Piano Piano...

I am frequently in the first year classes at my high school because of my lacking knowledge of the Italian language, which makes understanding anything that happens during school very difficult. In the case of the fifth year classes, the students are either able to have a conversation with me in English, or else they don't understand anything. Absolutely nothing. Because I am in the first year classes the most, the students in there really don't speak English. Therefore, for the past 3 months, I have been transformed into a slight introvert while attending these classes. However, in the last week I have made incredible progress. Just the other day, I was sitting next to a girl who can say about three words in English. She spoke to me in Italian, I understood and replied in Italian. WOW. Can I just say how amazing that felt to not have somebody translating for me? My brain just figured out what she said and immediately came up with a response. So for the rest of the hour, I continued speaking with her in Italian with little difficulty doing so. Now, I'm not saying I can actually understand the language when people are speaking with their friends or in class. But I've gotten to the point where if somebody tries to talk to me and they speak slowly enough, I can fully understand them. Answering them in Italian is quite a bit more difficult to do, but I somehow manage fairly well. Another instance where my understanding took me by surprise was last night at a birthday party that I attended. A guy who speaks absolutely no English was trying to tell me how my Italian has improved since I first met him. He said to the people around us, "Come si dice in inglese, stai imparando parlare l'italiano molto bene?!" I answered him, "You are learning to speak Italian very well. Grazie :)" Most of the people stared at me in surprise because of the fact that I replied to him and some of my friends who speak English just started to laugh. Translating what he said was such an automatic response for me that I did not have to stop and think about the words, they just came out.

YAY. I finally feel like I'm making progress. Up until now, I was so frustrated and thought I wouldn't ever be able to understand Italian, let alone speak it. Now, I can understand my teachers when they speak to me and I can understand a little bit of my friends' conversations. The greatest thing is, my friends are also noticing my improvement in Italian. Hearing their reassuring words that I really am getting better is so comforting and quite simply a lovely thing to hear. :)

Until next time, p&l

Ali