Italiano With Jodina

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…

This is an exciting nite for many an Italian child, as they will hang stockings before bed tonite in anticipation of a visit from the Befana who will fill them with yummy treats.

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.

According to Italian legend, la Befana lived on the route the Three Magi took when they set out to visit the Infant Jesus. They stopped at her house to ask her for directions to Bethlehem as well as for food and shelter. However Befana wasn’t in a very sociable mood just then and told them to be off. Later, she had a change of heart and decided she wouldn’t mind entertaining a few guests after all. But by then the guests were far beyond recall. Befana decided to go after them in any case and set off for Bethlehem. Like them, she followed the Star in the Sky, but unlike them she was unable to find the stable where the Christ Child lay. Befana however wasn’t the sort to give up and is still flying around looking through windows and down chimney tops. She visits every house where there are children and leaves gifts just in case one of them happens to be the Christ Child. For the naughty children it is said she only leaves coal – but that is very rare since there are very seldom any really naughty children, especially during Christmas time, when they know Befana is on her way

Here an eyewitness report from my friend Giancarlo:
“The night before the Befana day, we kids used to hang a Befana sock on the “CAPPA” [hearth or stove] in the kitchen.
Our parents used to fill it with a lot of sweets, “mandarini” [mandarin oranges], and a special gift for the days we were a little bit naughty (sweet coal = sugar with the appearance of coal)!”

{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/

Lentils are little round flat legumes, often used in soup or stew. Popular Italian tradition has it that since the lentil shape resembles a coin, eating it on New Year’s Eve or Day guarantees good health and prosperity all year long. It is common in Italy to eat dishes containing lenticchie on New Year’s Eve.

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!

Prospero anno nuovo! (Prosperous new year!)

KEY WORDS

The Days:

La vigilia di Natale (Christmas Eve)

Natale (Christmas)

Santo Stefano (Saint Stephen, Dec. 26th)

Capo d’anno (New Year’s Eve)

Epifania (Epiphany, 6^th Jan.)

Greetings:

Buon Natale (Merry Christmas)

Buone Feste (Happy Holidays)

Felice/Prospero Anno Nuovo (Happy/Prosperous New Year)

The Characters:

Babbo Natale (Santa Claus or ‘Father Christmas’)

Gesu’ Bambino (Baby Jesus)

Tre magi (3 wise men)

La Befana (A present-delivering old woman, on a broom!)

The Setting:

Presepe, presepio (Nativity scene)

Regali (Presents)

Calza (Stocking)

L’albero di natale (Christmas tree)

Panettone (Dome-shaped Christmas cake with candied fruit, originated in Milano)

Cenone (big dinner)

Chiesa (Church), Santa messa (Holy mass)

Lenticchie (Lentils)

Italian Christmas Traditions & Practices – A Survey

I asked my friends in Italia (Milano, Lombardia Region) the following questions:
Generally, what is the tradition on present-giving in Italy? Who gives gifts to whom? Do adults exchange gifts? And when are gifts give to children, and by whom? – the day of Christmas or la Befana [Epiphany]? By Santa Claus or by the Befana? Who goes to church and when? And when and how do families celebrate together (a big dinner, which day? Typically, what is eaten?)

What follows is a synthesis of their answers. Following my summary are the actual answers of my friends, in original form. Take a look; see what you can understand. Buona lettura!

“Generally speaking, everyone gives gifts to everyone. Among adults: friends exchange gifts, especially younger adults. Gifts are also important between spouses and couples. Among adult family members, it is common to exchange ‘small gesture’ gifts, just to have something to unwrap, such as a tie, stockings, or a silk scarf. Also in use is giving a card that tells the recipient a donation has been made in their name (e.g. to the cancer foundation).

Like ‘everywhere’ children receive the bulk of the gifts! These are left under the albero or near the presepe, by Babbo Natale or Gesu` Bambino – depending on how religious the family is. Most often, kids wake up Christmas morning and run to see if Santa/Baby Jesus came by with presents during the night.

Some families observe la Befana on Jan. 6th and some don’t. The Befana fills kids’ stockings with candies, chocolate and sweets if they’ve been good, and ‘carbone’ – a dark-colored sugar candy shaped like coal – if they’ve been bad.
Yet another ‘twist’ on when bambini receive their gifts is in the Bergamo area (50km northeast of Milano). There, kids get presents on December 13th, Santa Lucia Day, which also coincides with a similar practice in Scandinavia.)

Church: In smaller towns and the in the south, more people go to church for Natale. In bigger cities, only the very religious go to a Christmas mass or service. Though like in the US, those who don’t go to church every Sunday will often go on the occasion of Christmas. The most popular is midnight mass on Christmas Eve, but many also go Christmas morning.

Celebrating Christmas in family is very important and consists most importantly of eating, eating, and eating! As one friend reported, the eating/celebrating starts the 24th and continues on thru the 26th/27th, only to start up again on Capo d’Anno. “The average Christmas or New Year’s Eve meal lasts 8-12 hours.” (And he was only half joking!) The most common day of the big family dinner depends on location: in Rome and further south it’s a huge dinner on the evening of Christmas Eve, based on fish, especially eel. In northern Italy, families tend to celebrate on Christmas day with a midday dinner based on some type of roast meat. And perhaps the most common dolce (dessert) – especially in the north, since it originated in Milano – is panettone – this sweet fruit cake absolutely, ‘rigorosamente’ must be a part of the meal.
And finally, many claim that southerners are bigger ‘mangioni’ than northerners– m’boh! Seems to me like both do some pretty serious face-stuffing (abbuffare)!

Decorations (Decorazioni) /day-cohr-ahts-yohn-ee/

As a rule, Italians do not much decorate their homes for the holidays, except for a nativity scene, and perhaps a Christmas tree, but it will usually be small-ish, possibly a live tree still in the pot, and not super-loaded with ornaments. In the downtown areas of cities and towns there will be lights and other decorations along the street. Larger cities will be especially lit up, and some have begun using LED lights because they are energy-saving and less polluting.

Mistletoe (Vischio) /vees-keeoh/

During the Holiday Season it is an old tradition to give Mistletoe, especially the last day of the year. It is often dipped in gold or silver paint, and it is given as a symbol of good wishes, or ‘auguri’. One of my friends reported that, “a large bank in the downtown has mounted a huge ‘vischio’ and they invite whoever wants to stand under it, and two nice shanghai girls take pictures while people kiss one another…”

Ah at long last! An Italian spell-checker….. free & online!

Tho I am pretty good at spelling, I am NOT the world’s best typist… and so as a writer, the spell-checker is one of my favorite tools.

I’ve long wished I could have a spell-checker for Italian at my fingertips (living in the States and having an English version of Word means that the built-in version only checks for accuracy of English spelling).

So, I recently went searching for an online spell-checker, and lo and behold, I found one that is not only free of charge, but doesn’t need to be downloaded AND doesn’t cause all kinds of annoying pop-up windows to open on my computer.

Yaay! No more worrying whether I doubled a consonant unnecessarily!

🙂 No more typos! Try it yourself: http://spellchecker.net

18 dicembre 2009

Oggi e` il compleanno di mia sorella Wendy & le voglio augurare una bellissima giornata–
Ciao bella, che te la godi fin in fondo… ed altro cent’anni così`!!