It's going waaaayyyy too fast!
I cannot believe that I only have three days left at my language school. The first week left me confident and full of new language abilities, which I seemed to use quite well this weekend.
Monday found me (as I looked it up) cerebramente morte . . . brain dead, as I read it. But my private teacher, Leonardo, informed me (in Italian, of course), that "cerebramente morte" is a medical term . . . for a REALLY, ACTUALLY brain dead person. I, he cheerfully told me, "sono in coma!" (I'm in a coma.) Like Neil's favorite joke about my mother's favorite singer, Perry Como, whom Neil renamed "Perry Coma".
So, for the first two days of my second and final week at la scuola lingua, sono in coma. My brain feels over-full, there are too many words I keep forgetting, and I felt so frustrated yesterday, because I thought I SHOULD have been doing better, after a good first week. But all the teachers say this is normal, and Leonardo reminded me that I was not in school for the weekend, and that one loses 50% of what one learned the first week . . . during the weekend. As he says, "E'normale" so I, in frustrated Italian, responded, "but what about when I leave the school and just go HOME??? How much will I forget there?"
Leonardo reassures me that if I continue to listen and read and talk and learn, I'll be fine. I said today that I would have to spend three years here studying the language before I would feel confident, and he said, "No, quattro mese (four months would do it, he thinks). So . . . that would be impossible, but I am more determined to continue my study at home. I've got some regular books (kids stories, The Prophet, The Little Prince, and some short stories) written in Italian, and there's always Front Range or CSU.
So here I am, with three more days of lessons, and then two weeks of practical application with Neil and our friends, in Sicilia, Venezia and LeMarche, before we return to our own English-speaking country.
And I'm going to complete my staff photo representation here with one of Leonardo, since I hadn't gotten around to taking a photo of him until yesterday.
E' insegnate privato (my private teacher).
Time to go see a couple of things on this side of Firenze before dinner with my host family.
Ciao!
Woodswoman
Monday found me (as I looked it up) cerebramente morte . . . brain dead, as I read it. But my private teacher, Leonardo, informed me (in Italian, of course), that "cerebramente morte" is a medical term . . . for a REALLY, ACTUALLY brain dead person. I, he cheerfully told me, "sono in coma!" (I'm in a coma.) Like Neil's favorite joke about my mother's favorite singer, Perry Como, whom Neil renamed "Perry Coma".
So, for the first two days of my second and final week at la scuola lingua, sono in coma. My brain feels over-full, there are too many words I keep forgetting, and I felt so frustrated yesterday, because I thought I SHOULD have been doing better, after a good first week. But all the teachers say this is normal, and Leonardo reminded me that I was not in school for the weekend, and that one loses 50% of what one learned the first week . . . during the weekend. As he says, "E'normale" so I, in frustrated Italian, responded, "but what about when I leave the school and just go HOME??? How much will I forget there?"
Leonardo reassures me that if I continue to listen and read and talk and learn, I'll be fine. I said today that I would have to spend three years here studying the language before I would feel confident, and he said, "No, quattro mese (four months would do it, he thinks). So . . . that would be impossible, but I am more determined to continue my study at home. I've got some regular books (kids stories, The Prophet, The Little Prince, and some short stories) written in Italian, and there's always Front Range or CSU.
So here I am, with three more days of lessons, and then two weeks of practical application with Neil and our friends, in Sicilia, Venezia and LeMarche, before we return to our own English-speaking country.
And I'm going to complete my staff photo representation here with one of Leonardo, since I hadn't gotten around to taking a photo of him until yesterday.
E' insegnate privato (my private teacher). Time to go see a couple of things on this side of Firenze before dinner with my host family.
Ciao!
Woodswoman
posted by Woodswoman Abroad | 9/25/2007 08:42:00 AM
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