I remember dreaming about one day being able to speak Italian without stumbling or translating first in my head. If you are thinking of learning Italian or in the middle of your linguistic journey, here are the mistakes I made and heard the most from noi stranieri or English speakers when I first moved to Italy.
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I’ve been in Italy six months (I’m around intermediate level) and the “ti manco” thing always puzzled me! I’d love to see more language posts, maybe about how you learnt the language from the beginning…
Thanks for letting me know. I’d gladly share more language posts as it’s one of the elements of living in Italy that I feel most passionate about. People often say to me “how did you end up doing THAT… or how did you meet THOSE people?” and I have to say that most beautiful experiences I’ve had in Italy have been thanks to the language.
Reading you, dear friends, make me feel a bit of pride to be Italian.
I’d be happy to respond, in the way that my poor English will allow me, to your any questions about my country, my language and my culture.
Ciao a tutti.
I came across Romeing in the magazine form for the first time 3 years ago at Dilit, where I came to study Italian. I’ve been coming back ever since, got my C2 last December and now split my time between the UK and Rome. I still read Romeing and keep back copies handy for visiting friends and family. The ‘fa senso’ is the one and only correction we always felt was OK to make at school – because it means ‘it makes me sick’ and that’s not a mistake you want to be making. The use of the present tense in polite requests, I was explained, is the formulating the request as a question. It’s the implied uncertainty, the question, that makes it a polite request and not an order. ‘will you bring me a coffee?’ x ‘bring me a coffee’. One useful thing to keep in mind is the way Romans understand time and words like dopo, un’oretta etc. Ci sentiamo dopo/domani/fra un po’… But that would make for a whole new article for Romeing. And a special thank you for your article about dating that you ran about 3 years ago. All our teachers confirmed it was spot on and it saved us a lot of heartache and confusion.
Thank you so much for this video!! The best part for me was you admitting how nervous you were and hanging up on people. I moved here 4 months ago not speaking a word and I have to say I can relate to the nervousness but at the same time I am working hard and I am getting better. I cannot wait until the day I feel comfortable with every day tasks!! If you have any advice on how to learn and what you found worked best for you and about how long it took you to feel comfortable that would be a huge help!