nuccia wrote:

Italian (or rather the Calabrese dialect) was the first thing I learned to speak at home. My parents came from Italy in 1957 and 1961 respectively and I was born two years later. Mom could barely speak any English and never really thought to talk to us in proper Italian although she can speak it beautifully. Regardless, we continued speaking Italian to our parents until we were in high school, and even after both my parents became fluent in English...it just seemed natural. While I now understand Italian fairly well (and I guess I can somewhat speak it if I try hard enough and think carefully first, I still feel out of my comfort zone. Ask Simy. She came here expecting to learn English and left talking Calabrese instead! I think I found that the words themselves are not that herd - it's the pronunciation thats the killer. If you don't get that from the get go then you will have a harder time, like me. As for the post question..I see all the posts and not just the last three. Is the problem fixed for you now?

Nuccia,

I would be curious to know - how different is Calabresi from Italian? I understand that that region had a lot of Greek colonies in ancient times - has this affected the language much?

Robert wrote:

nuccia wrote: Italian (or rather the Calabrese dialect) was the first thing I learned to speak at home. My parents came from Italy in 1957 and 1961 respectively and I was born two years later. Mom could barely speak any English and never really thought to talk to us in proper Italian although she can speak it beautifully. Regardless, we continued speaking Italian to our parents until we were in high school, and even after both my parents became fluent in English...it just seemed natural. While I now understand Italian fairly well (and I guess I can somewhat speak it if I try hard enough and think carefully first, I still feel out of my comfort zone. Ask Simy. She came here expecting to learn English and left talking Calabrese instead! I think I found that the words themselves are not that herd - it's the pronunciation thats the killer. If you don't get that from the get go then you will have a harder time, like me. As for the post question..I see all the posts and not just the last three. Is the problem fixed for you now? Nuccia, I would be curious to know - how different is Calabresi from Italian? I understand that that region had a lot of Greek colonies in ancient times - has this affected the language much?

I hope this will make you smile. I'm sure it will make Nuccia laugh!

>HERE<

The 'operator' repeats a lot of what is said into 'Italian'!!!

Ok..I couldn't even finish listening to that - I was laughing so hard! That sounds exactly like my 96 year old great aunt! The old lady is definitely from the Cosenza area...I can tell but her accent. And funny enough, I have actually made fun of some of my relatives my imitating the same dialect! (Even my mom laughs).

Ok, so this will give you an idea about how different and complex the dialects are. I met a lady several years ago from Northern Italy who became good friends with my parents. I saw her on the weekend and she heard me have a "real" conversation with my mom in our dialect and was amazed. She said when she first met her husband and told him of her desire to learn English he told her that she must first learn Calabrese and Sicilian and then she would be ready to learn English since they were practically languages of their own. As for the Greek influence..my dad is from Reggio, near the Ionica Sea so he speaks a whole different dialect than my mother (and one I am only just learning to understand). Because of him, I can understand some Sicilian dialects since the words and accent he uses are similar. Mom on the other hand is from the mountains in Cosenza..totally different dialect, totally different mentality, and totally different influences in my opinion.

Hi Nuccia,
I will send you a private message in regard to the technical problem.

I'm still enjoying the Rosetta Stone very much. Spending about an hour each evening on the program. I will give an updated review of the product after I finish unit 2.

Donna

Thanks Donna. I did get your PM. Yes, let us know how you are making out. It sounds like alot of fun. Once you're done, I will give you a crash course in Calabrese if you like!

What do you like if we had a section where we were only allowed to write our posts in Italian? Maybe even one from Spanish for our friends from Argentina, Brazil and Chile. Hmm..am really interested in your opinions folks. I think it may help us all with our "International" skills and would level out the playing fields by the poor souls that have to write in English all the time.

Progress Update:

Well, I have now finished Unit 2 of Rosetta Stone Level I. It was called "Greetings and Introductions" but it also included more numbers, more colors, clothing, a few countries, hunger, thirst, in, on, under, near, far, a few more adjectives, and of course more exposure to the sounds and grammer of the language. It took me much longer to complete unit 2 than unit 1. The program is constantly asking me to review previous material for reinforcement and that is probably a good thing and I have found it helpful.

I am gaining more appreciation for the total immersion method. There is no English spoken at all. No grammer rules are given. Sometimes this is very effective and I try to restrain from translating the words that are spoken into English. The point is to teach yourself to "think" in Italian. Sometimes I can't help myself and I find myself saying, "cintura - belt." The grammer is driving me nuts and a few times I had to look up a few things in a "Living Language" book that I bought in one of my previous attempts to learn Italian. Some aspects of Italian simply amaze me. There really is no direct translation for "his" and "her". Sua and suo are gender specific to the article being possessed, but not to the person who possesses. That really threw me for a while. I'm not sure my brain will be able to think in those terms. How weird.

There are 2 more units to go in Level 1. I have been spending about an hour each day with the program and I am still enjoying it very much. I look forward to it every day. The speakers have very pleasant voices and the photographs are really quite brilliant. So far, it has been worth the money. At this rate, I should be finished with Level 1 by the end of the summer.

Donna

nuccia wrote:

Thanks Donna. I did get your PM. Yes, let us know how you are making out. It sounds like alot of fun. Once you're done, I will give you a crash course in Calabrese if you like! What do you like if we had a section where we were only allowed to write our posts in Italian? Maybe even one from Spanish for our friends from Argentina, Brazil and Chile. Hmm..am really interested in your opinions folks. I think it may help us all with our "International" skills and would level out the playing fields by the poor souls that have to write in English all the time.

I like this suggestion - I desperately need to practice Italian and can also brush up on my Spanish and Portuguese while we are at it...

DonnaPellegrin wrote:

Progress Update: Well, I have now finished Unit 2 of Rosetta Stone Level I. It was called "Greetings and Introductions" but it also included more numbers, more colors, clothing, a few countries, hunger, thirst, in, on, under, near, far, a few more adjectives, and of course more exposure to the sounds and grammer of the language. It took me much longer to complete unit 2 than unit 1. The program is constantly asking me to review previous material for reinforcement and that is probably a good thing and I have found it helpful. I am gaining more appreciation for the total immersion method. There is no English spoken at all. No grammer rules are given. Sometimes this is very effective and I try to restrain from translating the words that are spoken into English. The point is to teach yourself to "think" in Italian. Sometimes I can't help myself and I find myself saying, "cintura - belt." The grammer is driving me nuts and a few times I had to look up a few things in a "Living Language" book that I bought in one of my previous attempts to learn Italian. Some aspects of Italian simply amaze me. There really is no direct translation for "his" and "her". Sua and suo are gender specific to the article being possessed, but not to the person who possesses. That really threw me for a while. I'm not sure my brain will be able to think in those terms. How weird. There are 3 more units to go in Level 1. I have been spending about an hour each day with the program and I am still enjoying it very much. I look forward to it every day. The speakers have very pleasant voices and the photographs are really quite brilliant. So far, it has been worth the money. At this rate, I should be finished with Level 1 by the end of the summer. Donna

It sounds like you are having fun learning with Rosetta Stone. If you are enjoying it you will take in so much more so this is good. I am trying to get into the discipline of listening to a lesson a day as I walk to/from work - the walk is a half hour and the lessons are 27 minutes, so there is no excuse...

Nuccia, I'm sure it will be a very, very long time before I could participate in Italian. I can now ask people how old they are and what they are doing but I'm not sure they would appreciate that. But I am sure that an Italian forum would open up new opportunities for people to come on board that cannot speak English. So... why not? Seems like a good idea and a very thoughtful suggestion.

Robert, I am curious, what program are you listening to? Quanti anni ha? Lei che cosa fa?

Donna

I have a friend who is trying to 'learn' Italian too. Her and her husband have visited me here twice and are due again next month. They plan, with her mother, to settle here when they have regained their Italian citizenship. Mother and daughter speak and 'americanised' version of Sicilian in their home in New Jersey - a little like Nuccia speaks Canadianised Calabrese to her Mom... But speaking "Italian" is something that still has to be learned. Now my friend (bless her) has tried about a zillion language courses but has finally settled on this one: >Fluenz<

She can now practice vocally on this language course - open the demo and you can get an idea. You can always call me on Skype and practice some chat without worrying about mistakes and being able to have a laugh together.

Carole wrote:

Mother and daughter speak and 'americanised' version of Sicilian in their home in New Jersey - a little like Nuccia speaks Canadianised Calabrese to her Mom...

Ya think???????

Robert, Donna..

Carole and I will talk about this over the next few days and see what we can do about creating some "International" boards. I think it would be fun. And I will make sure I let Carole know my thoughts in my "Canadianized - Calabrese just for the fun out it!

Nuccia, thanks, that's great.

And Carole, thanks for the link to Fluenz. I checked it out and went through the free lesson. It was very interesting to see the different approach used and to compare it to Rosetta Stone. I liked the way that Fluenz explains the grammer. I did find it helpful and I wish that Rosetta Stone had explanations along with their technique. Both programs are roughly the same cost. I think that if I had to choose, I would still prefer Rosetta Stone. The photography in Rosetta Stone is really beautiful and it's a really pleasant place to visit every evening. That is helping me to stick to it. I don't think I would look forward to Fluenz in the same way.

I wish the Italian programs would concentrate less on phrases that tourists would use and more on phrases that genealogists would use. Enough already with, "Io voglio un bicchiere di vino." How about," Dove sono vostre morti?"

Donna

LOL That was my first thought too. Do all of these things that teach italian only teach a tourists version.

I am glad you took a look at that, I almost was going to post to ask you to check it out, to compare. I didnt do the free lesson, I watched the video there. I wondered which you would find better. I was curious.

Yeah, it was fun to do the comparison. I couldn't resist. The two prgrams actually have a lot in common. I like aspects of each of them. And I disliked aspects of each of them. I'm glad I picked Rosetta Stone for myself. I think I may be a more "visual" learner. The images in Rosetta Stone seem to stay with me. I've only been using the program for a short time and the lessons have been very, very basic... yet today when I went to my favorite Italian website, I found that I was comprehending more than I used to. So...its all good so far. I'll give another progress report when I'm done with the first part of Unit 3 of level 1. It's getting more challenging...but its still fun so far.

Donna

I get the feeling I would also do better with visuals. My problem is..I dont know how long I would retain anything new. I have retained almost everything that I learned as a child, but not as much when I learned some new things for genealogy. Occasionally, I have to look things up again. My ideal time to learn, would have been as a teenager, when I was surrounded by italian speaking people. They are all gone now.