primularossa

It is true that grammar analysis is difficult, and takes a lot of exercise. But it is necessary to understand deeply the structure of the language (and especially the branch called "analisi logica") once for the rest of life. It helps a lot also in understanding other languages, especially the ones with a complicated grammar (e.g. French or German or Russian or Arabic). Now that i am a grown up am grateful to my teachers who made me spend hours in learning a good Italian. Of course I did have preferred to play instead of spending hours on books.... :-)

Garbatellamike

Very true Primula - the fact they had stopped teaching any grammar in English lessons at school made it very difficult for me to learn Italian later in life. I will never forget the time when the exasparated Italian teacher said to me in one of my early lessons:
On the bright side, learning Italian improved my English grammar significantly.

MarkRD

I'm against teaching grammar for grammar's sake .. at least in one's native language and even in a foreign language. We only ever got the real basics in English at school ("ad adjective is a describing word" etc.), and I'd never even heard of the present perfect or the past simple in English until I started teaching EFL! Spelling was of course always an issue however.

I started learning German aged 11 and we were never taught any grammar for the first two years at least, in fact it was an oral based course and it was brilliant. We didn't even have to read or write at the beginning it was all based on listening and repeating, just as you do in your native language.

jonwel

I'm eternally grateful to a teacher in my 2nd year of secondary school (age 12-13) who went through English grammar scientifically and made us see the point of what we were studying. I don't seem to remember learning the names of tenses but we did phrase analysis, clause analysis, punctuation (which some people seem to find difficult) etc. Knowing English grammar really helped me to learn other languages.
On the other hand we weren't taught so much about how to write an essay or a précis and more could have been done on this side. In teaching there seems to be a pendulum swinging between all grammar (a bottle without wine) and no grammar (wine without a bottle, spilt on the floor). It would be good if it could stop in the middle, but I think it's now stuck on the no-grammar side because those who didn't study it at school can't teach it to anyone else even if they want to!
They say that you'll pick up the grammar without having to study it. This may be true for everyday use but not if you have to write a scientific or legal document. It's like saying that you'll pick up maths in the street; you may learn to count but you won't learn integral calculus that way!

Garbatellamike

garfagnino

'you won't learn integral calculus that way!'

Or quadratic equations either, lol!!

shiva

Random qu from a non Italian speaker. I find when travelling a polite but firm no thanks in the local language is always a good idea to learn to quickly fob off beggars, pan handlers and the usual assortment that hang around tourist attractions selling crap and extorting cash from tourists.

Whats the best way to politely say piss off I'm not interested?

Ugo51

"no grazie, non mi interessa".

Accompanied by stern facial expression.

Garbatellamike

FIFY Ugo :-)

Ugo51

I had written the same but then I deleted it because I didn't want to appear like making a stereotype

Garbatellamike

great minds think alike

shiva

Perfect thx, I'll work on the hand waving and a suitably dismissive frown

37100

I just give a stern NO. I must be Scarry.

MarkRD

I think a polite and sympathetic smile is more pc these days, but avoid eye contact at all times.

jonwel

I agree with the others. Avoid anything translatable as "piss off" (I'll grant you that you did say "politely").