Archive for February, 2016
It’s Love That Counts Posted by Geoff on Feb 12, 2016
Italian music has the tendency to be very conservative, but search for a love song for Saint Valentine’s day and you’ll be overwhelmed by the millions of results. Now, out of that mass of results, at least 90% are going to be embarrassing clichés or just horribly tacky. But here’s a song about love that…
At The Clothing Store in Italy Posted by Serena on Feb 10, 2016
The setting: un negozio di abbigliamento in una città italiana (a clothing store in an Italian town) The caracters: una coppia e la commessa (a couple and the shop assistant) Moglie: “Guarda, ci sono i saldi, perché non ne approfitti per comprarti un bel giaccone per l’inverno” Wife: “Look, the sales are on, why don’t…
Spot The Italian Accent Posted by Geoff on Feb 8, 2016
As a student of the Italian language, do you have trouble rolling your ‘r‘s? What about you aiuole and aerei … how are they? Yes, Italian has a few tricky points of pronunciation, but things aren’t exactly easy for Italians when they try to speak English. In my experience of teaching conversational English to Italians…
My Italian Carnival Costume Posted by Serena on Feb 5, 2016
L’altro ieri, frugando fra le vecchie foto di famiglia di quando abitavamo a Bengasi, Libia, ne ho ritrovata una di me bambina, che ha fatto riaffiorare dei ricordi divertenti. The day before yesterday, digging through the old family photos from when we lived in Benghazi, Libya, I found one of myself as a child that…
La Pennichella Italiana Posted by Geoff on Feb 3, 2016
The first time that I heard the English/American expression ‘power nap’ I was curious to know how it differed from the traditional Italian pennichella. But let’s begin from the beginning shall we, what exactly is a pennichella? Etimologia di Pennichella: Pennichella is a Roman/Neapolitan word now widely used all over Italy to describe il riposino pomeridiano (the…
Carmela’s Plan Posted by Geoff on Feb 1, 2016
Dear Readers, last October I began writing the chapters of Carmela’s story. The idea was to present you with the main body of the narrative in English and the dialogue in colloquial Italian, thus rendering it easier to read and comprehend. According to your feedback via the comments section, this format seemed to work well…