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Published: August 6th 2007
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A few of you have asked how I’ve been doing with the language barrier. I can say, for the most part, that I’m doing pretty well, and though the learning curve is steep, as long as I hear/ understand 60-75% of the words spoken to me, I can keep up with the conversation. A few exceptions…
The oddest thing happened to me the other day. Language has been playing all kinds of tricks on me. The second night I was here, I dreamed in Italian: days of the week and conjugating some common verbs—it was simple but it happened. And you know what they always say ("they" being who?): if you dream in a foreign language you're getting the hang of it. Hasn’t happened since. But as I was saying, the other day I was—where was I? in the market? oh—I was walking down the driveway. I was picking up the trash bin. The day had cooled off and the sun was nearly below the horizon of the rooftops, and everyone was outside (for once) in their yards doing this and that. A man was driving a rusted tractor in meandering, meaningless circles in the small field next to the
house, patting down the tall green and brown grass. His sons—no older than 6 and 10—were along for the ride. The six-year-old was in his lap and the ten year old was sitting on one of the rear wheel wells. And I wasn’t listening distinctly to any one conversation that was going on around me, but (and this had been happening all day, in fact) it sounded like they were all speaking English. Then I’d focus on one conversation or the other and Italian (logically) came through clearly. It was incredibly bizarre. It hasn’t happened since.
Another thing about language: there is a regional dialect spoken here. Though Dante is credited with standardizing the Italian language with his epic poems “Commedia” (Divina) in the early 14th century, each of the 20 states (Veneto, Tuscany, Lazio, Sicily, etc) had their own interpretation of
la lingua. Dialects today don’t dominate as much as they used to, but they are still a common part of the speech. Mostly it consists of a different way of pronouncing certain syllables or contracting words.
Instead of
Io sono (“I am”), people from the Veneto say
soy which some of you may know from Spanish
Old men at the mercato...
eyeing me warily and probably talking about me. (no relation, though). It is pronounced more like “shoy”. Romans often say
so’;
Instead of
grappa (a digestivo), they say
graspa; instead of
casa (house), it sounds more like
chah-zha.
Regionally, they also use different words for everyday speaking. And I’m not just talking about hoagies or grinders or subs, pop or soda or cola.
Per esempio:
Cetriolo is the standard Italian word for “cucumber”;
Cocomero is local dialect for “cucumber”; but…
Cocomero is standard Italian for watermelon. And dialect for watermelon?
Anguria.
OK, the last example isn’t the best.
Anguria is also a standard word for watermelon, but isn’t used much south of Venice. So, if you, being from the north, ask your Roman waiter to put some
cocomeri in your salad, you may end up with a few sweet slices of watermelon mixed in with your greens. And when you ask why there is some
anguria in your salad, the waiter might say "
Che idiota! You asked for
cocomeri so that's what you get. If you wanted cucumbers, you should have asked for
cetrioli! Capisci? And another thing about language here? Unlike a big city, hardly anyone speaks English, and if
Fat cat
The neighborhood bully standing his ground they know the language, they are usually very shy to use it. It is exhausting always conversing in a foreign language, especially when you’ve only had about 13 hours of formal training. The hardest part is listening and understanding what someone else is saying. It’s not so hard, however, when I speak Italian and they speak English: the owner of the best pizza restaurant around, Sacco e Vanzetti (I don’t even know how to explain that) or some of Amanda’s relations. We could have a serious philosophical discussion if I only had to
speak Italian and not hear it.
Capisci? My flickr page Amanda's blog
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Leslina
non-member comment
Language and other things
A couple of comments on language and dialects ... they also use angurias in Milan and I think of cocomero as a Tuscuan word (which the Tuscans pronounce hohomero since they exchange the hard c for an h) ... there's a song by a group who sings in Milanese dialect called Gli Svampa called Se Ghan di Di you should get someone to explain the words to you, it's funny (but old, like from the '70s) ... and there's a saying in Venetian dialect I can teach you which is MI GHO NO GLI SGHEI ... you can ask Amanda what it means. How long the learning of the language process takes ... I arrived in Milan not knowing any Italian except for two years of rudimentary college Italian and they put me on the switchboard of the office I worked in the first day, yet it took me SIX months to understand what they were saying to each other and A FULL YEAR to be able to speak Italian at the rate the Italians did ... if it's of any comfort. Un abbraccio, Leslina