The Language Barrier

Well, I'm ashamed to confess that after living in Italy for a year I still can't hold a conversation in Italian. I'm really good at getting by and talking food, but honestly that is about it. I still find myself speaking Spanish with an Italian accent, without even realizing, yet thinking people will understand.

And, while I'm confessing, I'll add that I bought a great Italian textbook while I was here as an intern in 2009 and I'm still on the Primi contatti, the little section that comes before lesson one. Yup, it's bad.

I work in English and English is the common language with all my friends, so I really only need Italian on the weekends when we are going to the market, running errands, or going out to eat. But, it definitely doesn't give you a good sense of belonging and I need to stop making excuses. So I'm making it my goal to become fluent in Italian. I'm going to spend 30 minutes each weekday and then 1-2 hours a day on the weekends studying, and I'm going insist that my Italian friends only speak Italian with me.

I'm throwing caution to the wind and putting my fears of sounding stupid aside. So here's to learning the language. Wish me luck!

Ciao a tutti.