Welcome back!

Here we are at part 4 of a 5-part series on ways to speed up your rate of learning.

The great ideas that follow are the result of a challenge I posed to my students:

“Come up with entertaining & enriching ways to bring more Italian language and culture into your everyday lives between classes.”

The Result:

“50 Ways to Accelerate Your Learning Curve”

Try a few,  enjoy ~ for that is the true spirit in which to learn a new language!

Here are the next 10 items:

1. Visit Italy.
2. Find a friend/family member who also wants to learn or speaks Italian and talk to each other daily.
3. Talk to yourself–using Italian words and phrases learned in Jodina’s class.
4. Move to Italy where you are completely immersed in the language!
5. Watch how-to-learn-Italian DVDs.
6. Read Italian children’s books (find them at local libraries, with English translations).
7. Ask questions.
8. Find Italian friends to talk to on Face book.
9. Listen to Italian music on computer/internet, E.g., RadioItalyLive.com.
10. Use polite Italian phrases (i.e., grazie, prego, per favore) and greetings.

Welcome back!

This is Part 3 of a 5-part series on ideas and ways to amp up your speed of learning. (Aumentare la tua velocità di apprendimento)

I challenged my students to come up with entertaining and enriching ways to bring more Italian language and culture into their everyday lives in between classes.

The Result:

“50 Ways to Accelerate Your Learning Curve”

Try a few,  enjoy ~ for that is the true spirit in which to learn a new language!

21. Become familiar with Italian wine.
22. Read about famous Italian persons.
23. Tell others about things Italian.
24. Take Italian lessons/classes.
25. Practice Daily.
26. Arrange with a “phone buddy” to talk in Italian everyday, even if nothing more than greetings and “small talk” to begin with.
27. Use your Mp3 player to listen to language courses as you exercise or walk. Sample a free trial at www.bbc.co.uk/languages.steps/italian/.
28. Listen to Italian music or language CDs/tapes while cooking.
29. Use your CD player in the car to listen to Italian music.
30. Enroll in the Yahoo Italian group – read the emails, translating those that are entirely in Italian with an online translator.

‘Dare sui nervi a qualcuno’ or ‘Dare ai nervi a qualcuno’ means to ‘get on somebody’s nerves.’

Here’s an example perfect for the weather this past week in Southern California:

La pioggia incomincia a darmi sui nervi!
[The rain is starting to get on my nerves!]

Use it today and impress your amici!

Ciao a tutti!

Hello again!

 

Thanks for stopping by for Part II of the 5-part series on ways to amp up your speed of learning. (Aumentare la tua velocità di apprendimento)

 

These entertaining and intriguing ideas are the result of a brainstorm challenge I gave my students to come up with ways to bring more Italian language and culture into their everyday lives in between classes.

 

“50 Ways to Accelerate Your Learning Curve”

Here, the second 10 –


 

Try a few, step out of your comfort zone, enjoy ~ for that is the true spirit in which to learn a new language!

1. Talk with Italian friends.
2. Listen to and speak with Italian language CDs.
3. Teach Italian words to friends.
4. Eat at Italian restaurants, possibly ones that have their menus in Italian; talk to Italian waiters.
5. Go to an Italian market and read labels on food products.
6. Read instructions for appliances & gadgets printed in various languages.
7. Buy Italian books and magazines.
8. Watch Italian TV commercials & listen to Italian music on YouTube.com.
9. Look up Italian recipes on the internet.
10. Listen to Italian opera.

Hello and welcome!

“50 Ways to Accelerate Your Learning Curve”

1. Rent and watch Italian movies.
2. Hang out in little Italy.
3. Find Italians to speak with on Skype.
4. Join/go to Italian language MeetUp groups, clubs.
5. Pretend to be Italian while alone in the car, unable to speak English.
6. Increase vocabulary by learning new words for everyday household items. Paste Italian words around the house, on sticky notes.
7. Read books set in and about Italy, including:                                               La Bella Lingua by Dianne Hales, Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes, Living in a Foreign Language by Michael Tucker, 1000 Days in Venice by Marlena de Blasi, Too Much Tuscan Sun by Dario Castagno
8. Cook Italian dishes.
9. Check out blogs/websites dedicated to things Italian, including:
   1. www.BecomingItalian.com, www.LaBellaLingua.org, www.alifeintranslation.com, www.ItalianoWithJodina.com
10. Listen to and sing along with Italian music CDs.

La Befana, aka a present-delivering old woman on a broom, officially ushers out the Italian Christmas season… read on…

La Befana is a character in Italian folklore usually portrayed as a smiling old lady riding a broomstick through the air, wearing a black shawl and covered in soot because she enters children’s houses through the chimney. She fills Italian children’s stockings (calze) with candy and presents if they are good or a lump of coal or dark candy if they are bad, on January 6^th. This date also coincides with the Epiphany, when the wise men are said to have arrived at the scene of Jesus’ birth. Epiphany/La Befana/January 6^th marks the end of the Italian Christmas holiday season.

{Thanks again GC!}

While here in the U.S. we’re back to work, back to school, the tree’s out to the curb, and the manger’s back in the box… in Italia it ain’t quite over just yet.

Back at the presepio, or nativity scene, recently buzzing with the arrival of Gesu Bambino (Baby Jesus) on Christmas day, they’re still awaiting the arrival of the tre magi (3 wise men). The three kings, Melchiore, Gaspare, and Baldassare won’t get into town until January 6th, known in Italy as L’Epifania, or the Epiphany.

The tradition in Italy is to place the figurines of the tre magi far from the presepio on Christmas day, and then move them closer to the nativity scene step by step until they finally reach it on January 6th.  The Neopolitan nativity scenes (‘O Presebbio, in dialect)  are noted as being particulary elaborate, ornate, and artistic.

Following are a few links to more info on Neopolitan ‘presepi’ and the three wise men. These sites are in Italian, for you to practice and/or run thru a translator. Enjoy!

I Re Magi (The Magi or 3 Wise Men/kings)

Presepe Napilitano, Wikipedia italiano (includes pictures)

{Vorrei ringraziare il mio amico Giancarlo per il suo input nel realizzare questo blog post. 1000 grazie GC!}

Lentils (Lenticchie) /lehn-tee-keeay/

Can’t or don’t want to cook up a lentil stew? Nessun problema — carrying a bag of lentils while crossing the threshold to your casa also symbolizes prosperity in the coming year!