I’m now a bit over a week into my lessons. To put my situation into context, the school I’m at teaches Italian as a foreign language to various levels – from people who have never studied Italian to people like me who already have a pretty solid grasp on the language but certainly have more to go. Importantly, the students at the school are not all native English speakers. (I have learned that English is almost ubiquitously a second language to those who speak other languages. Further, most of the people I have encountered speak English proficiently and it is interesting seeing it used as the common tongue between two people who come from different places. For example, I have a Dutch roommate and a Turkish roommate and they speak to each other in English. This is very interesting to me but is a story for another time and place.) Since the students in my class speak various different languages as their first language, the class is obviously not taught in the way that I am accustomed to. That is, in my two years of studying Italian at Notre Dame, it’s been taught to an English-speaking class. As we advance we try to speak more in just Italian, certainly, but our classes are nonetheless grounded in our native tongue. Here in Italy, I am instead learning the language from a more or less linguistically neutral perspective. There is no translating back and forth in the class; all is in Italian. This type of learning has had its positives and negatives. At first it was very hard to follow the discussions of the class. I could get most of it, but it took a lot of focus to follow every single thing. I was for the most part translating the Italian I heard into English in my head. But after the constant exposure to this for several classes, I’ve become more habituated and can now follow conversations more easily. There is definitely still a lot of internal translation going on, but it is less than at the beginning. In this respect, I think this form of learning the language has helped me. The main negative I have noticed so far is the difficulty in explaining particular words and phrases that no one in the class knows. I often find myself checking my translator because I didn’t understand the teacher’s explanation of something. Considering that one of my biggest weaknesses is a lack of vocabulary, I wish this type of learning were better in this regard. Overall, I do think this format is helping me improve my comprehension skills. I am still timid in real interactions, however, because I know that if I attempt to speak to an Italian in Italian and he either 1) notices I am American right away or 2) realizes I have trouble understanding his response, he will just start speaking to me in English. This is a downside of coming to such an Anglicized city as Florence – you can definitely have English as a crutch. I was not extremely aware of this fact beforehand, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve felt somewhat spoiled having English as my first language. As English speakers, we’ve never really needed to be truly proficient in a second language, which is (I suppose) a privilege, but maybe also a bit of a shame.
Despite the large English presence here, recently I went to a pizzeria and, for the first time, successfully got the server to speak to me only in Italian. These were small exchanges, but nonetheless I was satisfied. To commemorate, I had to take a photo of the pizza – I’ve had better. I’m also quite enjoying the city. It’s very beautiful and has so much to offer in terms of art and history. The most beautiful view of the city is found up at the Piazzale Michelangelo. It’s a bit of a hike to get up there, but I’ve done it three times and it’s worth it. Some photos from there are also included.
