Today was a school day. Class was interesting, we learned a lot more adjectives, practiced the old ones too, did a couple more famous people then identified them. I really enjoy the class but do wish I could just understand the language without having to take it... In my book, "As the Romans Do", I feel envious of the author's sons because they have been in Italy since the age of 1 and the age of 4... Now they speak perfect Italian and English, with no classes taken for either. How long does it take an individual to become fluent in a language just by living it day to day? Never taking a class, never studying the language, just being around it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? 3 months? 6 months? 1 year? 3 years? Do you ever really know a language? One of my best friends, one of the smartest people I know, is Cuban and moved here when he was 14 (sorry if I'm off). I remember playing word games at University with him and he would always say he was terrible at them because he did not know many English words. Well, he didn't suck, but he wasn't the most amazing player either. Sometimes he'll ask me the meaning of a word or why people use a word or something. Sometimes I can answer, sometimes I can't. This tells me two things, he's 22 now and has been living this language for 7 years and is still 'learning' it. It also tells me that I'm 23 and still learning it, I can't answer all his questions about the language, this language is constantly changing while at the same time, my brain wants to store so much stuff, I swear it has to make decisions to put some thoughts and memories and facts of knowledge in "retainer files" where if the information is not accessed in a certain amount of time, it will subsequentially be deleted. Like tiny little men are running around in my head sorting and organizing things like in some ziggy or spongebob cartoon. This is why I try to recall things randomly, as often as possible (it's as good a reason as any for my absurd train of thought). My hope is that by the end of this experience I can speak half as well as my Cuban friend speaks now. Is that a lofty goal? Is it unattainable? Am I setting myself up for failure and disappointment? I hope not, but for now I just read as much as I can, understand things slowly, and enjoy and experience the Italian life God's given me for now. :)
Any-who... When Nico got home, he was there only a short while, we did some homework (Lavi had not finished her math which I made Nic finish) but they both worked on their 'tema', theme. It was a paper about themselves in Italian, telling their likes and about their family and such. Nic's went like this, only more eloquently written... I have brown curly hair, I like soccer, my brother is tall, my sister is thin, my other sister is tall, my dad is normal, my mom works at ENEL. I have two cats, one is a twin. My favorite part was, My dad is normal. While it's true, his brother Iacopo is tall, about 6'4", and his mother does work for ENEL, the energy company, there are defining characteristics of Giorgio. Meh, he's normal. ;) After homework, Raffa got home and we (Raffa, Lavi, Nic, and I) walked to catechism class. I was to come back and pick them up at 18.30. The church was right behind Piazza Verbano, about a 10 minute walk. Raffa and I stopped at the "War Hammer shop" after dropping the kids off so she could look at the possibility of Nic coming with a friend and seeing if he liked it... apparently there are 3 ways to play, you get to paint your own landscape and such... sounds interesting at least... maybe a Thursday afternoon or Saturday when he's not busy... I told her I had played something kind of like it, Dungeons & Dragons and as it turns out Raffa played D&D when she was younger and there were bars for it in Roma that she and some friends spent several hours at. Cool points. CHECK. After class, they told me they read about Cain and Able. Cool stuff.
We had dinner... good stuff... don't remember what it was though, but I haven't had anything that I didn't like yet; therefore, it was good stuff. :)
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