"Io non parlo Italiano. Un poco, poco, poco.": My adventures in learning Italian.

The first of many, many, espresso

My first hour in Italy, I successfully ordered an espresso, thanks to the brief time I spent listening to "Learn Italian!" podcasts while driving to the Capitol on cold February mornings. That was essentially the extent of my Italian. Since then, it's been two weeks of trial and error, mixing Spanish and French into what I think might be Italian, and sitting quietly at dinner, absorbing the rapid fire of conversation from my coworkers and new friends.

As anyone who has immersed themselves in a situation where they don't speak the language might know, it's very easy to zone out and stop concentrating. I learned to zone out this way at American Village- when I pretended to not know any French, I really practiced it by not even trying to understand what a camper was trying to ask me. "I don't speak French! Try again..."

I continued this habit of zoning out in my new Italian environment mostly at the dinner table, though every once in a while Martina will fill me in on what they've just discussed, be it truffle hunting, the state of immigration in Italy, or the prospective new WWOOFers coming next spring. When the restaurant is open, I try to pay attention to better observe the flow of the kitchen.

Only three people I've met- my hosts, Martina and Roberto, and Alex, who came to work at the restaurant last weekend- are fluent in English. The others who live at or visit the farm know little or no English, but most of studied it in school, so we can have basic conversations, and it helps me learn better when I can't rely on translation help. My French and Spanish background has come in handy, and sometimes it handicaps me. I still automatically respond in French sometimes. One woman who lives at the farm, Katia, speaks some Spanish, but no English. I reach back into my high school years to pull out basic phrases, and together we cobble a strange Latin-based language, though sometimes I can't tell if she's speaking Spanish or Italian, so I have to ask her to differentiate.

In the past week and a half, I've picked up a lot of phrases and words. My attempts at conjugation are less than stellar- so far I've got io and tu down, and working on noi (us), but I haven't even started trying to figure out they.

I can, I put, I am, I run, I walk, I'm coming, I'm tired, I'm finished, let's eat, let's go! Coffee? Yes! Where? When? Tomorrow!

Slowly, but surely. It's happening.

I come out of this last weekend encouraged by my progress so far. I've befriended the waitstaff who come in on weekends to help with the restaurant, and one remarked that the week prior, I spoke no Italian, but now I'm doing way better! Yesterday I downloaded Duolingo, an app to formally give me more vocabulary and understanding. So far it's been a great supplement to my continued immersion here. While I'm not sure when Italian will come in handy during the rest of my trip, it's been a great learning experience while WOOFing.

On a final note,  I can't help but feel incredibly privileged to have English as my first language. Something I failed to recognize until rather recently is that people learn English not solely to communicate with Americans or Brits but to communicate with anybody that doesn't share their primary language. As the lingua franca of the world, it has and will continue to make my travels easier, as so many people have learned English as a second (or third, or fourth) language. However, I've resolved that this privilege will not keep me from learning even more new languages, even just key phrases, during my travels.

So next up, Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Turkish... :)