Although Italian is a beautiful and eloquent language, learning it here has been a challenge, to say the least. It's a difficult language to learn and it's a far cry from my second language, French. However, the Italians are very helpful when foreigners try to speak the language, because they appreciate the fact that we are attempting to learn a language that is spoken by so few people in the world. With three hours of Italian class everyday, the teachers told us from the start that the structure of these classes would be very different from the way we've learned languages in the past, and I immediately found that to be the case. The program emphasizes speaking, and places little importance on writing, since the goal is to quickly get us speaking Italian. Since this program focuses so on immersing us into the Italian language, our teacher has spoken to us only in Italian since day one. Naturally, since I came here only knowing how to say "ciao" and "grazie," this was very frustrating. I quickly discovered that learning Italian requires faith, patience, and a good attitude. I was so frustrated that we weren't getting vocab worksheets or learning grammar and sentence structures, but after just three weeks of Italian class, I can actually understand Andrea!
Living in a homestay is the best way to practice, but it's incredibly frustrating when Paola asks me questions and I have absolutely no idea what she's talking about. The first few days I felt so helpless and confused because I had never been in a situation like that before. By now, I understand most of what she says and I'm even able to carry a simple conversation with her! She's really impressed with my progress and I'm really proud of myself. I discovered that helping her cook is a great way to bond with her. When I told her I like to cook, she got really excited and she loves showing me around in the kitchen. Even though I still can't say a whole lot to her, just spending time with her in the kitchen is fun. The other night she needed to go out and get some bread for dinner and she asked me to come along. We walked to a bakery a few streets over, and she gave me a little tour of the neighborhood, showing me her favorite restaurants, shops, and markets. That trip to the bakery was really special for me because it was nice to spend time with her, and I she seemed to really enjoyed showing me around.
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