I'm not quite ready to let go of Italy, so I'm taking a Conversational Italian class. Tonight I sharpened my pencils, packed a notebook and headed to my first of six, three-hour long classes.
I haven't been back in a classroom since graduating college in 2000. The teacher is an older Italian from Naples. He's spunky and animated and reminds me of my Italian grandfather. There are about 15 of us in the class, which is a good size. We took turns learning how to talk about ourselves (our names, our hobbies, our favorite foods). There are some folks who already speak other languages and there are some who sound as white as white can be. And as with every class, there's the "obnoxious" student, the one who thinks they know everything and are better than the rest of the class. Thankfully it's just one, for now.
Italian is such a beautiful language. It's much more pleasing to my ears than Spanish, which I studied off and on through high school and college.
The only problem with learning more about the language is that I'll want to go back even sooner. And Brent and I already made a pact to visit lots of other countries before going back. We'll just have to make our little condo our own Little Italy.
(Anyone recognize the title of my post?)
"It's a strange world of language in which skating on thin ice can get you into hot water." - Franklin P. Jones
Grease 2!
ReplyDeleteNow let me go hide because I'm so ashamed.
Oh my lord, I wanted to be the first one to post that the title comes from the most awesome sequel ever- GREASE 2! Hilary, don't be so ashamed, I own the DVD and Soundtrack! I'll just hop on a motorcycle, with a cool rider, and head to the bowling alley. :)
ReplyDeletejim and i have the same pact... and yet i think about breaking it all the time ;)
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic idea. Teach us some of the good stuff as you learn!
ReplyDeletelucky girl!
ReplyDeletei always wanted to do that...can't wait to hear you speak italian =)
oh that sounds like so much fun, i've always been tempted to take italian since i took spanish in high school and it's kind of similar right? that and i just realllly want to go to italy.
ReplyDeleteFeels strange to get back into the classroom, doesn't it? Awesome that you're taking Italian and I can't wait to be learned by you on some of the key phrases. ;)
ReplyDeletethat's awesome! i always thought it would be fun to learn italian. it is such a beautiful language.
ReplyDeleteGood for you for being so motivated :) Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteHow cool to be taking italian lessons. It is such a beautiful language, I studied it for a short while in college when i was living in Florence, i have retained nothing! I am reading Eat, Pray, Love right now - and the woman in it goes to Italy, its pretty good, you may enjoy it :)
ReplyDeletethat's wonderful! i think you just gave me some inspiration...i think i shall sign up for school, too!
ReplyDeleteNanette,
ReplyDeleteYou should really go back to Italy right after you finish that class or you'll risk losing what you've learned. (At least you can try that with your husband!)
School is so much more enjoyable when you are taking a class that you want to take. You should post in Italian...just have the translation posted too for those of us white folks :) I had no idea where your blog title came from...I've never seen Grease 2 :(
ReplyDeleteFun! I think Italian sounds beautiful too, all the romance languages do and even Spanish. I don't particularly care for how German sounds though...
ReplyDeleteOMG!! That's Grease 2! It's sad that I know that! :)
ReplyDeleteI speak 3 languages (other than English), Russian, Serbian /Croatian and Bosnian. Once you learn one language, it's really easy to pick up another. Good luck in your Italian class.
that's so awesome. I would love to learn Italian....and I'm fluent in Spanish. I think the lanaguage is "Bellisima!"
ReplyDeleteHow fun! I was going to take an Italian class this semester since I get to take as many credits as I teach at my University for free, but I didn't end up having time. I hope you like the class. The only Italian I know is from Eat, Pray, Love. Attraversiamo!
ReplyDeletewas it me.. .or did I just hear the music to Grease someplace on this blog?
ReplyDeleteOh well, maybe I'm just imagining things!
i ABSOLUTELY recognize the title (although i'm late, as always)!
ReplyDeleteand now i've got it stuck in my head. :/