Before continuing my essay on Italian, I have to say that Sunday night's
dinner party was a smashing success! (This was with my Italian teachers,
their families, and the Browns.) The Browns got here first, and Kaia was
very excited about it. ``When will the Italians get here? Do they live
far away?'' She was dressed in one of her signature outfits, in this
instance including her fancy ``Anna'' (from ``Frozen'') boots and her
blueberry sunhat. Both she and Finley gave quite an enthusiastic
reception to Elisabetta, Roberta and co. when they arrived, waving from
the window and bouncing about like two little nuts as
usual. Elisabetta's youngest, Matteo, is almost six (and completely
bilingual), and Kaia and Matteo had a ball playing together. Matteo was a
bit shy at first but Kaia is such a little socialite that he soon got
into the spirit of the Nutty Nut Show. At one point he looked at Finley
and said ``That girl is crazy!'' At the time Finley was absorbed in
extracting every last molecule of icecream from his dessert plate, but
he returned the look as if to say ``yeah, tell me about it''.
And although straying rather far from the Italian theme, I have to
report the following exchange with Kaia. I had put on Kaia's sunhat
(Grandpa is known to be a bit nutty himself now and again).
Grandpa: Kaia, what do you think of my hat?
Kaia (after a moment's consideration): I have another one at home that
would make you look handsomer.
Anyway, Wendy made a fabuluos pasta and scampi dinner, a fair bit of
wine was consumed and a great time was had by all.
---------------------------
Now, on to La bella lingua, part II.
There are two key ingredients for learning Italian (these apply to other
languages as well, or at least to European languages, which are the only
kind I'm familiar with). The first is to make a systematic study of the
grammar, to the extent that time permits. Without a conceptual
framework, you'll be perpetually lost. The second is to read books and
listen to audiobooks in Italian. It constantly surprises me that so few
Italian students do this. Movies can help, but audiobooks are much
better for a number of reasons.
I'll start with the books and audiobooks, and return to the grammar next
time. In order to develop an adequate vocabulary, you need
repetition. Repetition, repetition, repetition. But how are you going to
get it, other than by moving to Italy for a couple of years? Typical
language ``tapes'' (or new-fangled modern equivalents) are much too
boring to repeat for very long. Textbooks usually include brief excerpts
from Italian novels, but it's hard to get very involved in an
excerpt. So read a novel! Listen to a novel! It's fun, and the listening
is ideal for those who (like me) spend a lot of time commuting by car. I
used to get frustrated with 45-minute commute times each way, but now it
rarely bothers me; I just listen to my audiobooks.
You have to start slowly, of course, and in the beginning things will
progress very slowly indeed. Be patient. Start with illustrated
children's books, or comics. Start with something simple that you've
already read in English, or at least already know the story. My standard
in any language is to start with the Tintin books, because they are
comics and I already know them by heart. Then you can venture into
actual novels, where again it's best to start with something you're
already familiar with in English. For example, the Italian translations
of the Harry Potter books and of The Wizard of Oz are wonderful, and
available as highly entertaining audiobooks (well, only the first two
Potter books, alas). Pinocchio is another good choice, and again there
is an excellent audiobook. I hasten to add that none of these will be
easy at first. After a 10-week Italian course I had to listen to each
chapter of the Harry Potter audiobooks multiple times to get the gist of
it. Reading the book at the same time helps. And slowly but surely
you'll improve. With the audiobooks, even when you understand less than
half the words, your ear is getting tuned to the cadence of the
language.
By the way, if you have a teacher he/she will probably want you to read
books by Italian authors. This is all well and good, but the fact is
that translations from English or other languages are often easier,
because they tend to have fewer idioms and don't require familiarity
with Italian culture or local dialects. The Wizard of Oz is easier than
Pinocchio, for example.
By the time I'd finished all seven Harry Potter books, I felt ready to
move on to more difficult fare. As always, much of my reading is purely
for pleasure, including for instance some entertaining contemporary
detective mysteries by Marco Malvaldi. On the more serious side, I've
been learning a lot about Italian history in the era of fascism and
World War II (roughly 1920-1945), taking a particular interest in the
stories of women who joined the resistance during the war. Renata
Vigan\`o wrote numerous short stories and a novel (``Agnes va a
morire'', or ``Agnes goes to die'') based on her experiences. Ada
Gobetti kept a diary, later published as ``Diario partigiano''. One can
also find online a short autobiography of Anita Malavasi. All of these
remarkable women had to contend not only with the fascists and the
Nazis, but also with the particular brand of sexism that is so deeply
embedded in Italian culture.
Of course there are many more writings by male authors of the era, among
whom I've found Pratolini, Silone and Carlo Levi to be especially
good. There is also Primo Levi's ``Se questo e` un uomo'' (``If this is
a man''), if you can bear to read a first-person account of surviving a
year in Auschwitz. Pratolini's novels generally involve the pre-war
fascist years, and although there is tragedy they are also very
positive. All of his writing (at least that I've seen) takes place in
his beloved hometown, Firenze, about which he writes so nostagically
that you start getting nostalgic about it yourself. My favorite is actually
a delightful short story ``Lo sgombero'', best translated non-literally
as ``The eviction'', about a boy and his grandmother getting evicted
from their apartment in Firenze to make room for the 1920's equivalent
of yuppies moving in from Torino. Pratolini's love of his home town and
sympathy for its people is touching, as is his sympathetic portrayal of
the grandmother--who is clearly based on his own grandmother, and
despite being quintessentially Italian is immediately recognizable as a
familiar grandma archetype. (In fact I think the story is autobiographical.)
But here's the thing that totally surprised me: Through Italian, I've
suddenly acquired a new interest in literature, and not just Italian
literature but literature in general. Reading novels translated into
Italian adds to their interest and also makes me read more slowly (which
is a good thing, at least for me, as I seem to appreciate the writing
more). Even better is having an audiobook, as the actor-reader can help
bring the story to life. I've recently listened to Flaubert's ``Madame
Bovary'' and Bronte's ``Wuthering Heights'', for example. I doubt I
would ever have read them in English. Currently I'm on the fifth and
last volume of Hugo's Les Miserables. Sixty hours in audiobook format!
(But some of this can be skipped, as Hugo periodically gives long
history lessons having little or nothing to do with the plot. I'm much
more interested in the fate of Valjean and Cosette than in Hugo's
recounting of the Battle of Waterloo, for instance.) The reader, Moro
Silo, is fantastic. In my Italian lessons I'm telling an abbreviated
version of the story to Elisabetta, who seems to be enjoying it as much as I
do. It's a great exercise, as there is much difficult vocabulary and it
forces me to do most of the talking.
In any case, it's a lot of fun. Instead of dreading my commute, I look
forward to the next installment of ``I miserabili''!
No comments:
Post a Comment