Words in Italiano

Benvenuti!

Every country that you go to has a different language that the people there speak. Some countries even have multiple languages that they speak, including the United States! Most people in the United States speak English, but there are still many other languages that are spoken and that people practice throughout the country. Being in Italy has exposed me to the beautiful Italian language, but it has also been quite a struggle.

I've never spoken any Italian in my life, besides knowing buongiorno ('good morning') and pasta. Everyone likes pasta, right? Being here in Arezzo has both allowed and forced me to learn some Italian words and try to speak to the locals so that they know what the heck I'm talking about! (Don't worry, I always make sure to say grazie, which in case you're wondering, is 'thank you' in Italian. The Italians seem to always say prego so it seems like I'm doing pretty well at this.)

Funny story from the other day: It was one of our first days in Arezzo, and it's customary to leave your hotel key at the front desk before you leave, and you get it whenever you return. Well, a group of us girls had gone out for a while and when we returned to the hotel, we stopped at the front desk to get our hotel keys. The older man working at the front desk decided to have some fun with us American girls... by not giving us our keys unless we learned to say our room numbers in Italian! So here we go, my first lesson in Italian. (I knew I should've learned some before we got here.) The man started listing off numbers from 1-10 and I started to get the hang of it... maybe after about the fifth time he repeated it. So here we go, 1-10:

uno, due, tre, quattro, cinque, sei, sette, otto, nove, dieci!

For a fun, interactive learning game that teaches you numbers 1-12 in Italian, click here: www.digitaldialects.com/Italian/numbers_1l.htm

(This website also features other interactive learning games that can help with more numbers in Italian, greetings, etc.)

Another thing that has been really fun to say is ciao! which simply means 'hello' or 'hi'! This is more informal than saying buongiorno, but it's super fun to say and can also be used to say 'bye.' Also, when greeting someone, you might want to say come stai? which means 'how are you'? I'm sure you'll gain some points with the locals for this. And finally, a more formal way of saying goodbye is arrivederci! 

It's also useful to know the months in Italian! For instance, what month are we in now? Maggio! (aka May.)

Here are all 12 months:

gennaio
febbraio
marzo
aprile
maggio
giugno
luglio
agosto
settembre
ottobre
novembre
dicembre

I've also been eating a lot of gelato.
This was Edoardo's gelato in Firenze (Florence). 

This was a special place to get gelato from, because it is one of Italy's most famous gelato shops, due to their organic ingredients, setting them apart from many other gelato shops! I ordered a coppetta piccolo of la crema e caffè (cream and coffee). It was eccellente! 

If you want to learn more about Edoardo's gelato, you can click here: http://www.edoardobio.it

Isn't Italian a fun language? Si! 

I still have a long way to go in my Italian language adventure, but so far it's been going pretty well.






Another thing that I've really enjoyed is seeing Italian all around the city! On street signs, shops, signs, everything! Walking around Arezzo has allowed me to see all of these things and really take in the culture.

Here's one of the many shops in Arezzo where Italian can be seen in its name.

Here is the farmacia which is very close to our pharmacy in English.
Many of these can be found in the city.

Many of the words in Italian resemble those that we know in English. These words that are very similar are called cognates, which means that the English word was derived from another language. They can be really useful to know, since they can help you learn words in Italian and other languages, and they're fun to know! But you have to be careful of some false cognates, which are words that seem like they are cognates, but actually mean very different things.

For some more cognates and false cognates, click here: http://takelessons.com/blog/italian-grammar-cognates-z09

I look forward to learning more Italian in the month that I am here. Do you guys plan to learn any Italian? If so, buona fortuna! 

Ciao!