Lingua's 2019 Italian, Sicilian, Latin, German, Portuguese Log

[StringerBell]

Where did you find Cornelia? I think I may have found it available on archive.org, but I'm wondering if there's another source. It sounds like a good graded reader.

[lavengro]

I started the edX course Dialetti in Italia. edX seems to have changed their structure because I either need to pay $60 for the course or I need to complete it by Nov 9th (or it will be gone forever) so I'm compelled to get through this quickly. So far the course is about dialects in general and has many links to various dialect sources. The videos in this course are short (7-8 minutes).

Hi lingua,

For what it may be worth, I have gotten a similar message in relation to another of the edX courses, Italian Language and Culture. It turned out to a bluff: when I did not have an opportunity of completing by the drop-dead date, I just enrolled again in the same course, at which time I received another "thou shalt complete by such-and-such date or be doomed forever" with another date a couple of months down the road. I can't say for sure that this would be the case for the Dialetti in Italia course, but I bet it likely is.

[lingua]

dampingwire, I only took part of the Latin course on uninettuno. I had no problem with the course content. It was the interface that I found lacking but I have been spoiled by edX who I always thought did a good job with how they organized the courses.

StringerBell, yes I got the copy of Cornelia from the archive.org (there was a link to it from another source).

lavengro, thanks for that information. I know the non-profit moocs have concerns about the number of people who start a course but don't finish it so it may be they are trying different things to increase the completion rate.

[lingua]

Book #65: La pasta fresca e ripiena: tecniche, ricette e storia di un'arte antica by Roberta Schira. The cover of this book makes me want to make ravioli. This book was divided into roughly three parts: history of pasta, pasta recipes by region and 50 modern pasta recipes. Most of the recipes by region have been around for 100s of years and many of them had titles in dialect and for some ingredients or pasta shapes. At times I wasn't sure what they were but after each region I went and looked up each recipe to see what they looked like. In each regional section she had a separate sauces and condiments section that discussed those typically used in that region although there is some regional overlap for regions next to each other. There are over 250 recipes in this book of pasta with sauces, filled pastas that are lightly dressed or in soup and a few baked pasta dishes. This book could have benefited from some pictures. The only photo is the cover and a couple of pages of line drawings of pasta shapes. At the end there was a small chapter about combining wine with pasta by Davide Oltolini (who I've come across in some of my podcasts). All and all a very informative book that I will be referring to in the future when making fresh pasta dishes.

cover_pasta_fresca.jpg

65 actual books = 257 SC books

[lingua]

Italian:
Reading: Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (translation by Giorgio Amitrano): 72%
edX: Dialetti in Italia: Lesson 2 (Unit 2), Lesson 3 (Unit 1-2), Lesson 4 (Unit 1)
italki: Two 60 minute sessions
Decks: Averaged about 17 mins per day
Clozemaster: New: 100 & Reviewed: 163 sentences (text input)

Since I just finished the pasta book this morning I loaded up Il pranzo di Mosè by Simonetta Agnello Hornby on the iPad so it's ready to go. This book is related to the series I started a couple weeks ago but haven't gotten back to yet. I have always been iffy on whether I wanted to read this author or not so this is a test.

One of the things my favorite italki teacher told me today was that when I speak too fast (as I did last week) I stop pronouncing my vowels and my accent becomes hard to understand. She says she can understand me because she's used to me but others would have trouble so today I made an effort to speak more slowly and make sure I pronounced every letter. She said I was much improved by the end of the session. This is good feedback for me and I will try a lot harder to stay focused on my pronunciation in the future. Probably should get back to my recording while reading because it helps.


Latin:
Decks: Averaged about 12 mins per day
Clozemaster: New: 0 & Reviewed: 415 (multiple choice)
Reading: Cornelia by Mima Maxey: Chapters III-V

For each reading session of Cornelia, I'm rereading the single page chapter I completed the prior session. So III-IV have been read twice. Already V is slightly more difficult but I understand it. This book has a dictionary of sorts at the back of the book so I printed it off since I'm reading in PDF format and don't want to keep switching back and forth. I try to figure out what any new words mean before looking them up. I know this way of learning is supposed to be effective but the story is a little boring too so my sessions are short.

I still have nearly 4000 Latin reviews on Clozemaster so I won't be adding any new sentences until I'm down to about 100.



Sicilian:
Decks: Averaged about 5 minutes per day
Textbook: Introduction to Sicilian Grammar: (nothing this week)
Textbook: Learn Sicilian / Mparamu lu sicilianu: (nothing this week)

Slow week for Sicilian even though it's a higher priority than Latin.

This upcoming week I'll be busy with a home improvement project so I probably won't do more than my 30 minutes a day of reading for most of it.

[marie39]

Book #65: La pasta fresca e ripiena: tecniche, ricette e storia di un'arte antica by Roberta Schira. The cover of this book makes me want to make ravioli. This book was divided into roughly three parts: history of pasta, pasta recipes by region and 50 modern pasta recipes. Most of the recipes by region have been around for 100s of years and many of them had titles in dialect and for some ingredients or pasta shapes. At times I wasn't sure what they were but after each region I went and looked up each recipe to see what they looked like. In each regional section she had a separate sauces and condiments section that discussed those typically used in that region although there is some regional overlap for regions next to each other. There are over 250 recipes in this book of pasta with sauces, filled pastas that are lightly dressed or in soup and a few baked pasta dishes. This book could have benefited from some pictures. The only photo is the cover and a couple of pages of line drawings of pasta shapes. At the end there was a small chapter about combining wine with pasta by Davide Oltolini (who I've come across in some of my podcasts). All and all a very informative book that I will be referring to in the future when making fresh pasta dishes.

cover_pasta_fresca.jpg

65 actual books = 257 SC books

That cover is making me crave pasta right now! I just want to say that I appreciate your log because I've added some books to my wishlist based on this log.

[StringerBell]

Lingua, I have 2 ravioli questions for you, since you just finished that book.

1) Do they mention ravioli alla Bergamasca? I had them in a Bergamo restaurant once, and while I remember them being extraordinary, I can't remember what was inside.

2) Is there mention of ravioli with prosciutto crudo and parmigiano as the filling? My husband's family makes this with butter and sage as the sauce. I've always wondering if this is an actual regional dish from somewhere, like Parma or Modena, or if this was just something his grandfather came up with (he was a chef who lived in many different parts of Italy).

[lingua]

1) Do they mention ravioli alla Bergamasca? I had them in a Bergamo restaurant once, and while I remember them being extraordinary, I can't remember what was inside.

Nothing with that name. In the Lombardia section there was a type of ravioli called Scarpinocc which is known in Bergamasco and the comune di Parre. If you do a search of scaprinocc you'll see the shape is a little different then what we typically see in the US. What filling was in your ravioli. There are others in this region but nothing else specific to Bergamasca.

2) Is there mention of ravioli with prosciutto crudo and parmigiano as the filling? My husband's family makes this with butter and sage as the sauce. I've always wondering if this is an actual regional dish from somewhere, like Parma or Modena, or if this was just something his grandfather came up with (he was a chef who lived in many different parts of Italy).

The only one I saw with prosciutto crudo and parm as a filling was for tortellini and it was in the Veneto region. I searched for anything with butter and sage but they had no prosciutto filling.

[lingua]

Book #66: Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (translation by Giorgio Amitrano). This book was 65% Kitchen and then followed up with a shorter story called Moonlight Shadow (which can be purchased separately). I thought it was odd that the book was translated into Italian but kept the titles as English. Both of these stories are about death (and overcoming it), kitchen and family even when the members may not be biological.

kitchen.jpg

Book #67: Rien ne va plus by Antonoio Manzini. I decided to come back to Schiavone this past week. I was dreading it because of events in the last book. Half way through I thought this was going to end the series but things turned around so I'm hoping there will be another book next year. This was a continuation of the case in the prior book that didn't have a completely satisfying conclusion from the perspective of Schiavone.

reinnevaplus.jpg

[lingua]

Book #68: Il pranzo di Mosè by Simonetta Agnello Hornby. I decided to read this since I started watching the series a few weeks ago. The book is in three parts. The first is about the land and farmhouse that is Mosè. It's been in the family for five generations though it was occupied for a period of time during WW2 where parts were destroyed and then rebuilt. The second part was more about the hospitality the family provided to friends, family and even tourists; how to be good hosts; setting of the table and such. The third part included menus where she discussed the components of the food, serving, variations, etc. Recipes were included at the end. The author grew up in Palermo but spent many summers at the farmhouse. She moved to London when she married Hornby and became a lawyer representing children. She's written both novels and food related non-fiction. Her style of writing took some getting used to. At first I was having trouble with both the style and also encountering a lot of unknown words but eventually I got into the rhythm of it and will try another book by her now.

ilpranzodimose.jpg