A fun new hobby

LWJ · 08-22-2025, 09:28 AM

Background. I am a pretty good learner but foreign language (French. ARG) really kicked me in college. I was under the impression that I simply didn't have a head for languages for the last 35 years or so.

And then, my wife and I made some life decisions that include spending more time in Italy. And we decided that learning basic Italian would be important.

So we hired a weekly tutor. Who is great.

And we study 30-60 minutes daily. Having a live in study buddy is awesome. It is a fun activity to share. Highly recommend.

And I have used chatGPT extensively to build vocabulary lists, cheat sheets, practice sentences and other tools. Which is also great.

Final tool? I discover Anki, which is a free flashcard app (pay for using mobile version). There are premade card decks or you can make your own. I prefer my own currently, which is easy to do using chatGPT...

So two months in, I bought a cheap backpack online. I showed my daughter. And I was able to say "Il zaino non è caro." Which probably means "The backpack isn't expensive."

I am not claiming any skills here. But I am floored by my progress. Overjoyed with the tools I have found. And just having a great time with this. I thought you may want to know.

Also, a fun little benefit. I am barely working these days. My career was highly mentally challenging in terms of learning, thinking, problem solving. I think learning Italian has had a nice cognitive benefit for me now that I am not using my brain very much.

masraum · 08-22-2025, 09:36 AM

Very nice. I never wanted to learn languages when I was in school. I wish my parents had made me take some. I think I'd actually be good at learning them. My wife would like to learn them and we even started taking a Spanish class in a Jr college near our old house once. My wife is going to have a much harder time learning languages. I think she just doesn't have the ear for it. And the dichotomy between our abilities with respect to languages makes it very difficult for her to work with me which is a bummer for both of us.

I'd love to learn Spanish, Japanese, and then maybe German.

LWJ · 08-22-2025, 09:47 AM

I think Spanish is probably the easiest to learn. You / I already know a ton of Spanish. I suspect your wife has better abilities that either of you think. My wife has been flouting her French proficiency to me and anyone nearby for decades. She has an ok accent and is passable for basic stuff. And her Italian? I am far better than her on vocab. She is better on pronunciation. I am better on grammar. She is better on connecting words / prepositions. And between the two of us? We have fun. We can teach each other a bit. Just the other night, we sat on the patio, glass of wine in hand, and made up sentences. It was joyous.

Try it Steve.

herr_oberst · 10:57 AM

It sounds like you're having fun, LWJ! The live in study-buddy idea sounds like the best idea, and I never would have thought of hiring a personal tutor!

Keep up the great work; have fun in Italy!!

Steve Carlton · 08-22-2025, 10:51 AM

My dad was kind of an opera nut when I was in high school. He took some Italian lessons so he could understand the lyrics. I always admired the dedication.

My brother did not. He recorded his music right over my dad's custom-made cassettes on his Teac. I had to laugh when I came home to find my brother's Beatles records laying bare on the brick fireplace hearth.

LWJ · 08-22-2025, 11:05 AM

^^^Herr O. The tutor is great. Why? When we completely goof a pronunciation? She corrects it. When we stumble on something that is totally weird and incomprehensible? She explains it. She really is steering the direction of our studies. We are picking up other stuff on the side. Its all good.

Bill Douglas · 08-22-2025, 12:44 PM

Good skills LWJ

I'm not good at languages but after having travelled a lot I can say something uncomplicated in lots of languages. It's a good way to be courteous in restaurants.

I think the best phrase I ever did was when a black chick came around to fix my dishwasher and she said she used to work for Unilever in Zimbabwe. I said thank you my friend in her native Ndebele language. She laughed and said OMG I didn't think I'd ever hear that around here!

LWJ · 08-22-2025, 03:50 PM

^^^Which is EXACTLY what I used to say. I thought languages were my weakness. Nope. Just a crummy teacher with a difficult subject.

It is a fun little discover that I am NOT learning disabled with language.

Now reading music? I a missing a piece of brain for that one.

Bill Douglas · 08-22-2025, 06:24 PM

A funny one was a group of us went to a Greek restaurant and a gorgeous young waitress came over. I thought I'd impress

her with my Greek language skills. She said I'm not Greek, I'm from San Diego. Henry and I simultaneously burst out singing California Dreaming. Ha, she laughed and said "I've only been here three weeks and I've had that sang to me so many times."

onewhippedpuppy · 08-23-2025, 04:32 AM

Very cool. I do a lot of business in Latin America and would love to get better at Spanish, I just haven’t made it a priority. I like the angle of learning with your wife, that sounds fun. My daughter took Spanish through middle and high school including AP and college level courses, she’s damn near fluent.

Zeke · 08-23-2025, 01:23 PM

You would think that around here Spanish would become a 2nd language by osmosis. You did good learning at age. Everything I have read points to mucho difficulty in learning a 2nd language in later years.

One thing I am aware of and that would really hamper me is the speed in which Spanish is spoken. Yes, there are some English speaking folks that talk really fast and one becomes aware of that immediately. Seems the norm in Spanish. I'd never get up to speed.

I speak at an average speed AFAIK, and really slow speakers annoy me. I've spent some time in the Southern states and they do take their time. Too fast is OK but the Spanish speaking people do it better.

What is the rate of speaking in Italian? We English speaking folks are rather slow to the rest of the world that speaks from the Latin root.

Of course dialect and accent vary in all language. I'm just speaking in general.

flatbutt · 08-23-2025, 01:59 PM

I am kinda sorta in the same situation except I am studying ASL...American Sign Language.

As with any language I must use it every day in order to become fluent but there are no deaf people in my social circle.

masraum · 08-23-2025, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeke

You would think that around here Spanish would become a 2nd language by osmosis. You did good learning at age. Everything I have read points to mucho difficulty in learning a 2nd language in later years.

One thing I am aware of and that would really hamper me is the speed in which Spanish is spoken. Yes, there are some English speaking folks that talk really fast and one becomes aware of that immediately. Seems the norm in Spanish. I'd never get up to speed.

I speak at an average speed AFAIK, and really slow speakers annoy me. I've spent some time in the Southern states and they do take their time. Too fast is OK but the Spanish speaking people do it better.

What is the rate of speaking in Italian? We English speaking folks are rather slow to the rest of the world that speaks from the Latin root.

Of course dialect and accent vary in all language. I'm just speaking in general.

Yep, the speed that a language is spoken and accent/dialect can make a huge difference.

I spent 2 summers in Spain because my dad was stationed in Spain, so I was able to visit. I was working in the officer's club on base in the kitchen. Everyone else was a Spanish national. One night I was getting dinner and the guy kept asking me "bakedpotatofrenchfry". I had no idea what he was saying, but it wasn't just me. The guy that was standing next to me was also a Spanish national, but his dad was retired US military so he was also fluent in English. That guy also had no idea what he was saying. He had to ask the guy in Spanish, and then explained it to me. Once we both understood, you could pick it out, but hearing it, there was no way.

I'm lucky, I can listen to folks with thick accents speaking English and almost always understand everything that they say. I also know a few words of Spanish and Japanese, and can pick those out of sentences when they are spoken.

My wife has no ear for it. If someone has a thick accent (whether they're from NJ or India or Mexico) and speaking English, there's a good chance that she won't have any idea what they are saying.

Quote:

Originally Posted by flatbutt

I am kinda sorta in the same situation except I am studying ASL...American Sign Language.

As with any language I must use it every day in order to become fluent but there are no deaf people in my social circle.

Yeah, that one's tough. I don't think I've ever in my life been around someone deaf that signed, and I'm 55 today. My first experience with someone deaf that signed was probably 5-6 years ago when the grocery store that we went to hired a guy. Super nice guy, probably my favorite cashier at that place.

LWJ · 08-23-2025, 06:59 PM

We are only 2 months in. It is just the start.

As for Flatbutt? I bet you could find a deaf school or something to volunteer. That would be a huge boost.

I am contemplating doing an English drop in thingy when I am in Italy - to mix with locals; work on MY skills, and build goodwill.

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

It's never been easier. When I was a kid, I had use a short wave radio to listen to German stations to keep the chops up between visits. Now there's Youtube and endless phone apps for German language radio stations. I often listen to German talk radio while on long drives or doing paperwork at home. It's also good to watch foreign language films with subtitles in that language. I used to never do that, but being married to a Chinese woman, she always wanted English subtitles turned on when possible, and it is useful for picking up new stuff.