Buondì.

I use a .txt file to organise my life.

This has got to be the most primitive possible way to create ‘to do’ lists and schedule appointments, other than using a piece of paper and a pen.

However I touch type faster than I use a pen, and my computer goes everywhere with me, so .txt file it is!

(Windows users, to ape my sophisticated approach, search in Windows/Accessories for Notepad, which does .txt files and only .txt files!)

The first thing I do in the morning, while I’m having my coffee, is to open the text file I optimistically named ‘Calendario’ and check what I’ve got lined up for the day:

FRIDAY 20 JULY
ask for credit for Dan lesson missed yesterday
packing x Rimini?
change mybusiness hours (sat closed, 16.30 afternoons)
no bank withdrawals all weekend
OIC
Mi piace e non mi piace
onlineitalianclub.com/italian-native-speaker-conversations-mi-piace-e-non-mi-piace/
onlineitalianclub.com/new/
onlineitalianclub.com/italian-conversation-lessons-mi-piace-e-non-mi-piace/
work out how to get blood test result
impon do proper set of targets and how to reach them
LANGUAGES
plan language learning – do what, when, why
8sidor
DL
real news
Frank’s lessons and videos
Swedish reading – Valkompass?
book more lessons after holiday?

Beh, it’s quite a long list for a Friday when I’m leaving for the beach mid-morning, so I don’t expect I’ll get everything done.

Let’s cross something off right away, while I think about it:

Mi piace e non mi piace is today’s new audio with transcript, for your listening pleasure!

And I’ll add it to our ‘New’ page, so you can easily find it later without having to go back and read old emails.

And I’ll mention that you can find the ‘conversation prompts’ on which the interview is based here.

There, now the list looks a little shorter:

FRIDAY 20 JULY
ask for credit for Dan lesson missed yesterday
packing x Rimini?
change mybusiness hours (sat closed, 16.30 afternoons)
no bank withdrawals all weekend
OIC
work out how to get blood test result
impon do proper set of targets and how to reach them
LANGUAGES
plan language learning – do what, when, why
8sidor
DL
real news
Frank’s lessons and videos
Swedish reading – Valkompass?
book more lessons after holiday?

And Dan (one of my Swedish teachers) just emailed offering to reschedule the lesson we missed, so I can cross that off too.

So, once I’ve finished this article and packed my beach gear for the weekend, there’ll just be a few bits and pieces left.

Plus the whole ‘languages’ section, which I copy and paste, in my sophisticated way, from day to day: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and so to today!

Remember, the application I’m using is called ‘Notepad’ (‘Blocco note’ in Italian, as I have an Italian computer).

There’s a reason for that – not all the stuff on my list is actually going to get done.

Some of these items are aspirational, while some of them I really will do!

LANGUAGES
plan language learning – do what, when, why (This is a ‘put off until I’m in the mood’…)
8sidor (easy Swedish news to read and listen to – I do this every weekday, without fail!)
DL (today I’ll finish the first level of Duolingo Turkish, which has been really useful to help me remember the language after 20 years, and to support my online conversation lessons)
real news (I try to read the Swedish state TV news website – some days I manage it, some days I don’t. The same with ‘real’ news broadcasts…)
Frank’s lessons and videos (Frank, another Swedish teacher, sent me some great lessons and videos to do. But I’ll probably put off doing them until just before I have another lesson with him, and he’s on holiday right now…)
Swedish reading – Valkompass? (A questionnaire on the up-coming Swedish election, with loads of useful political terms, which I really should read, sometime…)
book more lessons after holiday? (indeed, ‘after’ the holiday…)

So today’s list, much of which will be copied and pasted on to tomorrow, actually represents a mix of things that I always do (easy news, duolingo) and things I’d like to do if I had the time and energy.

Guess which category results in the most progress??

The trick, I’ve found, is to add things to the ‘always do’ part of my day, without taking on too much and so overloading myself, which does get demotivating.

Listening and reading are always good, and get easier with time, so the habit is self-reinforcing.

Doing online lessons or a course falls into the same category – once you book some, or sign up, then the lesson or class becomes just another thing to cross off the list, no real motivation required!

One-offs, like my Swedish election reading task, are easy to postpone – I manage it every day…

Sooner or later I’ll either do the work, delete the note, or the election will be over and the questionnaire will no longer be available!

The ‘always dos’ are ‘always dos’ for a reason – they’re the language-learning activities that, for whatever magical reason, don’t get put off.

Choose your habits wisely, then.

That way, even if your ‘to do’ list is a mess like mine, you’ll soon find your Italian moving in the right direction!

Think about it.

A lunedì.

Buondì.

As you’ve no doubt already heard, ad nauseam, I study Swedish (I just added it to my LinkedIn profile, so it must be true.)

The idea is to have material to write about, given that I’m no longer learning Italian (though I live and work in Italy.)

Plus, I recently started Turkish lessons, in an effort to remember a language that I used to know well several decades ago.

Now, learning two languages at the same time was clearly going to be problematic.

I admit, though, I was unprepared for that helpless feeling of being utterly ‘blocked’ when I tried to speak Turkish.

These days I can chat away for ages in Swedish, with close to zero accuracy but always managing to find some way to express myself.

But when it comes to Turkish, while I can understand much of what is said to me, as soon as I open my mouth… Swedish comes out!

Or Italian, or I give up and resort to speaking in English.

Che vergogna!

I have a similar problem when it comes to remembering Turkish words – I KNOW them when I read them or hear them, but when I need to use them in speech – I blank!

OK, so in this morning’s lesson, I was like, OK, so I can’t speak at all but at least I can read my teacher some questions, that way she’ll speak and I can just listen.

So I clicked through to a set Turkish conversation prompts that we’d had translated previously for OnlineTurkishClub.com.

I picked ‘Work and School’, which I figured would give us plenty to talk about, and read out the first question.

My teacher corrected my pronunciation, then answered, and away we went!

I was listening but also responding: “Really, why do you do that?”, “Oh me too!” and so on.

The pressure was completely off, which helped a lot. Each time I got stuck, I went back and chose another question.

The rest of my hour-long lesson passed in a flash, and I even learnt some new words!

In retrospect, it would have been a good idea to read/study the questions first.

I was just picking them out at random, but some weren’t relevant to the situation. And there were words I didn’t know, which I could easily have checked beforehand.

Insomma, preparation would have made the lesson more fruitful.

But anyway, if what I’ve described, that idea of being totally ‘blocked’, of being unable to hold up your end of the conversation, sounds familiar, then why not give it a try for yourself?

Having some text support takes the pressure off and can give a ‘speaking’ lesson focus and purpose.

So here’s a new set of Italian conversation prompts, which I’ve just added to our conversation page this morning.

The topic is ‘E se…?‘ (And if…?)

Or select a topic from our ‘conversation prompts page‘ – there are now nineteen to choose from!

P.S.

Obviously, you don’t have to be ‘blocked’ to use these.

They’re even more valuable if you are already good at speaking Italian but just need something to get you started…

If you don’t have a teacher to practice with, you could consider taking some online lessons.

Or you could practice with someone else you know who’s studying Italian.

Speaking practice is speaking practice – you don’t need a native-speaker or a teacher present for it to be useful, and fun!

A venerdì.