Head First

Immersion is the true sink-or-swim method of learning. From experience, I think it's a style I like, though it's always uncomfortable to some degree. Typically, discomfort (in the sense of you're not growing or moving in any direction in life if you're not being stretched) is a place I prefer. Same ol' same ol' isn't in my vocabulary. That is how I ended up in Italia, now this is the true test...can I do this?

Here's what I see of language immersion simply from judging by Day 1. The class is a grand total of ~23 students. No one else is from the U.S., a couple are older (34 and 40), most are much, much younger (like 20). I'm the only one with Italian blood. It pleases me greatly when teachers all know immediately how to spell and pronounce my name--and they all want to know about my family roots. Other countries represented: China, Japan, Sweden, Germany, Siberia, Australia, Holland, Uganda and a few I couldn't figure out because I couldn't understand them.

No one so far has a compelling reason to be here (I believe this is what Elizabeth Gilbert discovered as she was studying Italian in Rome, when she was writing "Eat, Pray, Love.") Reasons I've heard so far: the language is beautiful, love Italy, love wine, don't want to look stupid by only knowing a single language, fulfilling a requirement for school and it's something to do... I'm definitely not saying these aren't good reasons, it's just not the same typical reasons one would give for learning Spanish or English.
 
When I was looking for the classroom, I met some Swedish classmates so I ended up sitting with them. They all speak excellent English (they're raised with the language there) and are very friendly.

The day began with our warm and friendly instructor speaking all Italian (as is to be expected). The most important skill I can see that one needs to handle this kind of instruction is being able to see the patterns and how things fit in the puzzle. The teacher says (all in Italian, of course): My name is Maria. Then she asks a student what his name is. He knows to respond similarly. She starts counting, she wants us to count to 80 as we go around the room. She asks each of us our names, how to spell them and where we're from, thus we learn the alphabet. She plays a tape of native speakers telling where they're from, how old they are, that sort of thing. They speak fast, she plays the tape a couple of times. We write answers to verbal questions. We're expected to know it now. Moving along to the next thing: masculine and feminine and how to make words plural. She doesn't need to use any language but Italian and handouts with examples (a few pictures) to get the point across. Session 1 is two hours long with a break. Lunchtime is spent running around town taking care of business.

I'm very glad I've spent some time here already, I am catching a lot more of the words when people speak than I used to. Since Italian words are so easy to spell, I know when I'm hearing words I don't know--I write them down and look them up later. Easy. I feel quite sorry for people trying to learn English since there's no way this is possible. 

Session 2 is a male instructor--he comes across immediately as a tough teacher. Gulp, big difference from this morning. Wrong-o! He's got a great sense of humor and is very personable. He starts off, however, much, much faster than the morning session--he expects that for us to be in this class, we know quite a bit of the Italian basics, including how to conjugate basic verbs (grazie to my Italian friends, your lessons really came in handy!) At first I was having trouble understanding him, but by the end of class (3 hours later), I was feeling much more comfortable (he hadn't slowed down). The other students felt similarly. Coming here without knowing any of the language would have been scary. 

The school is exquisitely beautiful (especially compared with the Engineering Center at CU). The weather today was blue sky and bike-ride perfect (which I did as soon as class let out). I took some pics of school, will post them when there's time. Social stuff is starting up soon--would have gone out tonight if there hadn't been a Facebook snafu. I'll try to put up short updates (maybe not even sentences during the week) and have a bit more on weekends. Arrividerci!