May 8th, 2013 at 6:59
(Followed you from Rav).
Good luck with learning Italian! I loved living there and learned it fairly easily - but always had a southern accent, to my father’s (loud) annoyance.