Ciao amici!
I'll be honest and say that my motivation to continue in my learning was lacking these past few weeks - I think I pressured myself to do too much in a very limited amount of time and eventually this made me so stressed out I needed to step back and look at the bigger picture and the goals that I originally set out to achieve. I'm not going to be fluent in Italian by the end of this project. That was never my goal, and I think in recognizing that, I've found a kind of freedom to learn whatever I want. I never set out to communicate with a penpal, either, but in finding one, I've gained not only a new friend but insight into the similarities and differences of the Italian language and culture that I could never realize on my own.
That being said, things with Sara are working out great. We've chosen to write in an alternating Italian/English fashion, so I'll write a letter in Italian and she'll write back in Italian, and then we'll write in English and so on. I've learned a lot about her - she likes to read some of the books we have here in America, like Paper Towns and The Book Thief. We share similar interests - photography and writing - and I follow her blog on Tumblr where she posts some interesting stuff.
I'd love to be able to communicate with Sara through physical letters and postcards and things. The shipping to and from Italy may be expensive, but it would be great to be able to send each other little things back and forth in the mail - it makes the experience a lot more real and tangible. I'm not sure if Sara wants me to include her letters on this blog, so I'll only include my responses in Italian. I found it helpful while writing to look at my Italian guidebooks for proper sentence structure and some prompts on what to say. This was my first real attempt in writing entirely in Italian and I often found it difficult to get my true meaning across in another language, something that I think can only be made better through time and practice.
il 22 febbraio -
Mi chiamo Sarah. Io sono americana e studio l'italiano e tedesco. Faccio lo studente e studio in una scuola in Pennsylvania! Di dove sei? Sono di Pennsylvania. Io voglio viaggiare all'estero. Ho una sorella e lei è più giovane. Mi piace la fotografia e la lettura :~) Cosa ti piace fare?
Mi fa piacere conoscerti!I tried to introduce myself as best as I could using some of the phrases in my books. Sara sent back a response in Italian, and I replied in English. Here is my Italian response sent a few days later:
il 24 febbraio -
Sì, lunedì a venerdì sono a scuola. Ho le fotografia lezione il lunedy. Mi piace l'arte e scrivere. Non mi piace la matematica. Quale materia preferisci?In this letter, I practiced talking about some of my preferences to school subjects and weather and mentioned my birthday. She answered some of my questions I had about her writing, and I learned how to form contractions in Italian without even realizing it. It's been really fun getting to know Sara and I hope as I learn more and more Italian we can have more detailed conversations!
Sono eccitato! Fra poco è il mio compleanno. Il mio compleanno è 22 Marzo. Sarò 15 anni. Quand'è il tuo compleanno?La mia stagione preferita è primavera. In inverno è molto freddo. Nevica molto qui. Qual è la tua stagione preferita?
I set a goal to begin journaling this week, and I think this has helped me apply some of the vocabulary and usage I've been learning through my books and Duolingo.
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| An excerpt from one of my journal entries this week |
One thing that has been difficult for me is pronunciation. This, again, is a skill that only gets better with exposure and time. It's hard to manage the correct pronunciation when you are reading or speaking from a written text. So I began to look for other resources where I could find native speakers pronouncing words that I was unsure of, and I found Forvo.
Forvo is a website that I had been unaware of until a few days ago when looking for the correct way to pronounce camera, the Italian word for bedroom. I browsed a few search results which eventually led me to this website - the holy grail of pronunciation. I tried it out for a few more words and fell in love. I found at least one recording of a native speaker pronouncing each word I typed in. From now on, I think this will serve as my bank of total Italian pronunciation knowledge - at least until I come to a word that is not on the website, in which case, more aimless googling will have to do.
On a totally unrelated note, I went out for pizza with my family last Saturday and noticed the posters on the walls were old Italian movie posters - and crazier still, I could recognize a few of the words. I was able to point out to my dad words like "girl" and "tiger" and I realized that though I have a long way to go, I'm not as much of a beginner as I like to think. I completely forgot to take pictures of the posters but if you go to Palermo's you'll find them in the back seating area. :~)
On another completely unrelated note, I've grown to love Italian music, specifically old, rustic, 'classic' Italian music. I've found a lot of playlists on 8tracks, possibly one of my favorite websites for music, that I'd like to share with you all. I'll insert some of them below for your listening enjoyment.
Sarah, I just stared following your blog and find your topic rather interesting! I think Sara sounds lovely and this communication will definitely help your Italian skills. I too listen to music in Italian and I admire the language. You should listen to some of Josh Groban's music because he is one of my favorites. I can't wait to see your progress!!
ReplyDeleteSarah, your project looks so cool!! I am so excited to see the end result! Italian is such an interesting language, and you look like you're having tons of fun! I love how through the pen pal aspect of your project, you not only get to learn how to do something new and work towards a goal, but you get to interact with different people as well! Your project is so exciting, I can't wait for your TED Talk!
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