The Language
Please tell me I’m not the only one who wants to pull their hair out after trying to learn the Italian language. I thought I would easily pick up the language since I live here in Italy and am constantly surrounded by it. Well think again Erin! It’s like doing mental acrobatics. I suppose it’s not absolutely necessary for me to learn the language since we’re planning on returning to America but I would really like to. I want to have conversations with my husbands family that don’t leave them thinking I’m a complete moron. As it is, they are going strictly on his assurances that I can, in fact, construct an entire sentence, albeit in English. I’m not only in the land of the language but sitting next to me right this second are a variety of Italian language paraphernalia. Let me list them for you: Living Language-Italian Language, The Complete Course-For Beginners (which includes 4 CDs, a course book with 40 lessons and an Italian to English dictionary); 3 DVDs burned by my loving husband which each contain a plethora of audio, reading/writing and metal exercises; now my favorite…Living Language-30 Days to Great Italian, yeah right. The sad fact is that I’ve had all of these things for months. I place them all around me, gearing up to learn but then end up getting in front of my computer and reading gossip pages as if I were going to learn Italian through osmosis. Let me say now that I have serious difficulty when it comes to admitting my faults (I get some credit for admitting THAT though, right?), but I know that my lack of Italian is entirely my doing. I have successfully burrowed in and surrounded myself with everything English. My husband and I speak English only, we watch movies in English and I read English books and magazines. We tried speaking Italian in the beginning and he realized early on that correcting me was just going to cause pain…for him. I wanted to do everything perfectly and if I couldn’t do that, well I just didn’t continue with it. I’ve had to learn some humility since then. It took FOREVER. I’m one stubborn son of a….gun.
Now I’ve dedicated myself to learning this Italian even if it kills me. I’m mispronouncing everything, my grammar is horrific, and I can’t spell at even a child’s level but I’m loving it! I feel as if I’m freeing myself and, in very real terms, I AM. It’s an awful feeling to have so much that you’d like to communicate but can’t, to see everyone else laughing hysterically at the dinner table and you have no idea what’s so funny, to know you’re newly acquired family members can’t share with you their joy, excitement, fear or pain. So I’ve tossed out all that ignorant baggage I was carrying and am now ready to be “in the know”!
My husband and I are speaking more and more Italian with each other and I am a great deal more receptive to his corrections. I’m actually pretty lucky to have him as my teacher as he’s a very eloquent speaker of his language…so they tell me. So here I am you big ITALIAN LANGUAGE and I’m not scared of you anymore! I’m swimming in lessons of every form and know plenty of Italians who are up for some conversation.
If you are having a hard time with this language yourself, please keep your chin up. I let myself feel embarrassed, stupid and angry for making mistakes when speaking and it had a profound effect on how I presented myself, not to mention my self-esteem. I see now how there are some people who emigrate to America and never learn the language, basically sticking to a cultural specific neighborhood of a city. It’s the comfort, the familiarity. Let me just say that you can learn Italian, I know you can. You’re probably doing much better than you realize. If you’d like to practice, write to me. We can exchange half understood and poorly written emails…just joking.
Now I’ve dedicated myself to learning this Italian even if it kills me. I’m mispronouncing everything, my grammar is horrific, and I can’t spell at even a child’s level but I’m loving it! I feel as if I’m freeing myself and, in very real terms, I AM. It’s an awful feeling to have so much that you’d like to communicate but can’t, to see everyone else laughing hysterically at the dinner table and you have no idea what’s so funny, to know you’re newly acquired family members can’t share with you their joy, excitement, fear or pain. So I’ve tossed out all that ignorant baggage I was carrying and am now ready to be “in the know”!
My husband and I are speaking more and more Italian with each other and I am a great deal more receptive to his corrections. I’m actually pretty lucky to have him as my teacher as he’s a very eloquent speaker of his language…so they tell me. So here I am you big ITALIAN LANGUAGE and I’m not scared of you anymore! I’m swimming in lessons of every form and know plenty of Italians who are up for some conversation.
If you are having a hard time with this language yourself, please keep your chin up. I let myself feel embarrassed, stupid and angry for making mistakes when speaking and it had a profound effect on how I presented myself, not to mention my self-esteem. I see now how there are some people who emigrate to America and never learn the language, basically sticking to a cultural specific neighborhood of a city. It’s the comfort, the familiarity. Let me just say that you can learn Italian, I know you can. You’re probably doing much better than you realize. If you’d like to practice, write to me. We can exchange half understood and poorly written emails…just joking.