2 weeks learning Italian in Italy

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Ive just spent 2 weeks in Milan learning Italian - and what an experience! I lived with a family - a women and her 2 children (a girl aged 18 and a guy aged 25. They were really nice. Luckily the mother and daughter spoke English.

I love the Italians but some of the ways they do things just confuse me. I hope I dont offend anyone with the following stories (just know that I'm telling it as I saw it and I get that not every Italian is the same).

First the language since that was the main reason I was there. I was told that the gramma was going to be really hard. But to me if you know the words then saying them in the right order isn't 100% necessary. I think probably the hardest thing is the verbs - to do something or to be something. There are about 5 or 6 words for each depending on who you are talking to or about. For example, manginare (to eat - probably the most important word!) becomes mangio, mangi, mangia, mangiamo, mangiate or mangiano depending on who are talking talking about or to - I, you, he/she, we, you (plural) or they - respectively!!! That's easy you say - you just change the last 3 letters to another letter and off you go - uh, no. Because there are irregular verbs (and I think they out number the regular ones). For example, andare (to go) isn't ando, andi, anda etc its vado, va, vai, andiamo, andate and andano!! So you basically have to memorise very single word.

But anyway, I think I did pretty well - by the end I was able to read a newspaper article and know what it was about (just not the finer details) and I could understand if someone asked me a simple question - like who are you, do you know where...is, how are you etc.

Ok so that's the language, then there's the people. Ill start with the family. We all got together for dinner each night. First we would have pasta, then meat and vegetables (the first plate and the second plate). Each dish was served on a separate plate and the mother was queen of the food. By this I mean that you werent allowed to dish up your own meal and you werent allowed to clear away your plate at the end - I got told off many times for trying to do both. I was shocked when one night the daughter asked for an apple and I thought the mother was just going to hand it to her, but instead she cut it up and peeled it and then handed it to her piece by piece (remember the daughter is 18). The same happened with the son.

And then there was the general public. 2 things I noticed - they like to eat and they like to talk (and they like to talk about eating). My friend and I caught the train to Como and back and on the way back across the isle from us was these 2 girls about the same age as us and they talked continuously for 1 hour (I dont think they even stopped for a breath). There were also these two old ladys who sat next to us also talked most of the way and mostly about food - we think they were swapping recipes, we kept hearing pasta and pomodori and pizza etc.

And on the subject of food - it was all great! The food in London is not fit for animals compared to the stuff they make in Italy. We ate pretty much everyday at a resturant near the school and even their equivalent to McDonalds (they serve pizza instead of burgers) is superior. I also had gelati just about everyday, but I've put on surprisingly little weight (although its hard to tell under all the layers I'm wearing!). We found this great place that does 'hot gelati' - basically is like mousse. I really liked the Black Forest and Mascarpone.

They also drive the way they live - fast and without much consideration for other people. I'm really surprised that I am still alive - as one person put it they have zebra crossings but they dont know what they are for!!

And so now I'm off to Dublin (via a night at Gatwick Airport) for a rugby match between Australia and Ireland (who am I going to support?!).

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