I'm half-Mexican and grew up with Spanish. I'm not as strong as a speaker as I'd like to be, but I love the language and can understand it pretty well.
(Question: Would you be interested in exchanging recommendations/blurbs for our welcome pages? I've really enjoyed your newsletter. I completely understand if not! Just wanted to kindly ask.)
That's so great! I envy anyone who grew up with more than one language. I was so sad that my dad, who hadn't spoken Italian in probably ten years when my brother and I were born, couldn't pass it on to us. Equally sad was that of four children in my mom's family, only her older brother spoke the language, though my grandparents never stopped speaking it. So much loss!
(And yes, I'd be happy to blurb you and meant to do it sooner. Nag me if it doesn't happen next week.)
It is sad. My dad spoke to me early on, which is why I could speak, but then just kind of stopped. I'm not sure why. Too tedious? I wasn't receptive? He was trying to improve his English? Anyway, yeah. But I try not to knock myself too hard. There are many Mexican-Americans who speak no Spanish. I somewhat dislike when it's expected because I person is Brown or looks visibly Mexican. I also don't like when the elders shame the youngers for not speaking. I think all would agree that we wish we could speak Spanish, but living in America, this is what happened. So be it.
(This isn't a nag, but just a heads up that I left you a suggestion and blurb. Hope it's okay! I dearly love your Substack and posts, and hope others will find it and love it too. Bye!)
Yeah, people have all kinds of reasons for not making sure their children speak the language of their heritage, and none of them good, in my opinion. Some of them understandable, though.
Thanks so much for the lovely blurb and your support! I've just reciprocated.
In the "Which language is most beautiful?" debate, I'm going with French. There's something about listening to a native French speaker which I find mesmerizing. Second, oddly enough, would be Norwegian, which is probably more of a personal quirk and due to my experience in Norway than anything.
Italian and Sicilian were the background sounds of my childhood and youth. I understood a lot but my parents back in the '60s apparently wanted me to be an American kid. That didn't sit right with me--they had their own language to say what they didn't want us to know. So I learned the language as a form of rebellion or revenge. I felt I was taking what was owed me and which felt comfortable to me. After years of French in school, learning Italian was simple; it felt like repeating French but with easier pronunciation. Plus, it's more fun. I mean, who can not love saying "mozzafiato"? Plus, there's nothing like hearing that background Italian babble on a train or plane. It's a great soiundtrack, for me, good white noise.
To my ears, "Italian" (sort of the Tuscan dialect) is more conventionally pretty. Sicilian amuses me more, as does Roman, which cracks me up. I love watching YouTube videos like Max Mariola and Chef Ruben, who both do cooking videos with heavy Roman accents. Daje!
I'm not really a be-true-to-your-school kinda guy. Sicilian amuses me. I like that I can understand it and even pepper my Italian with Sicilian words every now and then.
Thank you so much. Your posts are really good, awesome actually.
My wife and I are retired and thinking about either moving to Italy permanently or for an extended period each year. I know this is out of your realm but I want to ask a couple questions. If you are too busy to respond, no problem, it’s a shot in the dark for me and I will continue to read your work regardless. I actually apologize for bothering you.
A little back ground. I am 70 and it good health. I am a retired CRNA. My wife is half Italian and is working on her dual citizenship. She is younger than me.
Questions:
1. We are looking into the 7% tax option, as far as residency is concerned. Did you do this or are there other options?
2. We have two small dogs that are part of our family 😊. Any experience moving pets to Italy?
Is it ok to ask you an occasional question?
This is post I wrote on Expat Exchange
Hello all,
I am struggling mightily to learn Italian. I"m sure its me and not the language, well pretty sure. I have studied Fluenz, taken small group classes at the Italian Cultural Center in our city, traveled to Genoa and attended "A Door to Italy" subscribed to Italy Made Easy and taken on line private lessons. Its been a struggle, off and on since 2015. My wife started when I did and promptly left me in the dust. My brain cells must be dead. Need to vent.
Things that I have found to be deadly to learning:
1. Gaps in studying. We had a health scare that became front and center for a while.
2. English is supposed to be a very difficult language to learn and I'm sure it is but when you have English as your native language, it is much harder to, I think, to learn other languages too. For example, if I spoke Spanish as my native tongue, I think Italian would be much easier to learn.
3. All rules have exceptions, and all exceptions have rules.
4. Pronunciation, pronunciation, pronunciation. I's are E's?
5. Learning by using grammar. I have to admit English in high school was a fun subject because of the novels we read but labeling different parts of sentence structure, ouch. who came up with this stuff?
My grandfather emigrated from Holland. He did not speak English like so many people who came through Ellis Island. Somehow he learned the language without knowing what an indirect object pronoun was, so maybe there is hope?? Thanks for reading
Thanks for all you do
Keep up the good work
My wife and I always excitedly ask each other if we saw your latest post when they come out.
Hi Tim, just a heads-up that Wednesday's letter is about pets in Italy, and it includes getting them here. As for the 7% tax option, I chose not to live in those areas, so it wasn't an option for me. As for the language, you have to stick with it (yes, gaps are bad). Italian isn't easy, but its pronunciation is —once you learn the sounds, every word is pronounced exactly as it's spelled. Some people do learn by imitation rather than understanding the grammar, but the people I know who did that went back to the grammar later, because they needed it. In bocca al lupo!
Tim, sure, I can answer a few questions, but let's take this conversation to email, ok? Assuming you're a subscriber (I can see addresses but not names, so it's hard for me to know who's who), you can reply to my email, and then I'll contact you. And thanks so much for your kind words!
always delightful, cheryl. speaking of seduction: the hilarious film ‘a fish called wanda’ speaks to this. in it, jamie lee curtis (wanda) finds kevin kline's (otto) italian irresistible regardless how much he suffers his vocab limitation basically to food groups.
that said, like every italian boasts: “we have THE BEST…fill in the blank here: lemons, lobster, coffee, chocolate, wine, EVOO, and apparently Italian...THE MOST beautiful LANGUAGE.
Oh, that's hysterical! I saw that movie several lifetimes ago and completely forgot that scene. (He did throw in a "Fontana di Trevi" among all the food, I noticed.) But I have to say, being extremely biased, that we do have plenty of the best!
Cheryl, This was so much fun to read even though I don't know Italian at all. But I've always loved the sound of it. I cannot believe how much can be expressed by stressing a specific syllable. You're doing a fabulous job of explaining Italian to folks like me. What would be cool is if you could attach an audio snipped to it so we can hear it? I'm just back from a fantastic trip to Israel and (at https://bit.ly/3Dag3VC) I write about how Hebrew was brought back as a living language. I'm so annoyed that in my early years I never learned to speak Hindi (I understand spoken Hindi fairly well) or Malayalam, languages I had a lot of exposure to as a child. I can speak okay French but my vocabulary is pathetic. My accent is nice, I've been told, but honestly who cares about a great accent when the vocabulary sucks? I speak Tamil (my kind of Tamil infused with quite a bit of Malayalam) and I can read and write in the language as well. I've been thinking about how a great hold on several languages would have made my English much richer. Thanks for your fascinating posts. I may not get to read all of them but know that your work is engaging and informative.
Kalpana, thanks for much for reading and commenting; I really appreciate your support (and we must talk soon about a book in translation; I have a few ideas). I'm envious of your language ability, even if you claim you don't have a great hold on all of them. Limited ability is better than none! Your audio snippet is a good idea—maybe for the next language post. In the meantime, listen to Davide or Lucrezia! Can't wait to read your post about Hebrew—sounds fascinating!
I'm half-Mexican and grew up with Spanish. I'm not as strong as a speaker as I'd like to be, but I love the language and can understand it pretty well.
(Question: Would you be interested in exchanging recommendations/blurbs for our welcome pages? I've really enjoyed your newsletter. I completely understand if not! Just wanted to kindly ask.)
That's so great! I envy anyone who grew up with more than one language. I was so sad that my dad, who hadn't spoken Italian in probably ten years when my brother and I were born, couldn't pass it on to us. Equally sad was that of four children in my mom's family, only her older brother spoke the language, though my grandparents never stopped speaking it. So much loss!
(And yes, I'd be happy to blurb you and meant to do it sooner. Nag me if it doesn't happen next week.)
It is sad. My dad spoke to me early on, which is why I could speak, but then just kind of stopped. I'm not sure why. Too tedious? I wasn't receptive? He was trying to improve his English? Anyway, yeah. But I try not to knock myself too hard. There are many Mexican-Americans who speak no Spanish. I somewhat dislike when it's expected because I person is Brown or looks visibly Mexican. I also don't like when the elders shame the youngers for not speaking. I think all would agree that we wish we could speak Spanish, but living in America, this is what happened. So be it.
(This isn't a nag, but just a heads up that I left you a suggestion and blurb. Hope it's okay! I dearly love your Substack and posts, and hope others will find it and love it too. Bye!)
Yeah, people have all kinds of reasons for not making sure their children speak the language of their heritage, and none of them good, in my opinion. Some of them understandable, though.
Thanks so much for the lovely blurb and your support! I've just reciprocated.
Hey
Aren't problema, programma, sistema, cardiogramma, nouns and not verbs?
Why yes, yes, they are! Thanks for catching my slip-up. Fixed now!
In the "Which language is most beautiful?" debate, I'm going with French. There's something about listening to a native French speaker which I find mesmerizing. Second, oddly enough, would be Norwegian, which is probably more of a personal quirk and due to my experience in Norway than anything.
Oh, Jack, you traitor, you! French is simply not among the options. ;-) I'm gonna have to listen to some Norwegian now.
Italian and Sicilian were the background sounds of my childhood and youth. I understood a lot but my parents back in the '60s apparently wanted me to be an American kid. That didn't sit right with me--they had their own language to say what they didn't want us to know. So I learned the language as a form of rebellion or revenge. I felt I was taking what was owed me and which felt comfortable to me. After years of French in school, learning Italian was simple; it felt like repeating French but with easier pronunciation. Plus, it's more fun. I mean, who can not love saying "mozzafiato"? Plus, there's nothing like hearing that background Italian babble on a train or plane. It's a great soiundtrack, for me, good white noise.
All good, but you haven't answered the question you've begged: which is prettier, Italian or Sicilian? :-)
To my ears, "Italian" (sort of the Tuscan dialect) is more conventionally pretty. Sicilian amuses me more, as does Roman, which cracks me up. I love watching YouTube videos like Max Mariola and Chef Ruben, who both do cooking videos with heavy Roman accents. Daje!
Wow, I was sure you'd go for Sicilian!
I'm not really a be-true-to-your-school kinda guy. Sicilian amuses me. I like that I can understand it and even pepper my Italian with Sicilian words every now and then.
This was awesome. For anyone who has tried to learn Italian and struggled, ( I would bet that’s all of us) Please write more soon.
Glad it was helpful, Tim! I've already started compiling notes for another language post, so stay tuned!
Cheryl,
Thank you so much. Your posts are really good, awesome actually.
My wife and I are retired and thinking about either moving to Italy permanently or for an extended period each year. I know this is out of your realm but I want to ask a couple questions. If you are too busy to respond, no problem, it’s a shot in the dark for me and I will continue to read your work regardless. I actually apologize for bothering you.
A little back ground. I am 70 and it good health. I am a retired CRNA. My wife is half Italian and is working on her dual citizenship. She is younger than me.
Questions:
1. We are looking into the 7% tax option, as far as residency is concerned. Did you do this or are there other options?
2. We have two small dogs that are part of our family 😊. Any experience moving pets to Italy?
Is it ok to ask you an occasional question?
This is post I wrote on Expat Exchange
Hello all,
I am struggling mightily to learn Italian. I"m sure its me and not the language, well pretty sure. I have studied Fluenz, taken small group classes at the Italian Cultural Center in our city, traveled to Genoa and attended "A Door to Italy" subscribed to Italy Made Easy and taken on line private lessons. Its been a struggle, off and on since 2015. My wife started when I did and promptly left me in the dust. My brain cells must be dead. Need to vent.
Things that I have found to be deadly to learning:
1. Gaps in studying. We had a health scare that became front and center for a while.
2. English is supposed to be a very difficult language to learn and I'm sure it is but when you have English as your native language, it is much harder to, I think, to learn other languages too. For example, if I spoke Spanish as my native tongue, I think Italian would be much easier to learn.
3. All rules have exceptions, and all exceptions have rules.
4. Pronunciation, pronunciation, pronunciation. I's are E's?
5. Learning by using grammar. I have to admit English in high school was a fun subject because of the novels we read but labeling different parts of sentence structure, ouch. who came up with this stuff?
My grandfather emigrated from Holland. He did not speak English like so many people who came through Ellis Island. Somehow he learned the language without knowing what an indirect object pronoun was, so maybe there is hope?? Thanks for reading
Thanks for all you do
Keep up the good work
My wife and I always excitedly ask each other if we saw your latest post when they come out.
Tim
Hi Tim, just a heads-up that Wednesday's letter is about pets in Italy, and it includes getting them here. As for the 7% tax option, I chose not to live in those areas, so it wasn't an option for me. As for the language, you have to stick with it (yes, gaps are bad). Italian isn't easy, but its pronunciation is —once you learn the sounds, every word is pronounced exactly as it's spelled. Some people do learn by imitation rather than understanding the grammar, but the people I know who did that went back to the grammar later, because they needed it. In bocca al lupo!
“All words are pronounced exactly as it’s spelled,” unless there’s an H involved. Sorry but the wolf has already chomped me?😎
Yes, according to Italian rules of pronunciation! Don’t follow English’s rules 🙂
Every rule has an exception and every exception has a rule
Tim, sure, I can answer a few questions, but let's take this conversation to email, ok? Assuming you're a subscriber (I can see addresses but not names, so it's hard for me to know who's who), you can reply to my email, and then I'll contact you. And thanks so much for your kind words!
always delightful, cheryl. speaking of seduction: the hilarious film ‘a fish called wanda’ speaks to this. in it, jamie lee curtis (wanda) finds kevin kline's (otto) italian irresistible regardless how much he suffers his vocab limitation basically to food groups.
https://youtu.be/6zquYbMbFNk
that said, like every italian boasts: “we have THE BEST…fill in the blank here: lemons, lobster, coffee, chocolate, wine, EVOO, and apparently Italian...THE MOST beautiful LANGUAGE.
MIGHT very well be. or...might not.
il n’y a pas de quoi
ciao
felice :)
Oh, that's hysterical! I saw that movie several lifetimes ago and completely forgot that scene. (He did throw in a "Fontana di Trevi" among all the food, I noticed.) But I have to say, being extremely biased, that we do have plenty of the best!
I'm going to need to keep coming back to this for pointers!
Wonderful! Another post is in the works (but not for a while). Glad you liked it!
Cheryl, This was so much fun to read even though I don't know Italian at all. But I've always loved the sound of it. I cannot believe how much can be expressed by stressing a specific syllable. You're doing a fabulous job of explaining Italian to folks like me. What would be cool is if you could attach an audio snipped to it so we can hear it? I'm just back from a fantastic trip to Israel and (at https://bit.ly/3Dag3VC) I write about how Hebrew was brought back as a living language. I'm so annoyed that in my early years I never learned to speak Hindi (I understand spoken Hindi fairly well) or Malayalam, languages I had a lot of exposure to as a child. I can speak okay French but my vocabulary is pathetic. My accent is nice, I've been told, but honestly who cares about a great accent when the vocabulary sucks? I speak Tamil (my kind of Tamil infused with quite a bit of Malayalam) and I can read and write in the language as well. I've been thinking about how a great hold on several languages would have made my English much richer. Thanks for your fascinating posts. I may not get to read all of them but know that your work is engaging and informative.
Kalpana, thanks for much for reading and commenting; I really appreciate your support (and we must talk soon about a book in translation; I have a few ideas). I'm envious of your language ability, even if you claim you don't have a great hold on all of them. Limited ability is better than none! Your audio snippet is a good idea—maybe for the next language post. In the meantime, listen to Davide or Lucrezia! Can't wait to read your post about Hebrew—sounds fascinating!
Thanks for the heads up, I will watch for the dog piece
For some reason, Italian has always struck me as sounding arrogant and pretentious, like it's trying to hard when it really doesn't have to.
Oh, but no. Jack, I gotta say you're on thin ice here! First French, and now this shocking attack on Italian? I'm throwing my hands up in despair! ;-)
I have a rep for being a bit of a provocateur. 😝