Tag: italian

Rugby, Butcher Shops, and Wine Growlers

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Medieval Rugby guard

In case there was any doubt, I’m really enjoying this trip. Every day I have a new adventure, some big some small. On Tuesday I had three adventures in the same day. (So maybe I’m having trouble staying on a publishing schedule…)

Here were my adventures:

  • Calcio Storico – traditional Italian rugby-style football
  • Macellaio – visit to the butcher shop
  • Wine growlers – refillable bottles to protect the environment and enable alcoholism

Italian Medieval Rugby Continue Reading →

Language Log – Italian

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LHG_Cover

I’m counting this as my first entry in my Italian Language Log. The first step is to state my goal for the language. I want to be able to:

  1. Communicate in Italian about errands in daily life: shopping, dining, transportation, lodging, banking, internet, etc.
  2. Tell my favorite stories and answer questions
  3. Tell jokes
  4. Get to know people: where they are from, what they do, what they like, where they travel
  5. Be playful
  6. Carry on a conversation for 15 minutes

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Italian Language Eccentricities

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No actual meat

Mmm…Chocolate Salami

 

What fascinates me about languages is the complete differentness of them all. As the great linguist Steve Martin once said about the French, “They have a different word for everything!” I have a collector personality, so I want one of each of them. (“Get your first foreign language today, collect all 7,000!”). 1

Highlights (for those who don’t feel like reading the whole thing):

  • Italian doesn’t use the letter s to make things plural.
  • The s is used at the front of a word to mean the opposite.
  • There are 7 ways to say “the.” Seven!
  • Google is working on a brain USB port

It’s not a secret that I’m fluent in French, pretty good in Spanish, and have dabbled in Portuguese, Italian, German, Greek, Turkish, Bengali, and Fon. (Yeah, that last one is a real language, spoken by about 2 million people in Africa and 25 returned peace corps volunteers when they’ve had too much to drink and start to reminisce about showing up at an African market and freaking out the locals with their authentic accents.) 2

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