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Gary’s TAC 2014: Spanish, Italian, French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| suzukaze Triglot Senior Member Italy bit.ly/1bGm459 Joined 4401 days ago 186 posts - 254 votes  Speaks: Italian*, English, Spanish Studies: German, French, Swedish, Japanese | Message 41 of 138 03 March 2014 at 7:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
It's good to hear your health is getting better!
I don't find it strange for a foreign to learn Italian, be it at university or privately. Sure, it may not be the most popular language out there but it's not a completely obscure language either. Maybe she was surprised because foreign people here in Italy usually struggle with the language while, I suppose, you don't. Or maybe she had never met someone learning Italian before...it can happen (I have yet to meet an Italian learner IRL). Still, she sounds weird...and IMHO a bit rude as well.
I adore Boris! It may be the only Italian show I enjoy watching, aside from Il Commissario Montalbano and a couple of other exceptions. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5006 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 42 of 138 04 March 2014 at 11:35am | IP Logged | |||||
It's true that it's one of the most popular languages to learn (language publishers talk about the "big four": French, Spanish, German, Italian) but Italian people still more often than not find it strange and ask things along the lines of "why the hell are you learning our useless language?". I do think that there's a huge gap between the number of people who want to learn Italian and those who actually do it, so while Italians are used to hearing people talk about how beautiful the language is and how they'd love to learn it, it's still rare to meet one who gets off their arse and makes the effort. I'm used to reactions like that where people are confused about my motives, but this one was different as it was instead the fact that I could speak it that confused her. Between years of trying to talk to the French and my experiences in Rome last year, I've dealt with more than my share of rude people and grown a fairly thick skin, but my impression this time really was that she was just genuinely confused (and indeed a bit strange!) as opposed to rude. My first reaction after she walked out the room was simply "what a strange person", nothing ruder :). As I say, after she had finally accepted the situation she was... I wouldn't go as far as friendly, but pleasant enough: she was including me in the conversation (while I've had many situations where people deliberately exclude me) and she said bye and nice to meet you to me when she left. Another part that I hadn't mentioned was that when we were initially speaking, she seemed to be having trouble understanding even the most basic questions I was asking her, like "di dove sei?", and another Italian who did understand was repeating them to her. But later, after the "acceptance", people were having a fairly heated and fast discussion on the dynamics of social interactions between partners versus friends versus strangers, and funnily enough she understood perfectly everything I had to say on that matter. Seems like a strange psychological thing, as if at first she didn't want to believe that I could speak Italian so her mind wouldn't allow her to understand. She also mentioned that she was quite unhappy with her English level and progress, so perhaps that made her resistant to accepting others' language learning success. ...Hey, my log may not be the most interesting or inspiring one on this site, but I think I'd be the winner for bizarre experiences with native speakers! Edited by garyb on 04 March 2014 at 11:38am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4421 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish | Message 43 of 138 04 March 2014 at 4:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think your log is great and really enjoy reading about your experiences, though I've mostly kept in the background and haven't really commented. I'm also glad you're feeling better. Winter is almost over...
There is probably a lot of synergy for you since you are studying three related languages, but of course the problem of interference is that much more, too. You definitely win the prize for dealing with odd reactions by native speakers :), but you keep on doing your thing and are even generous in assuming their intentions are basically good, even if their reactions are rude or even bizarre. You're doing more than your part to open people's minds, even if they are resisting it tooth and nail. Cheers. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5006 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 44 of 138 06 March 2014 at 12:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks for the feedback and encouragement BAnna! Yeah I'm very happy that winter is finishing. Maybe I need to move to a hotter country... although not one as hot as Italy or Spain, they're too much. France would be a good option if only I got on better with the people there ;).
I do indeed try to stay positive about people, as hard as it can be sometimes! The negative experiences can be a bit upsetting and some people's intentions are obviously not good (like the examples in the post about Rome I linked to), but I've also met lots of people who've been lovely and helpful. And the bad experiences do give you a thicker skin. There were a few points at the party I wrote about, like when I made mistakes or indeed with that strange girl, which probably would have upset me a year ago yet just didn't bother me much. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5006 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 45 of 138 13 March 2014 at 11:09am | IP Logged | |||||
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Recently I've had a few opportunities to practise Spanish, and my brain seems to finally be accepting that it's a language of its own and not some variation of Italian, in that I feel like I'm thinking in Spanish to some extent while I speak it rather than mentally translating. Let's not exaggerate, I'm still struggling with vocabulary and verbs, and things like para/por feel like a guessing game at times, but compared to a month ago I'm seeing massive improvements: I'm not having much trouble understanding most conversations, and I can speak about a decent variety of subjects. I'm fairly happy with my progress after just over two months, especially considering that these were two mostly awful months of being busy and ill and having little free time. I suppose it's proof that even a tiny bit of daily work can get you quite far after a while, at least at the beginner level. I'm on Assimil lesson 63 now, which I suppose is around two thirds. As soon as I finish Assimil or otherwise free up some time I'll start going to some Spanish meetups. There's one every Wednesday so I could probably go every other week since the French one is once every two weeks.
My French level is still all over the place, which I suspect is a lot to do with my sleeping pattern also being all over the place. I'm still getting the usual feedback from native speakers which generally comes down to "your French is great apart from your accent". I'd like to start doing accent work again for that and Italian if/when I ever find the time. Again once Spanish Assimil is done I might have a bit more flexibility. I'm also hoping to get time to do last and this month's Italian team challenges at some point. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5006 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 46 of 138 19 March 2014 at 11:45am | IP Logged | |||||
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Multilingual update because as always I don't do anywhere near enough writing.
Speaking: El sábado pasado fui a la universidad. Al principio hablaba francés, luego un chico me invitó a hablar Italiano a otra mesa. Pero después de unas frases Italianas todo el mundo hablaba inglés, y había una chica que hablaba Italiano pero se veía que ella no quería hablar con nosotros: sacó un portátil y se puso los auriculares. Es difícil encontrar gente seria... Más tarde llegaron unos españoles y una amiga Italiana; así pude hablar esas idiomas. Y el lunes por la noche fui al "Café", hablé francés y español pero fue difícil porqué estaba cansado. Reading: J'ai fini de lire Les fleurs du mal ( livre intéressant mais, comme je l'ai dit, pas très utile pour améliorer son français parlé ) et Uno, nessuno e centomila ( ce que j'ai bien aimé au début mais vers la fin je m'en désintéressais ). N'ayant rien trouvé de mieux, j'ai opté pour Harry Potter et la chambre de secrets, ayant déjà lu le premier livre en français il y a quelque temps. Mais il y a une raison pour la popularité de la série parmi ceux qui apprennent les langues : beaucoup de vocabulaire et d'expressions quotidiens ( sauf les trucs sur la magie, bien entendu ! ), une histoire captivante, et on l'a presque tous déjà lu dans notre langue maternelle et connaît déjà l'intrigue. Même si pour moi ça fait si longtemps que j'ai presque tout oublié. Et en italien aussi j'ai envie de quelque chose de moderne et je vais ainsi commencer Ti prendo e ti porto via. Writing: Per la sfida di queste mese della squadra Italiana, cioè di scrivere qualche frase allo scopo di esercitare un punto grammaticale, vorrei provare il passato remoto. A differenza dello spagnolo, quello tempo non si usa spesso nell'italiano parlato, però non è neanche come l'equivalente francese di cui non ci si serve quasi mai; è usato solo quando si parla delle cose accadute molto tempo fa. Per esempio parlavo della scuola, ho detto "la professoressa ci ha chiesto..." e il mio interlocutore mi ha detto che sarebbe stato meglio dire "la professoressa ci chiese". Ultimamente mi ritrovo sempre più spesso a parlare del passato... magari questo vuol dire che le miei conversazioni diventano più profonde e interessanti, invece di trattarsi sempre del presente e del passato prossimo ;)! Un paio di settimane fa parlavo della famiglia: cose che "mio padre mi disse" e quando "i miei si sposarono." Comunque riconosco e comprendo bene il passato remoto, avendo letto parecchi libri, ma non riesco ad usarlo bene e per questo ho pensato ad esercitarlo scrivendo e parlando. Edited by garyb on 19 March 2014 at 11:58am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5331 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 47 of 138 19 March 2014 at 12:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
À l'avenir, si tu cherches un équivalent italien à Harry Potter, je trouve que la version française de Cronache del Mondo Emerso est assez passionnante, mais un peu plus sombre que Harry Potter. Après tout, il y a une guerre dans ce livre, et les personnages principaux sont un peu plus âgés, donc il n'y a pas d'« apprentis sorciers tous mignons » qui se trouvent dans les premiers tomes de Harry Potter. Apparemment c'est un livre bien connus chez les adolescentes françaises. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5006 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 48 of 138 20 March 2014 at 10:57am | IP Logged | |||||
Merci, ça me paraît intéressant et les livres sont même disponibles pour Kindle sur Amazon UK. Peut-être que je vais essayer le premier tome après avoir terminé Ti prendo e ti porto via. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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