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| The next part of my Italian, hand gestures |
I've been hanging
out in Monfumo for about 2 months now so I thought I'd update you on
how my Italian is going. The short version is.... average. The long
version goes like this-
Now I can understand
what is being said as long as I know the context. Big statement.
Maybe it's better to say that I can figure out the theme of a
conversation if I have some relation to it. I couldn't go in to
someone else’s dining room and expect to know what is going on but
at dinner time here I can basically follow the conversation. If we
are watching a movie I can vaguely follow it. Here and there I will
understand whole sentences. Watching the news however, I am pretty
shit. They have pictures but the type of language they use is not the
sort that I am used to. Which brings me to...
My Italian is family
based! On holiday with Mum and Tom around Italy I still struggled. I
can get by in a restaurant or train station but I don't know words to
use in a hotel or really in a museum. The things I say regularly
involve eating dinner, getting dressed for school/bed and what
activities we are doing and when. Now that I know some words and
sentences it is hard to not use them with the kids, which is not what
I am here to do. I have to remind myself to speak English to them
because this is what they are supposed to be learning. Also I am used
to the accents of my family here. I think that that makes a
difference.
There is a big
difference between knowing sentences and actually knowing how the
grammar works and having the ability to create your own. For
instance. I do not know how to use past and future tense. All I know
is in the present. And I only just learnt that the 'Papa' that we use
to say 'pope' is actually said differently from the 'Papá'
for Dad. Until now I had thought they were the same word and that in
different contexts they meant different things. Not so.
I now have the
confidence to tell people that I don't speak Italian, in Italian.
However this generally turns into them telling me that my Italian is
great because I can say that one sentence with all the right accents.
Sometimes I even mix it up and tell them I only speak a little
Italian, just to keep myself on my toes. My aim when I go into a café
is always to get through the whole encounter without them realising
that I don't speak their language. I think I do pretty well but you
never know if they are just being kind to this girl because she is
obviously a bit special.
After writing this
up last night, Stefano, the father of the family, complimented me on
my increasing grasp of the language. He said he has noticed me start
reacting to the conversation around me and the movie s that we watch.
I was glad to hear that he could notice a difference but it also made
me think of how strange it must have seemed before, to have this
person at the dinner table not reacting to anything because she
didn't know what was being said. I still have that situation
sometimes. My most embarrassing place to be is the after school
activity one of the kids does. I sit in the waiting area with the
other mums and we watch kids waiting for their turn play in front of
us. The other mums all laugh when the kids say stupid things or look
knowingly at one and other, and then they look at me and I give an
awkward smile cause I have no idea what they are laughing at. I worry
that if Alessio started being rude or saying inappropriate stuff I
would just keep smiling at these mums with them thinking 'Why doesn't
she stop him?' so I try to spend as little time as possible there, to
the café!
New favourite word :
Ghiaccio – Ice. Pronounced 'ghee-ah-cho'
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