Archive for February, 2010
‘Che t’aggia dì’ Posted by Serena on Feb 28, 2010
In my imagination, all of you who read my last blog ‘Gesture of the Day’ have been spending hours in front of the mirror practicing and perfecting your moves. Now I won’t pretend that learning body language will improve your grammar, but it will perhaps help you to speak Italian in a more convincing way…
Gesture of the Day Posted by Serena on Feb 25, 2010
In my blog ‘La Dolce Lingua part 2′, I wrote “when we Italians speak we like to use our whole body, not just our mouths!” This, in fact, is an aspect of our language, indeed our culture, that is very hard to transmit in writing. However, I like a challenge, so I will now attempt…
The Priest Stranglers Posted by Serena on Feb 22, 2010
Gli Strozzapreti (The Priest Stranglers): the latest blockbuster thriller produced by the infamous trio Tizio, Caio, and Sempronio? No, but it is a very nice type of gnocchi made with spinach and ricotta cheese. A couple of days ago we went to my parents for lunch and my mother cooked us gli strozzapreti, don’t ask me the…
La Dolce Lingua – part 2 Posted by Serena on Feb 19, 2010
In my blog ‘La Dolce Lingua’ I wrote: “Now I don’t wish to start a controversy about the expressive merits of one language over another”, ecco, come diciamo in Italiano ‘ultime parole famose’ (as we say in Italian ‘famous last words’). Well, I had a feeling that this might be a controversial topic for the…
La Dolce Lingua Posted by Serena on Feb 16, 2010
Learners of Italian often ask me if my native language sounds as beautiful and musical to me as it does to them. In a recent comment for example, Vince wrote “when I read “Sotto casa nostra” it sounds beautiful to me but it just means, “Below our house” which sounds totally mundane in English”. This…
Farsi Male Posted by Serena on Feb 10, 2010
My last blog, Una Veduta dall mia Finestra was inspired by the landscape that I see from my window. This blog draws inspiration from a rather different source, my accident prone husband Geoff. Within the last three weeks he has managed to fall from a two meter wall and crack his ribs, remove a patch…
Una Veduta dalla mia Finestra Posted by Serena on Feb 7, 2010
When we learn a foreign language, we tend to concentrate primarily on the prosaic, rather than the poetic, and hence we become pretty good at using the utilitarian language that helps us to achieve practical everyday tasks, such as shopping or asking for information. However, when it comes to describing things, or events in a more…