Wanderful Retreats
  • About
  • upcoming
  • Join US
  • FAQ
    • Amici
    • Testimonials
    • Photos
  • Contact
  • Wanderful Journal
Picture

a decade of learning Italian

11/30/2019

0 Comments

 
PictureMy first day in Florence ever! 2009
One of my favorite things about returning to Italy every summer is being able to step off the plane, walk up to the first cafe counter I can find and order a cappuccino and a pastry (or a sandwich...or all three ;) in Italian. Sometimes I get over excited about being back and end up slurring my words together but either way I end up with a cappuccino in hand.

It sometimes takes them by surprise that a little curly blonde can order in Italian. But it wasn't always this way...

PictureAn amazing field of sunflowers my nanny friend Susie and I found in 2011
When I first found out I got the internship at the study abroad center back in December of 2009, just a few months after studying abroad, I enrolled to audit an Italian class at my University. I learned the conjugation patterns and how to respond to common phrases but I wouldn't say that's where I learned Italian. I learned what to do with these verbs and nouns and sentence structure but I didn't really learn Italian until I was arm deep washing dishes in the wash room of the study abroad center.

The ladies in the kitchen spoke little to no English, leaving us with an awkward and often entertaining adjustment period of us struggling to communicate and laughing along the way. We had a giant printed chart of words and phrases that we'd frequently hear in the kitchen. Everything from silverware to peeling garlic, frozen vegetables to serving tray translations. This chart was our lifeline until we got a good enough grasp on the language to translate in our heads on the spot without scurrying to the wall to double-check what was asked/yelled of us.

But it wasn't even during those first couple months I got a solid grasp on speaking. My vocabulary was growing and luckily I had begun to make Italian friends around town that suffered through my terrible sentences. Little by little I started to talk...a little in the morning when I picked up the milk for breakfast shift. When the deliveries came for our bar and explaining why we were paying in bags of change. With the local focaccia maker who started giving me cookies when I tried to talk more and more.

About 7 months into my Italian adventure, I had a breakthrough. I was finally at a point where I learned more than one condition, enough verbs and their conjugations patterns and plenty of nouns that I could hold my own. All these little conversations finally built on top of one another and grew into fully conjugated sentences and conversations. My friends and I could finally hold a solid conversation with me stumbling less and less. It felt amazing. ​

PictureMe and the head chefs of the kitchen, Lidia and Giuliana.
It's taken me a solid decade to learn Italian, and I'm still not done learning. Sto ancora imparando...I'm still learning. And I will likely forever be learning. There's certain topics that I know very few words for (politics is a tricky one). And regional dialects and vocabularies complicate things further. The Italian comedy Benvenuti al Sud illustrates this perfectly, and hilariously, when a man from Milan gets transferred for work to a city by Naples. There are distinct differences in how the two regions pronounce certain words, sometimes even chopping off the entire end of the word. And these linguistic differences are ALL OVER ITALY. 

But I digress. I'm still learning. Even just a few summers ago when I thought I was ordering a glass of hazelnut dessert liqueur it was hilarious when they brought out a bowl of chopped hazelnuts instead. Like I said, I'm still learning. But it sure makes for some funny stories after the fact and even in the moment.

If you're looking to learn a little Italian, or just wake up your own dormant Italian, here's a few resources I've found particularly helpful:
  • DuoLingo: This is a wonderful program that you can use on your computer or as an app. It functions like a game so it gets addictive. I use it daily for the 3 months before I head back to Italy to start waking up my Italian. And it's free!
  • Google Translate: Sure, it's not perfect but it's getting better and better every year. When traveling, it's a really great tool when you have the dictionary downloaded so you can translate without using data. The instant translate with the photo option is very fun too! 
  • Babbel: I've heard great things about this program. You have to pay but it's more thorough than DuoLingo. 
  • Take Classes: Take some classes at your local college or look online for a conversation group of people in a similar situation. Can't find one? Organize one yourself! 
  • Movies and kids shows: This was an unexpectedly helpful tool! The boy I was nannying for during my 2nd year in Italy was 4 so we watched a lot of Disney movies and kids shows either in Italian with English subtitles or English with Italian subtitles. Because they're geared for kids, the vocabulary and speed is more accessible for those that are still learning the language. 

What other tools have you found helpful in your own Italian learning process? 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Read About...

    All
    10 Things To Do In...
    A Day In...
    Art Making While Traveling
    Bologna
    Castiglion Fiorentino
    Cinque Terre
    Florence
    Italy
    Lucca
    Orvietto
    Pisa
    Recipes
    Rome
    Spello
    Travel
    Travel Tips
    Tuscany
    Umbria
    Wanderful News
    Wanderful Tales

    RSS Feed

Picture

Email

wanderfulretreats@gmail.com

Snail Mail

PO Box 853, Los Olivos, CA 93441
  • About
  • upcoming
  • Join US
  • FAQ
    • Amici
    • Testimonials
    • Photos
  • Contact
  • Wanderful Journal