Italian

Last night I got caught up in writing about Greek and Latin, and I never wrote a post about my Italian class. It was a very cool class. This first class was about basic pronunciation and some general introductory phrases.

Piacere - pleased to meet you
Mi chiamo, Tenth Muse - my name is Tenth Muse
Abito a Boulder - I live in Boulder
Ma sono di California - But I come from California

As we were learning how to pronounce things, we were reciting various words. Italian, naturally, is very similar to Latin. The words may look the same, they might be spelled the same, and they might mean the same thing, but they aren't always pronounced the same. In Latin, letters like C and G are always hard like cat and god. In Italian the C and G can be hard, but they can also be pronounced differently if they are followed by certain vowels. So the C might have a Ch sound as in church, and the G might have a J sound like the name George. The V in Latin is pronounced like a W, but in Italian it is pronounced like an actual V.

So I just have to try to train my mind away from Latin for a few weeks. I also have to train my mind away from Dutch and, sometimes, German. When we were practicing with one another in the class, I kept noticing that certain Dutch and German phrases kept popping up in my mind. So when someone would ask me what my name is, I had to resist the temptation to answer in Dutch or German. My parents and I went to a Mexican restaurant in Santa Ana, California, and the waitress started speaking to my mom in Spanish. My mom responded with Dutch. We've always teased her for that, but now I'm doing the same thing. Maybe it is a natural reaction to immediately go to our native language or the language that we're most familiar with.

All in all, it seems like it will be a fun class. And I'm hoping that we'll also learn some basic grammar!

Current mood: tired, it was a long day at work
Current music: random shuffle. Currently Dixie Chicks "Easy Silence"
Current drink: the Cognac is on the table and waiting to be poured