It's a Struggle!

Language learning that is. I've always found it difficult. Didn't start learning another language until I was 11 when I went to grammar school & then we were taught Spanish & Latin. Didn't find either very easy but I think it was down to the way they taught you. I still think we should start teaching children foreign languages in primary school but of course we don't have the teachers to do that. I also think it was a big mistake when they stopped making a foreign language a compulsory subject for GCSE.

I went to Spain when I was 18 to spend a couple of weeks with my pen friend & her family & I had to listen carefully as the family all spoke Spanish continuously with the odd English translation now & again as only my pen friend spoke any English. I did find that listening to it constantly started to make me think in Spanish which felt weird.

It did encourage me to keep going trying to learn Spanish which I've done on & off for the last 50 years but I still haven't mastered it. Main reason is I find other things to do so it's been more off than on. My accent isn't too bad but I think you have to live in a country to become reasonably fluent. I have no chance of that now!

In March I discovered I had to do two Italian tours this summer, I never get Spanish ones where I could have some practice! So I thought I'd have a go at learning a little bit of Italian. I bought some CDs, a dictionary & found a couple of websites. The CDs are by Michel Thomas & they are quite good, I keep them in the car & play them repeatedly. I still haven't got past lesson 10 as it's quite difficult when it's just spoken & you can't see the words.

This is where the websites come in useful. They are very good as they make you type answers in Italian as well as English and they have the phrases spoken in Italian for you. They seem to recognise where you make mistakes & keep repeating those bits for you. I did borrow an Italian grammar book from the library as I like to check things out. Another resource I used was Coffee Break Italian which has 15 minute weekly podcasts available on the radiolingua.com website. You can download them free or find them on iTunes.

Have to say I've found it quite difficult. I'm sure it's because of being older. I find I just can't memorise the words easily. I have to keep going over them again & again. However I'm not giving up!

I did try using a few expressions when I was in Desenzano, always said buongiorno, buonasera, grazie etc & asked for my room number in Italian. It was wasted really as they spoke such good English but I like to try. I've been trying to do a couple of sessions every day picking up some new words & going back doing some revisions. Have to say I'm really enjoying it which is a surprise. I just hope I can keep up with the sessions, I'm no linguist I know but at least I try.

Hopefully I'll be a bit more confident at speaking a little more when I get to the Italian Riviera at the end of September.

If anyone is interested the two websites I've been using are:

Www.duolingo.com

Www.memrise.com

They have a range of languages to choose from and they're free! There are premium versions of the sites but you don't have to buy into them.

Buona Fortuna!

I Haven't Been Slacking - Honestly!

Aurora

Well I've had a bit of a break from blogging but I have been quite busy. Enjoying myself mostly, on a Panama Canal cruise!  Now I will post about that later as there are lots of photos to upload. Meanwhile above there's a photo of the ship Aurora which was very nice.  It's docked at Puntarenas which was not quite so nice!

Anyway since I got back apart from the washing & ironing, I've been quite busy trying to finish a crochet blanket I started a couple of months ago.  If I'd had room in the luggage I would have taken it with me on the cruise but it was quite bulky & heavy. We only had 23 kg of luggage for a 23 night cruise which needed posh frocks (for me) plus a dinner jacket & a suite for Eric so I took a shawl pattern to do.  I knitted it for two weeks, didn't like it & pulled it out so I had nothing to show for my time spent knitting on the ship. 

My time wasn't totally wasted though.  I went to Spanish lessons which were great. I joined the ship at the end of March when the ship was doing its final leg of the world cruise it had started way back in January. So I only had three weeks to catch up with most of the other passengers who had started when the ship, left Southampton in January! Have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it & we had a great laugh with the young Spanish tutor who had a wonderful sense of humour. 

So now I really need to keep the Spanish up. I had planned to learn some Italian on the cruise for my two trips to Italy in the summer. That went by the board though like the knitting. So apart from trying to finish the blanket, that's on the cards for the next couple of months.

Anyway this is my progress with the blanket so far:

10 of these done!

10 of these done!

Now for the bad news. Only 5 each of these done because I've run out of wool! Never mind the flowery centres are finished so the easy peasy bits are left to do. Well apart from joining the whole caboodle together which I'm dreading.

So will have to order more wool this week. Hopefully it will eventually look something like this.

I changed the colours as I don't do pink & I made it in wool not cotton.

I'm nearly always amazed at how good camera photos are. Bearing in mind I've never bothered to find out how to use it I just point it at the thing & click. It's great, no having to upload the camera photos, they just go. Just like magic!

Wish it was as easy to learn Italian!