I have very high capacity for suspension of disbelief though (when it comes to most things except for religion), allora I am totally willing to fully believe that this time indeed will be different; that this time I will actually reach some level of fluency that will be established and proved by passing some kind of official certification exam. Yes!
Let's get back to taking stock though. I'm planning to report on what kind of Italian language knowledge I possess. I have a feeling the report will be short and by no means sweet, as it will just remind me how little it is compared to how much it was going to be. Damn! Let's get it out of the way then, so that I can start adding to it.
Since this time I wanted to start speaking right away, I started with audio courses. Not Pimsleur or Barrons or anything else that I have on my computer, but Michel Thomas' Italian Fundamentals. I've used Michel Thomas successfully with French only a few months ago and I was quite pleased with the results, despite Thomas's Polish accent, occasional language incongruities and a bit annoying way of speaking. The method of adding to the language little by little, immediately building on words and structures acquired just a moment ago, worked for me quite nicely. So I am doing the same thing with Italian now. Here are some sentences Thomas teaches already in the introductory course:
- I want to buy the same thing.
- I don't want to buy the same thing.
- Why don't you want to buy something here?
- I want to know how much it is because I want to buy it.
- I want to buy it if it's not very expensive.
- You can have it now if you want.
- I'm sorry but it is not acceptable for me this way.
- I want to know why it is not acceptable for you this way because it is very good.
- How long are you staying?
- I want to see you a little later.
- Why don't you want to speak Italian with me?
- I'm sorry but I can't speak with you right now because I'm very busy.
- Do you want to eat something now?
- I'm tired and I am staying home tonight.
- I'm on my way to buy it.
Seems all over the place, right? Well, for me it was a relatively painless way to learn to say moderately complex sentences that would make me feel good about myself. And it did not take long at all. So now I can say all these things about buying things and doing it now, and being busy, and about things being unacceptable. Fun, no? Also, since I don't want to listen to Michel Thomas any more than I have to, I downloaded Anki application (another thing discovered thanks to Benny Lewis), which happens to have his courses in a form of flashcards.
So this is more or less what I know how to say. Aside from that I've been looking again at my Italian textbooks of all sorts and this is what I managed to learn:
- Introductions and greetings (gah - hate this introductory stuff!)
- The definite vs. indefinite article
- Gender
- Numbers (however reluctantly)
- Telling time (seriously, not planning to use it EVAH!)
- Weather (see above)
- I giorni della settimana
- I mesi dell'anno
- -are verbs in present tense
- Family members
- Demonstrative adjectives
- Possession
- Giving directions (if my life depended on it)
- Possessive adjectives (and let it be immortalized for posterity that I even know that when the possessive adjective is used with sing. and unmodified nouns referring to family members, the article is dropped. It's only put back if the noun is plural and/or modified. Gawd, I'm so knowledgeable!)
I'm pretty sure I may know some other things. I understand quite a bit of the lyrics to Italian songs I listen to obsessively. I understand about 40% of the Italian news program on OMNI in Toronto, but that may be just because I'm familiar with the topics already. But it's all unsystematic and all over the place. I need to know what I know so that I can add to it.
I'm planning to report here on any newly acquired Italian knowledge. That way at least I'll keep track - and if I happen to forget something, it will be easy to establish what. And deal with it.
