Voglio parlare italiano! - 24 febbraio, 2014

Readers of this blog know that more than anything, I want to be able to speak Italian. Nothing prepared me for how difficult it would be for me to learn this new language. As soon as I found out we would be relocating, I was focused on this goal. We bought the Rosetta Stone computer program prior to leaving the U.S.  I learned how to say "the woman is swimming" and "the man has blond hair" and have not needed to use either of those phrases since arriving here.  I bought dictionaries and workbooks and CDs to listen to in the car.  I made flashcards and Italian labels for household items. I figured that learning Italian could be my full time job once I got settled. Unfortunately, my 59 year old brain was not quite as ready for this challenge as the rest of me was.

                                                    

We found a teacher here in Como through a local tutoring service. Initally, Dave and I signed up for 10 classes and we met together with our teacher Letizia. It was a good start but not the best idea since Dave would rush to our lesson straight from a long day at work and try to focus while I had had several hours each day to study. So we decided that Dave would continue with Rosetta Stone for awhile and I would meet individually with the teacher . She agreed to come to our apartment three times a week for an hour.  Being in the comfort of my own home definitely helped and I began to make progress, although I was still frustrated by my inability to initiate a dialogue in public. Similarly to when I was struggling years ago in high school French class, I am better with the written work and verb conjugation but struggle to speak. I would stand at the counter at the macelleria (butcher shop) and start to ask for a cut of meat and go completely blank.  Every Italian person I knew told me to just talk....don't worry about the grammar, just jump in. That is easier said than done.

I heard about a language school in Lucca, a small city in Tuscany that uses an immersion method to help people acquire the ability to speak Italian. Dave was heading to the U.S. for a week of business meetings so I signed up for a week at the Lucca Italian School. I chose the option of living with an Italian host to further expose myself to my new language.  I arrived on a Sunday evening by train and walked through the old city looking for the address I had written down. I couldn't find the address so I called the phone number and sure enough, I needed to use Italian to ask for help to get there. Luckily, Guiliana was hanging out her third story window waving to me down below on the street.  As I sat alone at dinner with her, trying to converse with my 300 word vocabulary, I realized I had truly jumped in and would either sink or swim.

View of Lucca from the city wall 

I walked to the school on Monday morning and after an assessment conversation with one of the staff members, was assigned to a small group with three other students. We met each morning for four hours with our teacher Eva, who used a variety of lessons and methods to get us talking. We played games, interviewed one another, and figured out puzzles. Eva spoke with clear, measured speech and was easy to understand. I was oddly relieved to find my intelligent, interesting classmates struggling with the very same issues as I was. We stumbled through our sentences and struggled to remember the correct verbs but we communicated and had lots of fun while doing it.

Our classroom

During the afternoons, activities were offered that provided more exposure to the language as well as to the culture of Tuscany. I participated in a walking tour of Lucca, watched a film, took a cooking class, and visited a Roman aqueduct - all while being totally immersed in Italian. (Initially I was excited when I heard the film had subtitles until I realized that even the subtitles were in Italian too.)  As I had hoped, the other students who I met at the school were friendly, independent people with whom I shared much in common.  

 

Lesson in Tuscan cooking

Learning how to make homemade pasta

Lucca, a city which began as a Roman colony in 180 B.C. is the perfect setting for the school. It has a population of 85,000 but the compact, historic city center is enclosed by an intact city wall that dates back to medieval times. This ring of park land has the "passegiata della mura" which is a 5 km promenade that is enjoyed by people strolling, jogging, biking, pushing strollers and walking their dogs. It provided a wonderful way to unwind when one's mind is full of new vocabulary and verb tenses. 

After a farewell dinner with new friends, I headed home on Saturday morning. Most students study at the school for multiple weeks but I had the advantage of returning to an ongoing immersion opportunity in my own community. I realized that I can speak in sentences and if I take my time, I can actually make myself be understood.  Si, posso davvero parlare italiano!  Yes, I can actually speak Italian.

I have a long way to go. I will continue meeting with Letizia at least two times a week and practice every day. My goal is to be able to carry on a conversation with new friends by summer. I can feel brain cells waking up and I have had dreams in which I am trying to speak in Italian. It has been a very humbling experience to realize how difficult this learning process is, especially when I regularly meet people who know four or five languages. My saying for today is: "Non è mai troppo tardi per insegnare a un vecchio cane nuovi trucchi."  It is never too late to teach an old dog new tricks.

Piazza Antiteatro (built on top of ancient Roman amphitheater)

      

Passegiata della mura

Finding balance - 3 febbraio, 2014

These are difficult times for Italy. The economic crisis that began in 2007 has resulted in high unemployment and a very stagnant economy. The headlines tell of the increased exodus of the educated young people to other European countries and the ongoing turmoil within the central government. On a personal level, it has touched me as we walk through Como and we are approached by people asking for spare change or money for food. 

It also took me only a couple of months here to realize that I was not cut out to just hang out with friends and look for social activities while Dave is at work everyday. I am thoroughly enjoying my explorations and outings but it is not enough. My careers in health care and education taught me that service to others is fulfilling and gives meaning to one's life.  Each time, someone asked me for some money, I knew I wanted to find a way to help in a more systemic way. I figured the first step would be to focus on learning to speak better Italian so I could begin to figure out how to get involved. 

At Christmas, I heard about Casa Vincenziana which is a local facility which runs both a group home for teenage girls and provides a daily community meal. I found out it is located about four blocks from my apartment and is run by a Catholic charity. I walked by a few times but could never figure out how to get in so I finally returned at lunch time and found the door open as it was near serving time. They directed me to Sister Guilia, who is in charge and I used my beginner Italian to offer my services as a volunteer. Together, we decided that it would be best for me to start helping in the dining room and then as my language skills improve, I may be able to spend some time helping in the girls' home. Sister Guilia told me to show up the next Monday at 10 AM.

I showed up and joined the Monday crew and was quickly shown the routine as we prepared to serve lunch to approximately 100 adults. The dining room is modest with 30 seats so the meal is served in three or four shifts. The guests are registered with the charity and line up each day in the courtyard. The meal is a typical Italian one with fresh bread, a pasta course and a meat course. One of the other volunteers knew some English but I quickly realized that this will be an immersion language experience for sure. One of the first things I learned was to know if the meat was "carne di maiale" (pork) when asked by Muslim guests. They are then offered an alternate vegetable or cheese entree. The two nuns who run the facility (Sister Guilia and Sister Graziella) are kind but no-nonsense tough with some of the guests. They extended the same attitude, with a smile, to me when they said that they expected me to be speaking only Italian when they are done with me.

Each time I go, I am impressed by the organization and dedication of the staff and volunteers. The people I meet, both the other volunteers and the guests we are serving, remind me so much of the people I met volunteering in Cleveland. That is one more step toward feeling at home in Como.