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walter
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 4391
Location: metro-motown-area8/15/14 7:18 PM |
OT: continuing-ed...italiano!
with erik's wonderful ongoing adult-ed story (along with my wife's, too)...finally got off'n my arse and i just registered for an italian language class. we're planning on heading over next year and like to make an honest effort to communicate with the locals when in foreign lands.
it's an easy 8-week starter. will follow up with a couple more advancing sessions. i'd *really* like to learn flemish/dutch...been dabbling DIYing some nederlands, but actually talking to others really makes language learning stick.
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ErikS
Joined: 19 May 2005
Posts: 8337
Location: Slowing boiling over in the steamy south, Global Warming is real8/15/14 10:33 PM |
Bellissimo!!!! Buono.
I former coworker used Rosette Stone to learn languages (5). He learned all of them well enough to pass the language tests for each that would add to his pay. I was impressed by him to say the least. BTW he was a fighter pilot and rocked a 140+ IQ. Well above most fighter pilots even who all tend to pretty bright. That could be a cheaper route and less time in a class room if your don't have the time required to go to class.
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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19084
Location: PDX8/15/14 10:39 PM |
Cyril: Hey! Are you really gonna shave your legs?
Dave: Certo! All the Italians do it.
Mike: Ah. Some country. The women don't shave theirs.
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dan emery
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 6890
Location: Maine8/16/14 7:05 AM |
Have fun
Very admirable and I hope you get fluent and have a ball with it. I've decided to defer further education to my next life.
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Dave B
Joined: 10 Jan 2004
Posts: 4511
Location: Pittsburgh, PA8/16/14 7:38 AM |
quote:
...former coworker used Rosette Stone to learn languages...
My daughter, son-in-law and their kids (ages 8 and 10 at the time) used Rosette Stone to begin learning German prior to their transfer there for two years. They concluded it was a valuable learning tool.
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PLee
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 3713
Location: Brooklyn, NY8/16/14 12:11 PM |
Just understand that there are dialects of Italian and the spoken language can vary widely from one part of the country to another.
"Posso avere polenta con funghi" got blank stares in the Italian Alps. English they understood. Go figure. This was at a northern ski mountain - Cervinia.
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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19084
Location: PDX8/16/14 12:50 PM |
"dialects of Italian"
No doubt. I think the difference between Pasta Fasul and Pasta Fagioli is about 300 miles...
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Jesus Saves
Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 1150
Location: South of Heaven8/18/14 12:57 PM |
Sprechen Sie Deutsch?
"Kann ich Polenta mit Pilzen" may have been more apropos as German is commonly spoken in the Italian Alps, too.
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PLee
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 3713
Location: Brooklyn, NY8/18/14 5:10 PM |
Yeah, but the menu was in Italian. Go figure.
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walter
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 4391
Location: metro-motown-area8/18/14 7:59 PM |
kann ich meinen bleistift spitzen, bitte?
i still remember a fair bit of high school german, enough to get by should i happen to be transported to der weimar republik!
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April
Joined: 13 Dec 2003
Posts: 6593
Location: Westchester/NYC8/18/14 9:20 PM |
quote:
Yeah, but the menu was in Italian
the menu maybe in Italian, but the food are often not.
northern Italy is more than German SPEAKING, they're more GERMAN, period.
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RCoapman
Joined: 09 Feb 2005
Posts: 5141
Location: Back in the snowy homeland8/23/14 12:44 PM |
Bravo, singore! Sono a Venezia per tre giorni, fino a martedì. Mi piace Italiano molto bene...e una lingua molto bella! Buon viaggio!
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RCoapman
Joined: 09 Feb 2005
Posts: 5141
Location: Back in the snowy homeland8/24/14 2:38 AM |
April, I'm sorry but your blanket statement couldn't be more off-target. Languages and dialects throughout Italy is a complex and still not wholly agreed-upon topic. A little basic research will show that fairly quickly.
Plus, I'm writing this from northern Italy and have yet to hear a local speaking German...solo I touristi. ;)
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JohnC
Joined: 10 Jan 2004
Posts: 1939
Location: Glastonbury, Ct8/25/14 10:53 AM |
quote:
northern Italy is more than German SPEAKING, they're more GERMAN, period.
April, as Rob points our, your statement is too broad. What you say is partially true, but only of a much more limited area than implied by "northern Italy", the mountain region known as Trentino and Alto Adige or Trentino and South Tyrol. The area was part of the Austrian empire until Italy took it over in 1919 after WWI.
Cycling connection: former Giro champion Damiano Cunego hails from that region. His surname is an Italianized spelling of "König", the German word for "king".
Rob, Venezia e una città più incredibile.
BTW, the place where Parkin had his language experience is NOT in the German part of Italy, but in Valle D'Aosta, which borders France, and where people speak French, Italian, and another language that is neither but has elements of both.
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April
Joined: 13 Dec 2003
Posts: 6593
Location: Westchester/NYC8/25/14 1:02 PM |
Sorry, my use of "northern Italy" is clearly the wrong phrase for what I intended, which was the Italian Alps as in Parkin's original post.
But I now understand that only part of the Italian Alps had strong German roots. Thanks for correcting my mis-conception.
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PLee
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 3713
Location: Brooklyn, NY8/25/14 3:06 PM |
Ah-h-h, Venezia. Some really good restaurants, but you have to wander off of the beaten path (of which there are many) to find them.
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JohnC
Joined: 10 Jan 2004
Posts: 1939
Location: Glastonbury, Ct8/25/14 7:51 PM |
You have to wander around late at night and get thoroughly lost in the spooky little byways to fully appreciate the bizarre magic of Venice. It's completely amazing that people ever built such a thing, and have lived there for more than a thousand years.
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April
Joined: 13 Dec 2003
Posts: 6593
Location: Westchester/NYC8/25/14 8:56 PM |
I found Venice spooky enough even during the day, as soon as I step off the beaten path!
Granted, I was there in the middle of winter, few tourists around even in the main drag.
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JohnC
Joined: 10 Jan 2004
Posts: 1939
Location: Glastonbury, Ct8/26/14 8:21 AM |
Don't watch Nicolas Roeg's brilliant psychological thriller "Don't Look Now" before you visit Venice.
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RCoapman
Joined: 09 Feb 2005
Posts: 5141
Location: Back in the snowy homeland8/28/14 8:12 PM |
Allora, Venezia...
Venice. This was my first time there and it was amazing. I spent three days and probably walked +50k. I wandered though most of the city and even though I have a good sense of direction you really have no clue where you actually are most of the time as you can rarely see more than a a few dozen metres in any direction. A crazy, confusing, and gloriously beautiful place.
I've made my
facebook album
with some of my pics public
As an added bonus to my trip I started in Athens and got to check a big one off my bucket list and visit the Parthenon.
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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19084
Location: PDX8/28/14 8:53 PM |
Rob, thanks for sharing. Do the canals offend BTW?
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RCoapman
Joined: 09 Feb 2005
Posts: 5141
Location: Back in the snowy homeland8/28/14 9:16 PM |
quote:
Do the canals offend BTW?
Huh?
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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19084
Location: PDX8/28/14 9:22 PM |
Does the water exude a less than desirable odor?
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RCoapman
Joined: 09 Feb 2005
Posts: 5141
Location: Back in the snowy homeland8/29/14 6:55 AM |
Oh, right. I honestly have no idea. I have the world's worst sense of smell. They very well could have, but I never noticed it.
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JohnC
Joined: 10 Jan 2004
Posts: 1939
Location: Glastonbury, Ct8/29/14 9:57 AM |
Cool, Rob. I'll check out your FB photos when I can. My daughter is in Trieste at the moment, as it happens.
Sparky, I think the stinky water is an occasional phenomenon, very dependant on weather, tides, rainfall flushing out the lagoon, etc. The two times I've been there - August and February - I never noticed any smell, nor saw water that looked particularly dirty. And I am pretty sensitive to smells.
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