Ani's 2018 Log

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renaissancemedici
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Re: Ani's 2018 Log

Postby renaissancemedici » Sat Aug 18, 2018 2:23 pm

I do hope you get to go to Paris. You'll love it. Make sure you speak French all the time, even with mistakes. They generally appreciate foreigners speaking their language but if you meet the odd French person who gets upset with mistakes... keep upsetting them :mrgreen:
It's very satisfactory :lol: .
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Ani
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Re: Ani's 2018 Log

Postby Ani » Sat Aug 18, 2018 6:17 pm

renaissancemedici wrote:I do hope you get to go to Paris. You'll love it. Make sure you speak French all the time, even with mistakes. They generally appreciate foreigners speaking their language but if you meet the odd French person who gets upset with mistakes... keep upsetting them :mrgreen:
It's very satisfactory :lol: .


I'm trying really hard not to get over excited. If DH and I go, my mom has to agree to babysit and it will cost DH a week of flying (he's trying to get his pilot's license while he's on leave) and it might be emotionally complicated if I get a cool trip like that alone. I don't know.. Hopefully. It IS really cheap since we'll already be on the East coast. One of the downsides of living in Alaska is the ridiculous cost of coming and going. Once you're out, the world is far more accessable.
The last time we were in Paris was 12 years ago for our honeymoon and at the time, DH was the French speaker! Lol. He spoke enough to get around and chit chat a bit.. now he doesn't really speak any anymore. Maybe I could convince him to brush up?
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Elenia
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Re: Ani's 2018 Log

Postby Elenia » Sat Aug 18, 2018 8:43 pm

I hope you get to go, and that the hubby brushes up! Might be worth trying to sell it to him as honeymoon 2.0? No kids, just the two of you? (plus friends...)
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Re: Ani's 2018 Log

Postby Ani » Sat Aug 18, 2018 9:57 pm

Elenia wrote:I hope you get to go, and that the hubby brushes up! Might be worth trying to sell it to him as honeymoon 2.0? No kids, just the two of you? (plus friends...)


We were planning a trip, at least loosely, before this for that reason. I wanted Iceland; he wanted Milan. Paris is way way better :) The last time we were child free was 5 years ago for a weekend wedding. We're long overdue.
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Re: Ani's 2018 Log

Postby Ani » Tue Aug 21, 2018 7:52 am

reineke wrote:
Ani wrote:
You know it doesn't feel much like reviving Italian as learning it from scratch. I don't know. There are just so many vowels. I remember next to nothing except that we dropped an awful lot of those vowels. I keep thinking I'll give it a proper shot soon because I'd like to be in good shape before next year's potential trip. I'm probably underestimating the task even still, thinking I can make a quick run of Assimil & watch a bunch of TV.
Given my poor performance with Russian, & flirting with Icelandic, what do you think I should do for Italian? I could just recklessly start now and try to juggle 3-4 languages.. or wait till after the Paris trip & start then?


I would only do French.

After that trip I would spend time listening to easy oral stuff. What you wrote about Italian sounds like a dialect: tranquìl, mangià, Signùr... That's close to a different language. Standard Italian has 5 vowels (or 7 vowel sounds taking into account open and closed pronunciation) and several easy diphthongs. Individual sounds are pronounced clearly. English has 12 vowels and 13 diphthongs and words are often slurred. Icelandic has 16 vowels and 11 diphthongs. French has 17 vowels etc. Lexically French is closest to Italian. You shouldn't have much trouble with Italian assuming you really want to learn it.



I'm going to reply over here so I can blabber without guilt :)

According to Wikipedia, I think the dialect would have been Irpino. No idea if that's right or not. Castlefranco is way up a mountain so I have no idea if the language is similar to the rest of benevento. We have family stories that may not be based on fact, saying that the Romans had conquered the entire rest of the empire before they conquered Castlefranco because of the defense of the mountain. Also.. well.. anyway :)

I have mixed feelings about learning Italian. Basically yes, but I'd rather learn my dialect or something close. When I posted the first thread a couple years ago people answered that it doesn't exist anymore but I'm not really sure that's true. Like my "cousin" from the village (who's probably only my 3rd cousin but roughly my age) speaks both dialect and standard Italian that she learned in school and mostly standard Italian. But the dialect exists.

I watched a ton of RAI in highschool since it was one of 3 channels I got with rabbit ears on my dorm room, and I understood it basically fine. Understood people all over Italy find too even after I decided to stop speaking, except maybe teenagers in Rome.

The only thing is really, I don't know what I'd do with Italian. It would be great if I go to Italy but besides that? I have no one to speak to. My grandma is 92 and again only speaks dialect.. if she can still manage (she's sharp buy not sure how interested).. waiters at Italian restaurants? Lol I don't think I've lost that vocab :) I don't even know if there are Italian books or media I'd be into .. but I guess I could look into that (or just ask Cavesa)..
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reineke
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Re: Ani's 2018 Log

Postby reineke » Tue Aug 21, 2018 2:19 pm

All the good stuff was on other channels. Did you go.to an American highschool in Italy? If you used the language on an everyday basis it is likely suppressed rather than forgotten. Your dialect is apparently a variant of Neapolitan.

I don't think Italian is terribly useful for small talk in the US but then again I remind myself that you're studying French, Icelandic and Russian. You also mentioned that you were not interested in Spanish.

Ani wrote:And nopity nope on Spanish

That pretty much kills that argument.

Your resume matches the job but you need to show some interest and initiative. Good luck.
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Re: Ani's 2018 Log

Postby Ani » Wed Aug 22, 2018 6:17 am

reineke wrote:All the good stuff was on other channels. Did you go.to an American highschool in Italy? If you used the language on an everyday basis it is likely suppressed rather than forgotten. Your dialect is apparently a variant of Neapolitan.

I don't think Italian is terribly useful for small talk in the US but then again I remind myself that you're studying French, Icelandic and Russian. You also mentioned that you were not interested in Spanish.

Ani wrote:And nopity nope on Spanish

That pretty much kills that argument.

Your resume matches the job but you need to show some interest and initiative. Good luck.



Oh no it was just boarding school in the US. I never used Italian on a daily basis and my passive skills were my only strength -- I could never use more than some household language. No idea why RAI was one of the three channels but the other two must have been awful because I don't recall them at all. I've never lived out of the US but I've been to Italy several times on family vacations, family weddings & school trips (Best the poor Latin students could do. If I had taken Spanish I could have gone to Cuba & Nicaragua)

I don't know how you remember everything I say but that's right about Spanish.. I guess I've never been friends with a mega brain floating in a tank before so I don't always know what to expect ;) Russian is actually really useful in Alaska, or at least it could be fun. It's the most commonly heard non-English language and there's no trouble finding speakers. I think my main reason trying to learn it is that I'll regret not trying while I had resources if I ever move out of Alaska, same as I regretted not learning French while I had so many friends/expat contacts.

I don't really want to abandon Russian but I just listened to a sample of the Harry Potter audio books in Italian on audible. Picked out about 40% of the words on first go. Would probably get a good bit higher with a little time. So tempting :)
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Re: Ani's 2018 Log

Postby Elenia » Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:07 pm

Ani wrote:I don't really want to abandon Russian but I just listened to a sample of the Harry Potter audio books in Italian on audible. Picked out about 40% of the words on first go. Would probably get a good bit higher with a little time. So tempting :)


I haven't led anyone astray in a very long time! Time to get back into the game...
Do it, Ani, doooo it!
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Re: Ani's 2018 Log

Postby Ani » Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:03 pm

Elenia wrote:
Ani wrote:I don't really want to abandon Russian but I just listened to a sample of the Harry Potter audio books in Italian on audible. Picked out about 40% of the words on first go. Would probably get a good bit higher with a little time. So tempting :)


I haven't led anyone astray in a very long time! Time to get back into the game...
Do it, Ani, doooo it!


It is such a slim volume of Assimil....
rsz_img_20180823_125520.jpg


It probably wouldn't be *that* big of a distraction.. right? This sweet little thing ....
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Re: Ani's 2018 Log

Postby rdearman » Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:12 pm

Ani wrote:It probably wouldn't be *that* big of a distraction.. right? This sweet little thing ....

No, it is just a little thing, will not distract you at all, no way would you be lead down the path to the rich and wonderful Italian culture... just do it!
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