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Buondì.
Busy, busy today! I have to write something here, I have an online Swedish conversation, and I need to fit in a walk, while it’s still relatively cool.
What’s the hurry, you might be asking? Well, as RaiNews.it puts it, “Torna l’anticiclone africano“:
“Ultimi giorni di temperature gradevoli sul nostro Paese. Da giovedì è in arrivo, infatti, una nuova ondata di calore che potrebbe tenerci compagnia almeno fino a metà agosto.”
The weather has been quite ‘gradevoli’ recently, for August at least. But from tomorrow it won’t be. Watch the forecast here and scroll down past the video to read the accompanying article.
N.b. https://www.rainews.it/ is a pretty ugly site, but it’s free, and covers the main things going on in Italy in a fairly accessible way. If you like gruesome murders, mysterious drownings, and tragic auto incidents, you’ll love it. I have their app on my phone and check it daily or more often.
So anyway, another reason I’ve been busy is that I’ve finally had the time and ‘voglia’ to tidy up OnlineItalianClub.com’s baby-brother websites (‘sito’ is masculine, so not baby-sister) in an attempt to sell some French, Spanish and German ebooks.
Yesterday, for instance, I posted “How’s your French reading/listening comprehension going?” over at OnlineFrenchClub.com, with the idea of promoting the free ‘easy reader’ and a half-price offer on an intermediate French text.
Today, if I get time, I’ll be doing the same thing for OnlineSpanishClub.com, and tomorrow perhaps also OnlineGermanClub.com, time permitting.
Not in the slightest bit interested?? You’re learning ITALIAN, not French or Spanish!
Yes, but Italian is a Romance language, cioè deriving from ‘Roman’, otherwise known as Vulgar Latin (Romans used lots of cuss words).
Wikipedia has a lot more on Romance languages if you’re interested, including the fact that the most-widely-spoken Romance languages by number of native speakers are Spanish (489 million), Portuguese (240 million) French (80 million), and Italian (67 million).
So?
The Tree Model (there are others, but if you’re new to comparative linguistics it’s a start) explains how and why these widely spoken languages are related, and in many ways similar.
A while back, while attempting to improve my Spanish, I was in the habit of listening to Spanish radio news. It wasn’t nearly as easy for me as Italian, obviously, though I could get the gist at times.
Catalan is an official language in Spain, so whenever the radio news featured someone prominent from the Catalan-speaking area, they’d include a translation of what was being said from the speaker’s Catalan into the listeners’ Castilian Spanish, that being more widespread in Spain.
Surprisingly, I found I could understand Catalan much more easily than Castilian! I guess it must be more similar to Italian (ask a comparative linguist for confirmation of that) but I’d never have imagined I could understand some Catalan until I actually tried, so I’m glad I did.
When I was at school I ‘studied’ French, though half-heartedly and with zero conviction that I’d ever be able to speak or understand it.
Yet after more than a quarter of a century living in Italy, when I now quite often listen to French radio news (France.info, there’s an app) I find it’s one of my ‘easiest’ foreign languages. I get more from French radio than I do from Swedish, and I’ve been working on my Swedish for years.
Our former neighbours here in Bologna are Romanian. He’s a builder, she works in my local Coop, and their two boys are soccer mad.
This part of Italy is full of Romanians, who moved here for work in same way that Mexicans used to cross the Rio Grande in persuit of the American Dream. For decades Italians didn’t bother having children. Romanians filled the gaps in workplace (also Moldavans…)
Romanians? You’d probably never know if you met one when travelling in Italy, as they tend to speak perfect Italian, and can be quite shy about their origins. But how come, I always wondered, that these people can learn Italian so easily and well while I struggle and make such SLOW progress?
Romanian (25 million) is another Romance language, that’s how come. Like French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan, and others.
Insomma, if you’re into Italian but think you know no French, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Romanian and so on, think again.
Try reading/listening to another Romance language and you’ll probably notice strong similarities.
And if you’ve reached a reasonable level in Italian, you’d have a definite head-start with the others.
At the very least, help me out – why don’t you – by taking a look at OnlineFrenchClub.com and/or OnlineSpanishClub.com,
The Spanish site has lots of listenings with transcripts, for instance. And grammar explanations from beginner to B1.
The French site has listenings too (I particularly like the ‘Une journée dans la vie’ series – scroll right down to the end of this page) but also reading texts, which one of my daughter’s college friends wrote for us during the pandemic.
For real beginners, both sites have the FREE ‘easy reader’ to read and listen to. Find them here: French ‘easy reader’ | Spanish ‘easy reader’.
There! Now you’re a polyglot!
Alla prossima settimana.
Two Half-Price Italian ‘Easy Reader’ Ebooks: Just £4.99 Each
This week just like last week, over at our ebooks store there are two (!) half-price Italian ‘easy reader’ ebooks, ‘L’imperatore e i giochi‘ and ‘Diventare regina. La storia di Caterina de’ Medici‘, both of which are at intermediate/upper-intermediate level.
These original stories (text plus online audio) will keep you turning the pages – and so improving your Italian reading/listening comprehension skills, grammar, and vocabulary – but at HALF the normal price!
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‘The philosopher’, Marco Aurelio (121 – 180 CE), was the last of the ‘Five Good Emperors’ who ruled during the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace and stability.
Join him and his son as they head off to the Colosseum for an afternoon of ‘entertainment’ – watching gladiators fight to the death.
The boy can’t wait! But his father is less than enthusiastic…
- .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
- .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
- 8 chapters to read and listen to
- Comprehension questions to check your understanding
- Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
- Suitable for students at any level
- Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)
Remember, this week ‘L’imperatore e i giochi‘ is 50% discounted, so just £4.99 rather than the usual ‘easy reader’ ebook price of £9.99!
Buy ‘L’imperatore e i giochi‘ just £4.99! | Free Sample Chapter (.pdf) | History/historical Italian ebooks | Catalog
Find more ebooks, organised by level, then type: A1 | A1/A2 | A2 | A2/B1 | B1 | B1/B2 | B2 | B2/C1 | C1 | C1/C2 | C2
Orphaned while still a baby, Caterina de’ Medici doesn’t have much going for her. Though there is one thing…
7 Agosto 1530. Corte Papale, Roma
“Avanti, avanti Caterina, camminate più veloce. E ricordate di inchinarvi davanti al Santo Padre! Il nostro Papa Clemente VII è un uomo meraviglioso, e ora avete un’udienza da sola con lui. Non siete emozionata? Siete fortunata ad avere… un santo in Paradiso! Proprio così, è un modo di dire molto appropriato.”
La vecchia suora, che ridacchia isterica, trascina Caterina per una mano e riprende: “Lo dico perché è un Medici come voi. E di certo è un uomo santo. Forza, forza, camminate. Non vogliamo fare aspettare Sua Santità” bisbiglia nervosa.
Caterina’s still only twelve years old, but her uncle, the Pope, is already busy reviewing possible husbands for her, with a view to strengthening ties between the Papacy and one or the other of Europe’s powerful royal families. Perhaps the time has come for her to learn French?
- .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
- .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
- 8 chapters to read and listen to
- Comprehension questions to check your understanding
- Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
- Suitable for students at intermediate level or above
- Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)
Remember, this week ‘Diventare regina. La storia di Caterina de’ Medici‘ is 50% discounted, so just £4.99 rather than the usual ‘easy reader’ ebook price of £9.99!
Buy ‘Diventare regina. La storia di Caterina de’ Medici‘ just £4.99! | Free Sample Chapter (.pdf) | History/historical Italian ebooks | Catalog
Find more ebooks, organised by level, then type: A1 | A1/A2 | A2 | A2/B1 | B1 | B1/B2 | B2 | B2/C1 | C1 | C1/C2 | C2
How do I access my ebook?
When your order is ‘completed’ (normally immediately after your payment), a download link will be automatically emailed to you. It’s valid for 7 days and 3 download attempts so please save a copy of the .pdf ebook in a safe place. Other versions of the ebook, where available, cannot be downloaded but will be emailed to people who request them. There’s a space to do that on the order form – where it says Additional information, Order notes (optional). If you forget, or if you have problems downloading the .pdf, don’t worry! Email us at the address on the website and we’ll help. Also, why not check out our FAQ?
P.S.
Don’t forget to read/listen to Tuesday’s bulletin of news from EasyItalianNews.com.
Reading/listening practice will help you consolidate the Italian you’re studying, expand your vocabulary, and build vital comprehension skills.
EasyItalianNews.com is FREE to read/listen to.
Subscribing, and so receiving all three text + audio bulletins of ‘easy’ news via email each week -on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays – is also FREE.
Just enter your email address on this page and click the confirmation link that will be sent to you.
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Lynne F says
Again an interesting article Daniel.For someone who was told at school that I had no aptitude for languagesI I have surprised my self how. I have understood signs ,menus, etc and even had a few basic conversations with the locals in.countries that speak the. Romance languages.. Even getting. a ‘pat on the back’ from hubby and friends when in Portugal for getting us to our destination and all getting the right food and drink in the restaurant 😄
Julie M says
I totally agree with Lynne F, I was also labelled as “unsuited” to language learning at school and at that age the judgement of others, especially teachers, sticks with you.
However since retiring to Italy and realising that learning the language was going to be very useful/necessary I got on with it….. and to my astonishment I can make myself understood and understand most of what is happening around me (with the exception of conversations in our local dialect!) and as an added bonus, I can make out a bit of Spanish and French too.
I would say to anyone who believes themself to be inept at languages, find a good reason to try and you’ll be surprised how much you can recognise in many other languages too.
“Aptitude” and “suitability” ……??? chains to be broken.
Daniel says
“Aptitude” and “suitability” ……??? chains to be broken.
Well said, Julie!
I taught many thousands of students in my career (English to foreigners) and while I met a handful who made exceptional progress, I don’t recall ever teaching an adult or child who wasn’t as capable as their peers.
Language-learning ability is innate but, as you say, it all comes down to having a reason to learn. Without which it’s unsurprising that people don’t (not ‘can’t).