While chatting on Teams with my friend from Texas this morning, he showed me the text below and asked how much Italian I could understand.
Both my friend and I love Italy, Italian art, Italian food, and anything relates to Italy. We've been learning its language a little, but we still can't speak it at all. Actually, my friend, Matt's Italian vocabulary is much better than mine, and I'm always a bit jealous of him. When it comes to comprehension, we are pretty much "the pot calling the kettle black" level.
The text first looked a puzzle to us, but to use full of our limited Italian knowledge, we tried to translate it into English (not Japanese). Matt told me that for English native speakers, or at least people who know English, it's easier to guess the meaning.
I think he's right because I can figure out some words' meaning such as appartamento (apartment) , compagnia (companion), famiglia (family), and Spagna (Spain).
I also have remembered some phrases like Mi chiamo..... (My name), Sono (I am), piccolo (little), vicino (near), il mio cane (my dog), and solo (alone). Thanks to those, I could read it a little bit. "My name is Giorgie. I'm 74 years old. I live in a little apartment near somewhere. My dog, Toby is my companion. My family lives in Spain.", but after that, I couldn't keep reading it because there were no more familiar words.
This experience motivated me to start learning Italian again. To be honest, I've never studied Italian as seriously as I do English, but now I'd like to put in a little more effort.
To built my vocabulary, I've started memorizing Italian in English to use a mind map.
Matt and I usually mix English and Japanese in our conversations, but if Italian joined them, it would be so much fun!
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Good luck with learning Italian, Yumi!
Bentornata nel mondo dell'italiano!
Title: "Going Back to Studying Italian"
Even though I know another romance language I couldn't understand the message nearly at all! Good luck learning Italian!
@Double-Zee Thank you for the comment! I will do my best!
@quassnoi Thank you for reading, correcting and commenting in Italian! Grazie!
@schmamie Thank you for encouraging! I think if you knew about Spanish not French, you would be able to understand the text.
Glad to hear your are learning Italian!
Thank you as always, Tim-san! @T-Newfields
You can do it, Yumi! Even if you speak a few words in Italian, you'll immediately be granted the title of honorary Italian! My only piece of advice would be to take a more passive approach to the language rather than using mind maps. But hey, if they work for you, then go ahead!
Lately I've been using the ALG method to learn a new language. Just for you, I found a YT channel that teaches Italian based on ALG principles. Here are two playlists for absolute beginners:
To get the most out of these videos, just sit back and let your subconscious mind absorb the input. Give it a go and let me know how it goes.
@Simone- Thank you so much for encouraging! I'll do my best! Haha, I really love your joke! It definitely motivate me!
Thank you so much for the advice and the YouTube links. After my friend returns, I'll start learning Italian with those. I'll let you know!
@Simone I watched the very first video tonight, and I really loved it! I especially love the cute illustrations! Thank you so much for sharing! I'd love to share it with my friend from Texas as well. I'll keep learning Italian via the videos!
I'm glad you like them!
Yes, thank you!!