While my own Italian is extremely [ahem] shaky (I can order, say hello, goodbye, and thank you, and ask where the bathroom is...that's about it!), I absolutely love to sit and listen to native speakers engrossed in conversation. Although I may only have a vague idea of what is being said, I often find myself completely absorbed by the conversation. The language is simply beautiful, pure poetry to my ears. It's so full of emotion and extremely fun to watch! Italians are very animated when speaking. Their gestures and facial expressions only add to the intrigue of the language. In the future, I hope to be able to speak Italian if not fluently then at least conversationally. For now, I am content to utter single words and phrases and relish the lingering feeling of la lingua on my tongue. (Currently, my favorite words to say are: tazza (cup), pesce (fish), and giocano (play)). Perhaps I need to do more Rosetta Stone, si?!
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4 comments:
Amber, I know exactly what you mean! I remember one afternoon my host mother in France took me and a friend to her sister's house. Her sister had two daughters about my age and we drank coffee and ate biscuits (cookies) and chatted the whole afternoon. While I didn't do much chatting, it was extremely entertaining to sit back and watch, particularly the two daughters, talk amongst themselves. Their enthusiasm, facial expressions, and gestures were absolutely beautiful! Maybe when you return we should take an Italian class together! That would be fun!... just an idea :-)
Love ya,
Kelsey
The linguistic relativity principle (also known as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis) is the idea that the varying cultural concepts and categories inherent in different languages affect the cognitive classification of the experienced world in such a way that speakers of different languages think and behave differently because of it.
Kelsey - I would LOVE to take an Italian class together! It really would be so much fun.
Maiki - that's really interesting. :)
Hey... I have so enjoyed your blog. I esp loved the coffee story,a story after my own heart!!!!I hope you savor every day so the time doesn't pass to quickly. Cheryl
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