Gio

Has anyone managed to learn to speak Italian whilst living here?...How long did it take? How did you learn? Did you have an Italian background, family?
ernie

chris120

Yes me, I took no formal lessons at all either before I came or once I got here. I have no Italian background but my French was pretty good, I was 27 years old and I was thrown in at the deep end by my company with 3 days notice to relocate. I started to work in a team of about 20 Italians doing aircraft flight test and development work. I had a baptism of fire when given a prototype aircraft to look after and, when flight testing, a panel of instruments and a radio to warn the pilot when things looked bad.
The work subject matter was highly technical and I knew the subject well but after 6 months they let me know that they would prefer it if all radio transmissions and aircrew debriefs could be in Italian. We struggled at first but I could understand simple TV programs and films after 2 years and started to dream in Italian after 3. Also, it depends what you mean by "learn", you never stop learning (also your own mother tongue). I would suggest that being able to successfully argue your corner in a complex subject is a good way point to measure your success. In my technical field this was after about 3 years. Out of this field it took longer, say 5 years, but it depends on how immersed you are, I worked and lived entirely with Italians for my first 3 years here, I didn't mix with any English people, at one stage I shared a dormitory on an Italian Air Force Base with 3 conscripts who taught me a lot (!!!). There was no English TV, no e-mail or internet and the working schedule was 6 days a week 12 hours a day.

Gio

Brilliant... I applaud you.
Ern

Lorna at Vicenza

Like Chris - I had no Italian when I landed here. I didn't have any lessons here either. The family that hired me, hired me to speak English and the adults were hardly ever around anyway.

I lived on my own so I picked up loads and loads of vocab very quickly - I had to as I had to do my own shopping, pay the bills etc. There were no big supermarkets around either and the shops were still the type where you had to ask for your fruit and veg and not serve yourself. The people in the local shop were nice and friendly and tried to help me out. I can still remember once asking for 'due peperone' and the guy said "no, no no peperone ...... peperonI".

I was also feeling very pleased with myself one day when I knew that I could perfectly and politely ask for some cheese I liked ....... until the guy picked up a huge block of cheese and said "quanto Signorina Inglese?"

That completely threw me as I realised that 2 ounces wouldn't go down well - serves me right for being too smug. In the end I made a small triangle shape with my hands and then studied the sticky label at home to see how much it weighed.

Next time I asked for 200 grammi. "Ah si - do etti" said the guy.
"No, duecento grammi" said I. Bloody dialect doesn't help when you're struggling to learn.

After six months, I could follow most conversations but my mind would still wander sometimes in a group of people and just switch off from the sheer mental exhaustion of it all and a lot of times I would hear a word and think .... "ohhh, good word - must remember that one." By morning I'd forgotten it. I had to hear some words about 10 times before they'd stick, especially words like 'ancora'. No sooner did I learn what it meant, I would hear it in a totally different context with a totally different meaning.

Like Chris, there was no Internet, email, mobile phones, no nice forums etc. I used to give myself writer's cramp at least once a week and must have spent loads on stamps.

After 2 years I left the family but decided that I wanted to see if I could get a job using both my Italian and English before going back to Blighty. I got an office job so my Italian must have been good enough as we had more Italian clients than English and of course all the staff were Italian. I don't remember struggling there. I had to learn some new words and technical terms but that's true of lots of jobs if you change fields - even in your own langauge.

My surname is very difficult for the Italians. Most places like the photo shop or cleaners just used to write "Lorna" or "Inglese" on the tickets as it was easier but in some places you just can't avoid having to spell it out so I learnt the Italian alphabet spelling by using towns or cities .........

Firenze - Udine - Como - Empoli - Ancona etc. Thank you "Wheel of Fortune"

There are some things that even after all this time, are still 100% English in my head. I memorise phone numbers in English and I do all mental arithmatic in English

Gio

Great stuff...this all helps those struggling with Italian, just to give support to those still trying. I met a lass, Inglese, the other day and she said she had been here 3 years and had given up trying. Sad, but we are all not budding linguists and some of us find it difficult even in our own languge. So what to some may have seemed like a fatuous question....Has anyone.....Every little bit of encouragement helps those still trying....secundo me
Ern

Lorna at Vicenza

here's another bit of help then ........... it's secOndo me.

Don't forget folks that we have the language sticky as well now for anybody struggling with anything like sayings, phrases, dreaded verbs etc.

Once when argueing with an ex Italian boyfriend I did a perfect translation of "the straw that broke the camel's back" and was utterly furious when he fell about the floor laughing his head off. It was ages before he was calm enough to let me know that Italians say "the last drop that made the vase overflow".

Patty

Like Lorna I first came here many years ago and there was none of todays technology. Its seemed really daunting at first and I really thought I'd never learn the language. But slowly slowly - hubby at work all day and being alone and forced to do the shopping etc was a huge learning curve. Making mistakes is part of the fun and people are usually kind and helpful. I used to go and sit in a bar and then just watch and listen to the locals - you pick up so much by being fully immersed in the language.

Gio

[QUOTE=Lorna at Vicenza;7807791]here's another bit of help then ........... it's secOndo me.

There ya go...Thanks Lorna, just testing

Lorna at Vicenza

I remember that daunting feeling.

I also remember thinking that nearly everybody's voice sounded exactly the same. All the Italian just kind of washed over me and sounded like one big whoosh of gobbledy gook and not separate words and sounds.

It was just a barrage of nothingness at first. Anybody else get that feeling?

lynnxa

just popping in from Spain...................


in a lot of areas here it is completly possible to live for many years & barely need to learn a word of Spanish - are there areas like that in Italy too?

Lorna at Vicenza

Hi Lynnxa,

no areas like that anywhere near where I live.

There are thousands more expats in Spain than in Italy though.

Even though a part of me would love fish & chips now again, I think it would be a shame if Italy lost some of its charm to an all British environment like some parts of Spain.

Gio

Here, most folk speak in Dialect...so if you think you've learnt some Italian & step out into town...not many understand you, and no one over 70 speaks anything but Dialect. So....now you have to learn Dialect as well!!!!!

lindaf

Oh yes but then bit by bit words jump out at you and then (sometimes) whole sentences. I still can't remember all of the words and grammar and different construction of sentences that they use but it is getting better

Patty

Still feels like that now after a couple of glasses - only difference is that I'm a bit older (not wiser ) and I dont give a monkeys anymore

Gio

My Italian cousin...said that my Italian was so much better after the 3rd drink....Inhibited...me!
Ern