Speech! Speech!

Though I was born too late to take advantage of the importance of learning Latin and Greek for a well-rounded education, I understand that there was one component of learning those so-called Dead Languages that has been eliminated from today's methods for learning 'modern' languages.  I'm referring to exercises of composition.  Until I suppose around the 1950s or so, every education person was expected to have at least a superficial understanding of written Latin or Greek and many instructors assigned writing exercises that involved using what the student has learned to create short essays or stories in the target language. 

It seems to me that this is a custom that could do with a revival, with modifications of course.  One of the hindrances I've often spoken of in regard to being confident when speaking Italian is the issue of avoiding long pauses and the anxiety and discomfort that such hesitancy produces.  It seems to me that one way to avoid this stumbling block is to fortify one's memory with a repository of stock phrases and sentences that can be used to fill in those periods when you can't think of anything to say or when you know what you want to express, but the words either won't come or you're not sure of the word order and vocabulary needed to get your point across.  After all, when we having a conversation in our native language, for the most part the words just flow; we spend very little time carefully selecting every word and thinking about syntax.  If we practiced writing out typical conversations regularly, such fluency just might come over time. 

Of course, another approach toward making our conversations flow along smoothly is to practice orally, either with ourselves or with a partner.  But it seems to me that writing out the conversation first with focused composition exercises would be a good supplement to oral practice.  Writing helps us to get our thoughts organized before we speak.  Textbook translation exercises are fine, but the process of composing your own dialogue and using your current knowledge of the language to form your own sentences and paragraphs gives the exercise and immediacy and an interactiveness that you don't get by simply working with examples other people have given you.  I presume composition exercises are not provided in self-instruction books because it would be impossible to supply a key, since everyone would write something different.  After all, though, when a person seeking public office has to give a speech, very often the first thing she does is write an outline and then the speech in its entirety.   Perhaps its not a bad idea to treat future conversations in Italian as if they were political speeches that we had to prepare for days ahead.  That way we won't need notes or a teleprompter, because the words are right there--on the tip of our tongues, as the saying goes. 

Certainly, it's impossible to predict everything that could possibly pop up during a spontaneous conversation in Italian, but having those stock phrases and sentences available for easy retrieval could relieve some of the stress and awkwardness of face-to-face conversations.  In fact, a pet peeve of mine is when textbooks and other learning materials use vocabulary and sentences in their lessons that I am unlikely to ever need to use.  I doubt I'll need to say 'Koalas rarely eat anything but eucalyptus leaves when they are in their natural habitat.'  At least anytime soon.

Alla prossima...

Musica italiana

Here's an Italian song (canzone) that is perfect for learning Italian because it uses so many words, like spaghetti, that are familiar to most English speakers.  It is a remake by the Gypsy Queens of a very popular Italian song originally by Tuto Cugugno called L'Italiano. 

The Gypsy Queens perform L'Italiano--caldissimo!

Now all I need to do is find the lyrics. 

Alla prossima...

Et tu, Brute? Or is that Et Lei, Brute?

For some reason I find knowing when to use formal pronouns and verbs a much harder process to master in Italian than in either French or Spanish.  In French it seems to me that, as far as one adult speaking to another, unless they are related or in some other way intimately connected, it is necessary to wait for the permission to 'tutoyer.'  In Spanish, my experience has been that formalities are much more flexible and most of the Spanish pen-pals I've had very quickly dispense with all the Usteds and Ustedes.  Italian usage, however, seems much more restrictive.  I have an Italian correspondent who is considerably younger than I am and she tells me that technically she must always address me with the formal Lei.

Besides the fact that this seems to me to open up the possibilities of appearing rude or disrespectful, already a reputation that often follows Americans wherever they go, it also makes the Italian grammar difficult, as if it weren't already challenging enough.  When I was studying French, practically all pronouns and verbs were introduced in their formal forms.  This worked well, I thought, because it was with these forms that one would first begin a conversation with a French speaker.  I could always pick up the informal speech later.  With Italian, though, it seems to me imperative to learn both forms thoroughly right from the start, since I'm older and it's quite likely I would need to address a lot of people with tu.  So, that makes for a lot of doubling up.  I suppose this inconvenience is leveled out by many other aspects that seem to me to be easier than French or Spanish:  in general the pronunciation is very similar to English and there are very few sounds that are problematic for English speakers (unlike the soft g's and b's and v's and the Castillian c in Spanish) and also making a statement into a question in Italian is usually simply a matter of raising the tone a little at the end of the sentence or phrase--very little inverting is involved. 


A language expert once noted that it is unproductive to dwell on the difficulty or simplicity of any particular language--such concerns will only slow down the learning process and impede your studies.  They're all hard in that they are different from the language we grew up with.  Most languages express things completely differently.  If I ever get to the point where learning intuitively when to use Tu or Lei becomes a mandate, then I'm sure I'll be able to rise to the occasion.  Meanwhile, I'll just continue to absorb as much as I can--and enjoy myself.  Mi piace imparare l'italiano.

Vasco

According to my Italian pen-pal, Vasco Rossi is a big rock superstar in Italy.  For your listening pleasure, above is a sample of his music. The song is called Vivere, which I think means To Live, or maybe the imperative Live! 

Is That Roberto Benigni Speaking Italian? Oh, my God; It's Me!

Listening to a recording of one's own voice is often rather like looking at a photograph of oneself.  'Who's that?' you might say before you recognize yourself.  And this, of course, is only natural; the image we see in a mirror is in reverse, so a photograph looks different.  And except for the times we've found ourselves in a canyon and heard our echo, we never hear ourselves speaking.  

Thanks to the wonders of technology, though, we are able to hear what we sound like to other people--and sometimes it's a bit startling, at least the first time.  It turns out that recording yourself when learning a second language can be a very useful (and informative) process for improving your pronunciation and capturing that illusive linguistic tone of a language--and its nuances.

By playing back a short recording of yourself as you continue to attempt to speak Italian, you can hear your mistakes, rather than just see them on paper.  I was very surprised when I recorded my first Italian speech at all the mistakes I made in syllable stress.  These are errors that would not be detected in your written exercises.  As you are well aware, the stresses in Italian are often irregular and a misplaced emphasis could interfere with making yourself understood by listeners.  The same goes for the other difficult pronunciation problem in Italian: double consonants.  The mistake of saying casa when you meant to say cassa glares out at you when you hear yourself pronounce those words on a recording. 

I had wanted to add an MP3 of some of my first attempts to record myself speaking Italian, but it would seem that with the Google Blogger platform, though it's relatively simple to add photos and videos, attaching audio files is difficult--involving using HTML, which I've tried to avoid.

The important thing about recording your Italian is to avoid being overly critical.  You're just learning, for chrissake!  If you could speak it perfectly without any effort, there would be no need for recordings, interminable grammar exercises, comprehension practices, etc.  Record a short monologue (or you could even write up a little dialogue and play both parts--that might be fun).  Then play it back several times, not just passively letting the words and sentences slide by you, but listening closely--both for the mistakes and for the things you did very well with.  If you sound even remotely like a native, then pat yourself on the back and have a gelato.

Ora, viaggiatore (Now, voyager), the next step is to record a video.  That way you can not only hear your progress (or lack of it), but also practice the body language and gestures that go along with good, animated, expressive Italian.  Also you can compare the way you employ your mouth, tongue, and teeth with what you see when you watch a native speaking.  Yes, le mie amiche, this is going to take some courage, but if we want to eventually become fluent, we need to put aside our fears and go forward to seek and to find.  (If this paragraph sounds familiar it's because I've been paraphrasing Walt Whitman :))  Yes, I know he's not an Italian, but he could write a good ditty every now and then, va bene? 

Amici ed amiche di penna

Penpals.  I have several, including a couple of Italians.  I always feel quite humbled when they write me back with my attempt at Italian vigorously corrected and amended, and the expression 'you learn from your mistakes' is really made evident in these situations.  It's very helpful to compare what I wrote with the way it should have been written.  It helps solidify the knowledge by giving me a negative set of rules as well as the positive one:  One must not use di in such and such expression; da is more appropriate.  But what is also very helpful is the reverse.  When I correct their English I can see that they often make precisely the same mistakes that I do.  What this tells me is that the fine-tuning of a language, when one gets to the point that she no longer makes these important mistakes using prepositions or a specific sentence construction that differs radically from English, comes much later, after years of constant exposure and being corrected. 

In the meantime, though, it's important to proceed, even though my Italian is riddled with errors.  The fact is that, even with all the mistakes, most of my correspondents have very little trouble getting the gist of my message, so we are therefore communicating.  And it's rare that I can't decipher most of the messages that Italians have written to me in English, though there have been a few cases in which the meaning was not at all clear and I could only guess.  But the main thing is that it is crucial not to demand perfection and to continue to make regular attempts to communicate with natives--even if it's embarrassing at times.  I'm always proud and amazed at how brave and hardworking my Italian penpals are.  They know they're probably making mistakes, but they try anyhow.  E questo è bene.

One of the best things a language penpal can do is encourage her writing partner.  Learning a language can be a very frustrating endeavor and it always gives me impetus and courage when someone tells me my Italian is pretty good--even if they are just being kind.  It's very easy to just throw in the towel (asciugamano) when you feel your progress is slow, so it's important to look for positive feedback whenever you can. So, I'm encouraging all you Italian learners now.  È possibile farlo! You can do it.  If I can, then you can too.

Italian--It's a Mystery to Me

Pietro Sermonti

Still finding it very difficult to locate TV shows and movies in Italian with Italian subtitles, I've been watching 'Nero Wolfe' in Italian on YouTube.  For some reason this character, based on the detective novels of Rex Stout, seems to be very popular in Italy.  There is both an old black-and-white version of the series (perhaps from the late 50's or 60's) and a newer one (maybe from the 90's?), which is the one I watch.  Archie Goodwin, Mr. Wolfe's right-hand man, is the handsome and elegant Italian actor (he's older in this Wiki; he looks more like the picture on the right here in the series) Pietro Sermonti. The plot lines are genuinely exciting and the show is very nicely produced and directed.  I find that the Italian seems to be spoken for the most part very clearly and a tiny bit slower than in the more contemporary Italian TV shows.  I'm convinced that people are talking faster these days--in fact, they're doing everything faster :).


I ordered a cheap used copy of Agatha Christie's C'e Un Cadavere in Biblioteca a while back, but it hasn't arrived yet. I find that Christie's books are perfect for beginning language learners because 1) they've been translated into just about every language ever known, and 2) they usually use relatively easy vocabulary and grammar.  It does get tiresome having to interrupt one's reading every few minutes to consult the dictionary,but language learning takes time and effort.


Also continuing with the Pimsleur all-audio programs for Italian.  Some criticize Pimsleur for spoon-feeding language, ladling out new vocabulary and structures at an extremely slow pace, but I find that works for me.  It teaches you all you need to know for a very simple conversation in Spanish and then drills on these phrases over and over.  Even when you advance to another level, you still get drilled on material you learned previously.  With all that repetition and with replaying the MP3's over and over, certain common phrases become very ensconced in the brain and can be reproduced very quickly without going through the thinking process that slows you down when speaking.  I find the program very helpful also, in that it's all audio.  I don't have to put my earbuds down to do some written exercises every few minutes, which means the program is perfect for using when exercising or doing some other activity.  It actually makes my morning walking routine much more pleasurable.  Now, we'll see if I'm making measurable progress as I advanced through the first 30 units of the Beginning set.

A presto....

Welcome Back Kotter, er, Guglielmo

 

Ah, my Italian blog.  How I've missed you.  I've been hanging out with the Spaniards a lot lately and have completely ignored you.  Mi dispiace! Ti prego, perdonami.

I'm still puzzling over the fact that when I switch from watching TV shows in Spanish or French, even though my current vocabulary bank in Italian is miniscule (and probably overdrawn), the few Italian words and phrases I do know all come out sounding clear as crystal.  Thus, I end up understanding way more of the spoken Italian than I do the Spanish.  I grasp a little more of the French, but only because I've studied it for ages.  

Also, (and I don't mean to say this to denigrate other languages in the least), I seem to pay attention more when I'm listening to Italian.  It grabs my attention.  I've spoken before of how the unpredictable stresses on syllables gives the language a constantly changing rhythm and all those vowels give it a musical lilt.  French has almost equal stress on each syllable, and while there are some very beautiful French words, unless the speaker is animated and expressive, it can come across as monotone at times.  Spanish has rhythm, but its a very static rhythm--and for some reason which nobody seems to know, spoken Spanish sounds as though it's being shot out of a cannon, extremely rapid with few pauses.  

I just wish I could find more TV show in Italian.  This is where Spanish learners have a huge advantage--YouTube offers hundreds of shows in Spanish, some dubbed American programs, others in the original Spanish.  I may be about to solve some of that problem, though.

There is a free online program called Hola that 'unblocks' foreign TV stations and makes your computer think it's in another country.  (Now if only I could find a similar program that makes ME think I'm in Italy :)).
This will allow me to access RAI, the giant TV network in Italy that produces hundreds of programs all the time.  This will open up a lot of possibilities, but I still wish I could find more Italian shows that are not only in Italian, but also have Italian subtitles.  Those are very hard to find.  

Anyway, it's good to be back here in Bella Italia.

A presto...

Prepped for Prepositions

Oy Vey! Italian Prepositions!

Let's face it, if you wait until you've mastered the prepositions in any given language before you try to speak face to face with a native, you'll probably never get to use your new-found tongue at all.  True, there are a few rules and guidelines for when to use certain prepositions, such as using di not da when you're referring to being 'from a certain place,' e.g., Sono di Firenze,  but there are exceptions galore.  Mastery of prepositions is a skill that only really sets in after many years of regular practice, allowing plenty of time and self-forgiveness for making many mistakes at first. 

I see the problem time and again when I read the English that non-native speakers write to me.  Sometimes they use the wrong preposition, and sometimes they completely omit a preposition where one is needed in English, but totally unnecessary in their own language.  All those from's, to's, at's, etc., are employed slightly differently in each language.  Do you live in the street or on the street?  When you think about it, you do neither; you live by the street. 

But we must remember that these are little words, albeit important words, that most of the time will not make you message incomprehensible to your listeners.  As in so many cases, we have to give up a little of our unwillingness to make mistakes and be a little lenient with ourselves.  Most of the time your amici italiani will be equally forgiving.  If you're willing to meet them halfway and at least make an attempt to respect and utilize their language, they will tolerate a few slip-ups, especially if they are second language learners themselves.

A presto...

Aiuto! Murdered by Vowels

Curiously, it's not the double consonants or the softer d's and t's of Italian that drive me to distraction as I'm studying the language--it's all those clustered vowels, such as the word for spoon:  cucchiaio.  Here we have four, count 'em!, vowels all in a nice neat row--and two of them are the same.  To my knowledge (and I could easily be wrong here) there are no English words that contain this many consecutive vowels.  Consequently, words like these are special challenges when it comes to proper pronunciation.  Most English speakers would try to make the 'iaio' into a diphthong, so that it comes out sounding sort of like 'ow,' as in 'ouch, that hurts!'  And how it does hurt.  It takes a lot of practice for me to say ee-ah-ee-oh, quickly enough that it doesn't sound weird.  

Even a simple and common word like euro is very difficult for me to master.  In English, we'd just say Your-oh, just two simple sounds, and that's that.  

And the very thing that makes Italian unique and lovely, it's lavish use of vowels presents yet another pronunciation hurdle.  Often when a word ends with a vowel and is followed by another word that begins with a vowel, the custom is to merge the two vowel sounds.  What this does is tighten up the flow of the words, so that it's not quite as easy to tell when one ends and the next one begins.  Sometimes this is indicated by an apostrophe, such as quest'anno.   Other times, the speaker is just expected to know when to run the words together.  This, of course, has it's purpose--to make the transition from the first word to the second smoother, but a little at the expense of clarity.  Still, like other language difficulties, after hours of practice, it begins to come naturally and we get the hang of it.

It seems that the Italian word for vowel is vocale; it's easy to see how both words came to us from 'Old Italian,' known better as Latin.  

A presto...

Ascolti! Capisci?

Understand?

Got a message from one of my Italian pen-pals today.  She said she wrote and understood English very well, but had trouble speaking and reading it.  Odd that it's almost just the opposite with me.  I could probably babble my way through a simple Italian conversation (though there would be lots of long pauses) and I can read it with the help of a dictionary, but it's the spoken Italian that I have the most problem with--though not nearly as difficult as spoken French.  This is especially interesting for me in that it seems to me that spoken English is very hard to comprehend.  There's so much slurring and colliding of words--and so many idioms and slang expressions used in a normal English conversation.  I'll have to ask her what her secret is.


Do some people just have more sensitive ears than others?  Can some recognize foreign sounds more easily?  As I've mentioned before, Italian seems to me to be enunciated with clarity and precision, so I've often felt that I'll be quicker in getting to the point where I can understand Italian spoken at a normal pace than either French of Spanish.  There are times when I'm listening to a Spanish or French TV program or film when I feel that I'm not catching a single word the actors have uttered.  Part of this stems from the fact that actors are reciting memorized lines; thus, they may be expressing more complex ideas than people normally would in day-to-day conversation. Perhaps it's better to listen to interviews.  Or, a friend sent me a brief sample of an e-book of The Communist Manifesto in Italian.  Just as he pointed out, so many of the words were anglicized Latin words (a lot of words ending in 'tion') that it gave the impression of being very easy to understand the gist of the book.

Any language is easier to read than to speak, in my opinion.  And most are easier to write, with the exception of  graphic-styled languages such as Chinese or Hindi.  So, in the meantime, I'll keep listening.  ...and I'll keep writing.

A presto...

Ever Wonder Why Italy Stayed Home?

 Sophia Loren doing the Mambo Italiano.  Bellissima!

I've often wondered why Spanish ended up spreading all over the planet and Italian sort of stuck to Italy and nearby.  I've wondered to that if Cristoforo Colombo had sailed to America on Italian ships instead of under Spanish authority, everyone in Latin American would be speaking italiano instead of spagnolo.  It just seems that the Spanish conquistadores were especially good with absorbing their conquests into their language and culture. 

Even now, in spite of the fact that Americans and the British profess to adore the Italian language, it still ranks fairly low in languages studied by non-Italians.  I've resisted it myself, convincing myself time after time that Spanish would be more useful, since Spanish speakers are all around me, but it seems I always find myself switching from Spanish and French instructional material and YouTube videos to the language that most inspires me.  

Now, for difficulty comparisons.  French seems easy to me, but probably because I've had years of formal training in it--though, as I've discussed in other posts, it seems to me the hardest to comprehend when spoken quickly.  Spanish superficially seems pretty simple, but as you begin to delve into the advanced grammar, it definitely has its quirks and difficult verb conjugations.  Italian grammar is hard at first, but gets easier.  But of all three, Italian seems to me the easiest to grasp when spoken at a normal speed.  Italians seem to leave a tiny bit more breathing space between words.  French and Spanish do a lot of running entire phrases together.  

But I've covered all this before.  Every language has its challenges for new learners, so it's best to just put one's nose to the grind and forget about how easy or hard it is.  Just do the work. 

Quando la vita è dolce come caramelle

Ciao, come sta oggi?  Another week begins.

A friend sent me a copy of the iconic Italian film La Dolce Vita.  I'd wager that not too many Americans have seen this Fellini film, but I'd also bet that they have heard of the title.  Like the French expression 'joie de vivre,' it has been adopted by English when referring to 'the good life,' or to express when things are going extremely well for us, especially financially. 

I find it amusing that English speakers have to borrow from other languages when we want to express positive things like how sweet life is.  Are we by nature a somber, unfulfilled people who always think that happiness is something only to be dreamed about or wished for?  Are continental Europeans happier than we are?

Americans are often stereotyped as always smiling and chatty.  Always overflowing with that can-do spirit.  But is it only a myth?  I've seen my share of mean-spirited, bitter, very negative fellow Americans.  In fact I used to be sort of that way myself.  On the other hand, is it la dolce vita that is the myth? 

I have no doubt that there are some unhappy, resentful people in Italy and France but, as I've mentioned elsewhere, practically all of my Italian pen-pals seem gregarious and at least relatively content with their lives.  True, when one is writing to a stranger in a language that is not familiar enough to him to express a lot of complex thoughts, he's apt to try to put his best foot forward, but it seems to me that Italians (other cultures also, but maybe not quite as much in some cases) do have a special reverence for life--in all it's beauty and in all its sorrows and disappointments.  After all, it's better than the alternative, death, non è vero?

In the meantime, I continue to try to feel as at home with Italian as I do with French.  When I'm listening to or speaking French, I don't have to think about the words so much--they just sort of come naturally and they feel more like they are coming from me.  I'm still at the stage with Italian that I have to grasp for words to express even the simplest things.  The words seem to be 'out there,' instead of within me.  In some ways perhaps this is good.  I think that like everything else, language loses some of its freshness and novelty when we get to the point where we are no longer conscious of the words and sounds themselves.  I wouldn't want that to happen to my Italian.  What originally attracted me to it was its musicality and beauty.  May that appreciation never fade.  Below is a nice Italian song, Nel blu di pinto di blu or, as we English-speakers know it, Volare.  May we all feel so happy that it feels like we're flying through the day. 

A presto...

Calling All Italians: Report to My House, Adesso

Buongiorgo, signori e signore, ragazzi e ragazze.  E 'così bello vedere di nuovo. It is never a drudge to write a daily post on this blog, because it gives me a chance to write and think in Italian.  Benvenuto!

I try not to think about it, i.e., how I might use my Italian, rudimentary as it may be, when just writing and listening to it are not enough.  It is times like these when I wonder if I'm not making a mistake not learning Spanish instead; the United States has an enormous Spanish-speaking population and I live in a state where Spanish is a vibrant second language.  Also, Mexico neighbors the country.  Finding French speakers would be a little more challenging; Haiti comes to mind and then there's Canada, which is so far away from where I live in the States, that it had just as well be France. But finding Italians in North America is not that easy.

But the fact remains (and I have to constantly remind myself of this, otherwise I find myself becoming a jack of all languages and a master of none, to borrow and adjust the old adage) that, though Spanish is useful and has qualities that I respect and admire, and even though I have the advantage of years of study in French, Italian seems to be the one that ha conquistato il mio cuore, captured my heart.  Yes, like a conquistadore, Italian has discovered and conquered my heart.   So, as for if or how I'll make contact with Italian speakers later on, well, I'll have to cross quel ponte when I get to it.  Perhaps there are ways to connect to Italian expatriates here in the U.S.  I'd love to go to Italy, but first, I don't have the funds to visit and second, I don't usually enjoy just touring a country--I'm selfish, I want to live there and get the full experience, both good and bad.

Nice skirt, no?

But to shift gears back to the main purpose of this blog, to talk about learning Italian, as I continue to study foreign languages, it strikes me that one of the hardest things about expressing oneself in the target language is the fact that it's usually almost impossible to express a thought in Italian the exact same way you'd express it in English.  I see this all the time when my Italian pen-pals write to me in English.  They have shuffled the words in a sentence or used some preposition pronoun is a way that would not be used in English.  Often I have to mentally unscramble a sentence in order to get the gist of it.  For this very reason, even though a lot of language authorities disagree, I think it is almost obligatory to spend as much time, if not more time, learning entire phrases as memorizing isolated words.  Often I find myself having an English construction in my mind while I'm trying to express something in Italian, and when it finally comes out of my mouth, I sense very strongly that that is just not the way an Italian would say it.  Yes, vocabulary lists are essential when just beginning to learn a language (when we were babies, we first learned the words daddy or mommy before we learned 'Where's daddy?), but very soon in the process, we need to start thinking in full phrases, sentences, and expressions.  Otherwise, we're going to sound like a bambino.  Still, it's surprising how well you can make yourself understood by using a single word:  Piazza? for 'Where is the piazza?'  'Mangiare?' for 'Do you want to eat?'  This baby-talk, along with a plethora of physical gestures (just make sure you're not using a gesture that has a completely different meaning to Italians!) might work in a pinch.  Capisce?  

A presto...

Must I Spoon-feed you? New RSS Feeds for Learning Italian

As observant readers may have noticed, I've added some RSS feeds in the side panel of my blog.  One provides a new Italian vocabulary word with a short definition, changed every day.  Another one is an automatically updated feed from a language learning video set called Coffee Break Italian.  I've sampled a view of these brief podcasts, which consist of short, fairly easy Italian conversations, and find them helpful for beginning Italian learners.  They're probably not challenging enough for intermediate or advanced learners.  The third feed is just some Italian food articles for fun. 

Sample Marco's Charming Technique of Learning Italian

I'd also like to mention another interesting beginning Italian resource I discovered on YouTube.  It's Marco Nesida's Italian Course.  Go to https://www.youtube.com/ and enter a search for Marco Nesida.  There are several versions of the course, many geared toward Spanish-speaking learners, so be sure to find one for English speakers.  I've showcased a sample above. What I personally find endearing about Nesida's videos is their positive, encouraging attitude and tone.  If Marco does not truly love people, then he's doing a great job of making me think so.  This is not surprising, because he is a professional motivational speaker in Italy.   I also like the fact that his English is far from perfect.  It gives the course a very human aspect--we sympathize with his mispronounced words and incorrect stresses (he pronounces 'practice' as pract-ICE (with a long ''I' as in ice cream).  It sounds charming, and he does gently apologize for his mistakes.  It sort of makes it feel like we're all in this together.  Indeed, one Italian sentence he teaches is La vita è un dono (Life is a gift.).  Again, he starts with very basic beginners' Italian and does a lot of repeating of the material in various speeds, but he just wants to make sure we learn to pronounce Italian correctly.  Italian sounds are deceptively similar to English ones, but there are subtle differences.  For example, he points out that English speakers often mispronounced the ever-popular word ciao.  It's almost 'chow,' but not quite--you can't ignore that 'i.'  It's more like Cheeow, but delivered so rapidly that the 'ee' sound is barely perceptible, but definitely there, almost rhyming with a cat's meow.   Before seeing this pointed out, I was pronouncing the word very close to 'chow.'  

So, it's always good to have a lot of varied resources to pump up our skills.  I'll always be on the lookout for more. 

Double Trouble

One thing that I like about Italian is that, even more than in Spanish, every letter is distinctly pronounced.  I think this is why that, even though my Italian vocabulary is miniscule at this point, I seem to understand TV show and movies in Italian better than in French or Spanish.  What I mean by that is that the few words that I do know are so clearly uttered that I catch almost all of them.  In other languages, even a lot of words that I'm thoroughly familiar with slip by me, because they seem slurred or tripped over by the speakers.

If there is one thing about Italian that leaves me wanting, I suppose it would be its complex system of pronouns and how so many of them have to be accompanied by the appropriate definite article (alle, della, dagli, etc.).  When I first ran into these as I was learning grammar, I thought I'd never get the hang of it.  Now, though, after lots of practice, they seem pretty manageable after all.  Still, a lot of thinking has to go on when deciding what gender and number the noun is, because if you're wrong all the modifiers will also be wrong.  It takes awhile before this becomes more automatic.

Somethings that people find hard about Italian seem to come fairly easy for me.  The double consonant, for example.  I don't find distinguishing the pronunciation of mamma really that hard.  It's just a matter of timing.  Also it give the word a unique rhythm that make it fun to pronounce.


Do you have favorite things about Italian?  Things you find especially difficult?



For your reading pleasure, a poem by Giacomo Leopardi, with English Translation, borrowed from Wikipedia:

L'infinito

Sempre caro mi fu quest’ermo colle,  
e questa siepe, che da tanta parte  
dell’ultimo orizzonte il guardo esclude.  
Ma sedendo e mirando, interminati  
spazi di là da quella, e sovrumani  
silenzi, e profondissima quïete  
io nel pensier mi fingo; ove per poco
il cor non si spaura. E come il vento  
odo stormir tra queste piante, io quello  
infinito silenzio a questa voce  
vo comparando: e mi sovvien l’eterno,  
e le morte stagioni, e la presente  
e viva, e il suon di lei. Così tra questa  
immensità s’annega il pensier mio:
e il naufragar m’è dolce in questo mare.


This lonely hill was always dear to me,  
and this hedgerow, which cuts off the view  
of so much of the last horizon.  
But sitting here and gazing, I can see  
beyond, in my mind’s eye, unending spaces,  
and superhuman silences, and depthless calm,  
till what I feel
is almost fear. And when I hear  
the wind stir in these branches, I begin  
comparing that endless stillness with this noise:  
and the eternal comes to mind,  
and the dead seasons, and the present l
iving one, and how it sounds.  
So my mind sinks in this immensity:  
and floundering is sweet in such a sea.
(translated by Jonathan Galassi)