Class: Conversational Italian
Something happened to my brain last week, something I’m calling “zucchero.” I attended my first Italian class and THAT, my friends, opened the floodgate for some language learnin’.
One of my favorite things about this class is that my classmates and I are getting to know each other. We know who is masculine and feminine. We know each others’ names. We know from where everyone is where everyone is from. We know how everyone is doing (mostly “cosi cosi” because it’s fun to say). With each time we ask one another these things, I am more convinced that I have run into a good friend on Via Condotti.
For those of you who are cringing at memories of Spanish or French classes from junior high or high school, I have to tell you that the experience is different as a consenting language learner. Namely, you intentionally care about the class because you’ve chosen to take it. The other interesting change is that you worry less about being embarrassed, you ask questions, you encourage others, and you try to get the language right. For those of you who were excited to learn another language in high school or at university, then the thrill is like that but magnified. Plus, this class is Italian, one of the most fun languages to speak.
My Lifelong Learning classmates have different reasons for wanting to learn Italian. A few are going to Italy with the University of Utah’s Go Learn travel program (our teacher, Giuliana, is leading the trip) or are planning a trip there on their own. Some just love the language and may travel to Italy in the future.
I’m in the category of people who like foreign languages, but I seriously went nuts about learning Italian. My brain said gimmegimmegimme so I indulged it with, oh, maybe 25 hours of self-prescribed homework. Uh, I never would have done that in junior high.
We’re only into a few sessions of the course, but once I’ve improved my writing ability I will post something for you in Italian. Then you can plop it into an online translator and see what nonsense comes up!