Day 3 - Can You Repeat That?

We've mastered our first two survival phrases.

Phrase 001. "I don't speak Italian" - non parlo italiano
Phrase 002. "Do you speak English?" - parla inglese? 

Suppose we want to actually try speaking with our Italian hosts in their native tongues though.  Undoubtedly, early conversations are going to be very confusing.  We want to be able to tell them that.  Taking the next phrases from the video in yesterday's post, we have:

Phrase 003. "I don't understand" - non capisco

We might try to be polite about it, and preface this with:

Phrase 004.  "Excuse me" - mi scuzi

If we do not want to give up at this juncture, we might ask them:

Phrase 005. "Please repeat" - può ripetere?

Since they put a question mark after this I investigated a bit more using Google Translate.  They represent this as "Can you repeat that?"  I think we'll go with that.

Phrase 005. "Please repeat Can you repeat that?" - può ripetere?


Well alright, we have 5 phrases that we can use to have a conversation in Italian!  Huzzah!

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(I wonder if they have Arrested Development in South America? )

Let's put these phrases together and have our first Italian conversation.

So we see someone and approach them.  They say:

	Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
	mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
	ché la diritta via era smarrita.

Unless we have studied the Divine Comedy in Italian we have no idea what they are saying.  So, our response would be:

mi scuzi, non capisco. può ripetere?

(Excuse me, I don't understand.  Can you repeat that?)

After replying again in perfect dactylic hexameter we might give up and plead:

non parlo italiano. parla inglese?

(I do not speak Italian.  Do you speak English?)

Once we realize we are interrupting a performance of some type, we walk away embraced, but more knowledgeable having had our first conversation... of sorts.  The journey continues...

P.S.  Not sure if this numbered phrase thing will come in handy, might make a page that is updated and linked to that has them all.  Again, not sure if that's useful.

Day 2 - I Don't Speak Italian

So we've got our alphabet down, we're ready for our trip right!?

Well, not quite.  The alphabet might mean we can pronounce things (not even kinda), but we need some essential phrases to let people know we don't speak Italian yet.

As I mentioned yesterday, there are a lot of videos on YouTube for this stuff.  A Google Search for "Italian for travel," showed this video in the results:

I've listened through the first half or so and I think it will be good for adding some common phrases as a baseline.  Having said that, I don't think learning everything here in one day is reasonable for anyone who is not studying Italian full time.

Let's pull some phrases out that will at least let our Italian hosts know we have no idea what the heck we are saying.

Phrase 001. "I don't speak Italian" - non parlo italiano

As an American who took Spanish in High School, one of the few phrases I remember and still hear occasionally is no habla Espanol (pretend there is the ~ above the 'n'), or "I don't speak Spanish."  I have a feeling non parlo Italiano represents the least I could learn before visiting.

A great follow up when making conversation in Italy would be:

Phrase 002. "Do you speak English?" - parla inglese? 

It is a common American sentiment that any country we visit will have someone there who speaks English and you can get by.  So, if you only make it to Day 2, these two phrases should help establish your arrogance ignorance.

One thing to note about these two phrases is that the verb changes its ending.  Anyone familiar with any of the other romance languages will know this is a way they denote a verb's role in a sentence.  I have not looked for a break down of how to conjugate these verbs, but there will be future posts on Grammar.

For now, let's work on memorizing these two phrases and we'll continue through more of these tomorrow.  As more phrases are introduced, I will try to use them throughout the day, either to myself, or a willing participant/unwilling occupant of the room I am in.

Review:

Phrase 001. "I don't speak Italian" - non parlo italiano
Phrase 002. "Do you speak English?" - parla inglese? 

Day 1 - The Italian Alphabet

The first day of almost any language course is going to include the alphabet.  'Alpha' being the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and 'bet' representing what you do at the track, it only makes sense.

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If you search for Italian alphabet on YouTube you get a wide range of videos addressing this.  Everything from sing-along songs to the droning tone of a bored lecturer most people associate with British schoolhouses is here, and then some.  Since I am not learning to explicitly write or read Italian in a classroom setting, I don't know how essential knowing the alphabet will be.  Due to this, we'll just go with the first entry.

This guy seems crazy in a way I can't quite put my finger on, but he covers the material.  I'm not sure I'll be using his other videos for the learning process but it's Day 1 so who knows.

I think the biggest thing to take away from this is the pronunciation of the letter 'c.'  Based on the various other alphabets I've partially learned over the years, 'c' seems the most unique in Italian.  The picture above states 'ci,' I'm not sure how I would pronounce 'ci,' maybe 'see,' but note that it's pronounced 'chee.'  That's not an official international language way of writing it, just how I think of it.  Some of the other letters might not sound like how you interpret the above chart so take a listen to get you on the right track.

So there you have it, the Italian alphabet, with a few other phrases if you watched the video.

Tomorrow I hope to learn some SOS phrases that will identify you as a hopeless English speaking tourist.

Any tips or tricks for learning the Italian alphabet?  Feel free to post below.

The Pilot

It is official.  I am getting married!

As exciting as that is, (and it is very exciting honey if you are reading this) what is even more exciting makes it even more exciting is that we have decided to take our honeymoon in Italy!

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Yes, Italy.  Land of the Romans, the Papacy, Pizza, Fancy Coffee, and a 92% Italian population.

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Having double majored in History and Latin, with minors in Classical Civilizations and Medieval Studies, and having done nothing with those majors, a honeymoon to Italy will finally validate 4 very costly years of college.

The date of the wedding is May 30, 2015.  Today is June 3rd, 2015.  That gives me two years to learn everything I will need to get the most out of my trip to Italy.  The primary goal of this blog: keeping me honest in learning Italian.

Not counting 2 years of high school Spanish and 3 days of college level Italian, I have not taken classes for a spoken language other than English.  Sure, I might be able to give you a rough translation of Latin at sight and given 20 minutes I might be able to translate those 3 lines of Classical Greek with the help of my trusty Middle Liddell, but as far as spoken foreign languages I have, effectively, no experience.

In an effort to not get ripped off and better enjoy my time in the Italian peninsula I am embarking on an adventure to learn enough of the language to act as translator on our trip.  I am also not going to be paying anything (or very little) to acquire these skills so if you find yourself in a similar situation I welcome you to come along on this journey and we can learn together.

Ideally I will make a post every day about new words/phrases/concepts I learned, even if it is just a single vocabulary word.  Of course this is not an official contract and real-life obligations, such as visiting parents at a lake where there is no internet access, may prevent me from posting as often as I like but I will do what I can.

If anyone has done this before or has any good resources for me to use I would greatly appreciate any information.  I plan on using things like YouTube, Google Translate, and other blogs/sites to cobble this together, and maybe I'll even get into podcasts or CDs from the library.  To keep a front row seat of all the action and/or kindly instruct me in the error of my ways feel free to visit and comment often.

I am pretty excited about this and worst case scenario this ends up being another learning tool just for me.

Thanks for reading!

Matt