“Che giorno è oggi? Oggi è martedì.”
“Come stai? Sto bene.”
“Di dove sei? Sono di Miami.”
“Da dove vieni? Vengo degli Stati Uniti.”
...This is another time I’m subjecting myself to the beginner type of material. There may be errors in the above because I heard it, not read it – and I’m always surprised how little I remember after those weeks when I take my breaks.
I can’t even count how many times I’ve done various Capitolo Unos in every single Italian textbook I possess – and it’s some list! In the past, I tended to get almost to the middle of the book, usually close to the chapter dealing with object pronouns, and then it was as if the passion that fuelled my studies subsided for a moment. That moment, unfortunately, was often several weeks long so by the time the passion came back, I often felt like I have to catch up and relearn what I’d surely forgotten. And there it was again – Capitolo Uno for the seventh time!
Now that I think about it, I do have a short attention span. I move furniture all the time, I change my desktop background every week and I get bored with a job quite quickly. But even though I take breaks in my Italian, I always, always come back. So I do stick with the idea – only having problems with the execution.
So far I managed to finish one textbook – Mr Danesi’s. It’s thick, has ugly drawings and an occasional mistake (which almost made me drop it once or twice). Now, that’s not to mean that I actually completed all the quizzes, solved all the cruciverbe (?) and talked to myself in Italian trying to do the oral exercises. No, no, no – but I definitely turned all the pages, studied (not learned) all the vocab and studied (not learned) all the grammar.
And I’ve done the first five chapters at least five times!
