One of my new favorite hobbies is going through my Stat Counter and Lijit reports and discovering which terms readers search to reach this blog. Popular terms include “Pasta Puttanesca Recipe,” “How Do You Eat a Persimmon” and “Things You Shouldn’t Say in Italy” – and we’ll get back to that in a minute. It...Read More
Some of you might remember a couple of months ago when I dedicated August as my All-Italian language month. As I reported, it went well-my grammar got kicked up a notch and I became more fluid in everyday conversations. I’ve been asked to interpret and translate and although I am not 100% confident in my...Read More
Becoming fluent in another language takes hard work, a little patience and a tough skin. You have to listen to the language. You have to speak the language. And it helps if you can live the language. So if all of this is true … why, oh why is it so dang hard to learn...Read More
Just like everything else where you have to take the good with the bad, living in Italy-and learning its romantic, sing-song language, has its bad side. Luckily for me, the bad side is the fun side. A few months ago, Jessica at Why Go Italy listed her 8 favorite Italian curse words and later followed...Read More
I don’t know what it is about the men from my graduating class-Go Lions!-but I’ve been inundated lately with requests to help them plan an Italian vacation for their wives. I mean, who knew they were so romantic? Maybe my fellow female classmates shoudda held on to those boys when they had them. Ahem....Read More
Anyone who has ever tried to learn a foreign language knows the struggle, agony and fear that can accompany said language. You know … like my embarrassing boob blunder last week. New languages are tough. But if you stick with it long enough, somewhere, without provocation or warning you’ll become the language. You’ll start to...Read More
Ahhh … la bella lingua Italiana. Don’t you just love the way the romance rolls off of your tongue and how even the taxi driver sounds sexy when he’s giving directions and over-estimating your cab fare? Italian is one of the most beautiful languages in the world and I’m not the first woman to fall...Read More
Over the last few months I’ve shared some interesting things Italians do that seem, well … funny to me. From offering us fruit from our own tree to cutting tree limbs from beneath their children, the Italians I live among seem to keep me on my toes. And it is a good thing. I like...Read More
Ahhh, Italy. A country rich in history, brimming with beautiful people speaking the flowery, romantic language of love. To the untrained ear, general street directions, such as go to the end of the road, turn right, then turn left at the light, are an alluring combination of seducing sounds and amorous gestures. Then, you learn...Read More
Living in a foreign language takes work. It is never boring, sometimes amusing and often downright appalling. Verb tenses, grammatical errors, unclear phrases … It can overwhelm. But at some point the Italianisms creep into your mind and attach to the dull gray matter in your brain, rendering you … no, not bilingual … but...Read More
