Archive for July, 2015
My Father’s War–Part 2 Posted by Serena on Jul 15, 2015
I recently began writing about my father’s personal experience of the Second World War in North Africa. If you haven’t read part 1 yet you can find here. Born in Benghazi, Libya, in 1921, my father was drafted into the Italian militia as soon as Italy entered the war in June 1940. Here’s the second…
Express Your Opinion In Italian! Posted by Geoff on Jul 13, 2015
Last week, in my blog In Che Condizioni E’ I wrote about the importance of developing a vocabulary of descriptive adjectives in Italian. Believe me, I know the frustration of wanting to say something intelligent on a topic and ending up sounding like a complete troglodyte due to having a limited vocabulary. Everything you want to express an…
E’ Arrivato Flegetonte Posted by Serena on Jul 9, 2015
“E’ arrivato Flegetonte” (Phlegethon has arrived) is the main headline in most Italian newspapers at the moment. But what on earth is a Flegetonte? Well, in Greek mythology, Phlegethon was one of the rivers of the underworld, its name meaning ‘flaming’. In his Inferno, Dante Alighieri describes the Flegetonte as a river of boiling blood which…
In Che Condizioni È? Posted by Geoff on Jul 7, 2015
If you’re going to engage your Italian friends and acquaintances in conversation, the ability to liven up or clarify what you want to say is going to require a repertoire of useful descriptive adjectives. Let’s begin with a question: “in che condizioni è?” (“what condition is it/he/she in?” N.B. in Italian we use the plural…
Cosa Fare Quando Fa troppo Caldo? Posted by Geoff on Jul 6, 2015
Eccoci cari lettori, è lunedì mattina, sono seduto davanti allo schermo del portatile a fissare una pagina vuota con una testa ancora più vuota. Questo di per sé non è molto insolito … anzi, teoricamente oggi dovrebbe essere stato più facile del solito perché avevo già pronte due o tre idee per gli articoli di…
My Father’s War–Part 1 Posted by Serena on Jul 3, 2015
Il 10 giugno 1940, quando l’Italia ha dichiarato guerra all’Inghilterra, mio padre era un giovanotto di 19 anni appena compiuti e viveva con la sua famiglia a Bengasi, in Libia, che era colonia italiana dal 1911. Approfittando del fatto che papà in questo periodo abita con noi, gli ho chiesto di raccontarmi le sue esperienze…
A Bit More Italian Back-to-frontness Posted by Geoff on Jul 1, 2015
Now why on earth won’t my spell checker recognise the word back-to-frontness? It seems perfectly valid to me! In my last blog, Learning Italian: The Back To Front Language! I touched upon the seemingly superfluous articles il, la, i, and le, in phrases such as la mia bici (the my bike): Hai visto la mia…