In April 2017 I was lucky enough to go and visit Rome with family and friends; in preparation for the trip I started learning Italian with Duolingo on 1st January; I had daily lessons on there until we went away and I also used a BBC course book “Buongiorno Italia!” to help me understand the pronunciation and grammar.
When we arrived in Rome I only knew the basics but I was looking forward to opportunities to try my new (albeit limited) skills out. It started at the airport as we needed to buy train tickets to get to where our apartment was: my friend Carol, who knows a lot more Italian than I do, went 1st and got her tickets, then I asked for mine in Italian… but got a reply in English… Oh well, better luck next time Nathalie…
The thing is on the 1st day I got frustrated: I bought tram tickets, ordered food and drinks,,, and even though I was doing it in Italian (well, my version of Italian anyway!) the replies I got were in English. I know the people serving me thought they were just being helpful but I felt that there should be a simple unwritten rule: WHEN SOMEONE ADDRESSES YOU IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE COUNTRY YOU ARE IN, YOU SHOULD REPLY IN THAT LANGUAGE! I wanted to know if I could understand Italian so I found it disheartening that I didn’t seem to get a chance to find out…
Luckily on the second day and afterwards things got better and people started replying to me in Italian! My 1st success was when I bought ice creams for my children and even got whipped cream on my son’s; my biggest success was when I bought 800g of minced beef from the local butcher’s. He seemed very amused but went along with it and I walked away with what I needed. It could be that my Italian was getting better; more likely though I probably dealt with people who either only spoke Italian or thought they’d let me have a go; either way I really enjoyed it.
I spent a lot of my time in Rome looking at everything around me: buildings of course but also signs, adverts etc and I enjoyed trying to work out what they meant; when on the tourist train I listened to the guide speaking in Italian and challenged myself to spot nouns then verbs; I wanted to learn so much and thoroughly enjoyed the experience… even when the pictures looked painful, as they did above!!
Then on the last day, on the way back to the airport, I sat next to 3 ladies speaking to each other… in a language I did not recognise at all. I listened to them (for linguistic purposes of course, not to be nosy!) but could not work anything out from their conversation. When we got off the train I asked my friend Carol if she knew in what language they were speaking… and she assured me it was Italian!!! I therefore have a long way to go with that language ha ha but I feel that it was worth learning what I did and making the effort. My 16-year old son was having a go too!
I of course found a lovely book shop and bought some authentic Italian picture books; I have written a separate blog about them here.
I am off to Amsterdam next month… but only have 37 days to learn some Dutch!! I will do it though and attempt to set a good example to the 12- and 13-year olds we are taking on the trip (the football team which I coach). Wish me luck!!
Please share with me your experiences of going abroad to a country where you don’t speak the language!
