Italian is what I’m primarily learning. I’m also picking up bits and pieces of Spanish while also refreshing my French. Why though? It all started with my friend Jeremy who lives in the Netherlands. Thanks to Amerika finally shedding its veneer of democracy (we have never truly been one), he and his family have decided to never return. I don’t blame them. Amerika is now the Soviet Union with more Starbucks. But in order to achieve the first step of permanent residency which leads to citizenship, Jeremy has to be able to communicate in Dutch at an eighth-grade level or better. I sure hope Dutch ‘tweeners are more communicative than American ones. The last time I spoke to someone’s kids around this age, it was mostly grunts of “fine,” “yeah,” and “uh-huh,” when their noses aren’t buried in their iPhones/iPads.
So how is Jeremy doing it? The site DuoLingo which he referred me too. Why Italian? Why not! It’s a fun language and it’s colorful. Sadly, nobody in my immediate family can speak it nor anyone in my extended family via my father. I’m figuring my paternal grandfather chose to over-Americanize. After these 100 days, I’ve concluded the key to proper pronunciation is to just talk like Chico Marx; DuoLingo does use the microphone in your devices to make you speak phrases as practice. Is it working? With Italian? It’s OK. I still make flashcards to remember individual words since I can’t always piece them together through sentences. I’m also limited to a few subjects: food, family, colors, time and clothing in the present tense. The stories are pretty cool. Those have more slang or everyday communication. My last resort has been Google Translate if I’m in a hurry for a particular word or expression.
French, I’m killing it. I was rather surprised too. I haven’t really bothered after I achieved gainful employment in 1995 and my proficiency declined when Patricia went home, I still miss her and hope she’s well. Don’t get too excited. I’m only in the very early parts with DuoLingo and some days, it’s just to earn points to avoid being demoted out of the second highest league.
Spanish is certainly more practical for where I live and how many continents its utilized, such a shame Europe isn’t one. I came around to this finally through a couple angles. Jeremy wanted to keep his going so we have an arrangement to exclusively communicate in this language on Taco Tuesdays. Given my limited ability, it results in broken Spanish with similar words and the wrong tense. I also hope to communicate with my friends’ children who have the good fortune of being in an immersion school. My reasoning is that little kids are more patient and they’ll get what I’m saying; I’ll probably come off as a giant, fat bear eking out Spanish.
On to the next 100 Days! My ultimate goal is to tell an old family joke, completely in Italian. All I have down are the punchline and callback elements.