Here’s the second in our series of eight B1 (intermediate) level Italian listening tracks, complete with transcripts to study.
Today’s topic is ‘La cultura italiana’.
Now what could that be about, I wonder…
One useful listening technique is to ask yourself BEFORE you hear a text what you might expect it to contain. Teachers who know what they’re doing will often use this technique.
So ‘culture’ could mean what, in this context?
Art, opera, museums… Anything else?
Trying to predict what you’re likely to hear before pressing ‘play’ will get you thinking along the right lines, but also give you a ‘task’ to do when you’re actually listening.
Having tried to predict the text contents, you’ll then be keenly looking out for information that confirms or contradicts your ideas.
In short, you’ll be listening ‘actively’, rather than passively.
Why not give it a try?
Here’s the usual reminder not to be tempted to reach for the transcript until after you’ve listened a few times.
Your listening won’t be ‘stretched’ nearly as much if you don’t allow yourself a few chances to hear things and try to figure them out.
The transcript will still be there for when you get bored, or despairing.
(If you’re reading this in an e-mail, you’ll need to visit our website to hear the recording. Click here.
Transcript
2. LA CULTURA ITALIANA
Quando si parla di cultura italiana, spesso si parla di cucina e di arte.
Infatti la cultura italiana è molto diffusa nel mondo soprattutto per questi due fattori.
Tutti infatti almeno una volta nella vita hanno mangiato una pizza o la pasta.
Anche l’arte è molto famosa. Ogni anno milioni di turisti stranieri vengono in Italia per vedere le città d’arte più importanti come Roma, Firenze e Venezia e per visitare i musei più famosi, come, ad esempio, il Museo degli Uffizi di Firenze.
Però l’Italia non è solo questo. Infatti l’Italia viene anche chiamata il Bel Paese perché è ricco di bellezze paesaggistiche. Oltre alle città d’arte ci sono dei meravigliosi paesaggi naturali. Molti stranieri si sono trasferiti nella campagna toscana dopo essere andati in pensione.
Inoltre molte persone vengono in Italia per studiare l’italiano.
La cultura italiana è molto conosciuta nel mondo anche grazie agli italiani che l’hanno diffusa. Sono molti gli italiani che vivono all’estero. Questi hanno saputo portare la cultura italiana in tutto il mondo. Infatti negli anni trenta e quaranta molti italiani sono emigrati all’estero e alcuni hanno aperto scuole di lingua italiana.
La cultura italiana è ancora molto legata alla tradizione, alla cultura antica e alla storia ed è per questo che è molto amata anche all’estero.
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I’m at the checkout page but, oh my God, where’s my discount?
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John Thomson says
Unlike Karen I figured that ‘fattori’ was not ‘fattoria’ a farm but I take Daniels point about informed guesses
What I have found is that the Italian speakers are a bit ‘sloppy’ with their word endings
At least twice they pronounced ‘cultura’ as ‘culture’ and one ‘diffusa’ as ‘diffuso’
I know this has little or no effect on comprehension but why should we always get the ‘blame’ (uno scherzo)
I figure my score on B1.2 would be about the same ‘just a pass’
Keep them coming Daniel
Cheers
John
oesat
Daniel says
The final vowel sound is almost certain to be unstressed.
I’m not an Italian teacher, and in any case most of them talk absolute nonsense about pronunciation, if they have anything to say at all on the subject.
However, from teaching English, I know that vowels in unstressed syllables are often pronounced in a ‘weak’ way, compared to the same vowel in a stressed syllable.
Not being an Italian native speaker, I can’t be sure that it’s not just me ‘Englishing’ my Italian… But it’s quite possible that the same thing is true in Italian, which means that the final ‘o’s and ‘a’s and ‘e’s and ‘i’s of nouns (and adjectives) are likely to sound very much alike.
That was certainly my experience when I was first learning the language… People would tell me that you could work out the gender of a word by listening to the ending, but it often just sounded like an ‘uh’, rather than an ‘o’ or an ‘a’…
Was that just me not listening properly?
Or could it be that, as hypothesised, Italians (like English speakers) pronounce vowels differently in unstressed syllables, but then mentally fill in the gaps because of their knowledge of the word IF (and only if) you ask them to analyse what they said…
“Well, obviously I said ‘fattoria’, not ‘fattorio’ or ‘fattori-uh’… because that’s the way it’s spelt!”
If anyone’s got the time, go back and listen to the track (or tracks) and see if the endings are really pronounced clearly (or not). It would be interesting, no?
Karen says
Thanks, another tape with clear diction and nice speed. I did laugh that I misheard fattori as fattoria ! Slight difference. Sometimes you hear a word you are more familiar with. I have been known to confuse someone talking about la cugina when what I said sounded more like la cucina. A bit of a problem when I have a habit of running with the gist of a sentence instead of word by word
Daniel says
It’s a good habit! Word by word is a terribly inefficient way of listening, so making the occasional error when you guess at the over all meaning should be a small price to pay for the much greater pay off.
Italians speaking English always confuse ‘kitchen’ and ‘chicken’ by the way. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard ‘The kitchen’s in the chicken’