When you’re trying to learn a foreign language, there are all sorts of little strategies that can help you memorize those sometimes elusive words.
Learning from a book, or in a class isn’t really the best way of developing your vocabulary for the simple reason that it is too abstract, i.e. too unconnected with the real world. Students often notice that they learn more Italian when spending a week in Italy than they would in a month of studying in their own country. Obviously, in Italy there would be far more opportunity to hear and absorb the language on a daily basis, but the important thing that really makes the difference is ‘context’. By context, I mean that your learning is taking place in the real world, for example: when you go through a door in a shop, or post office etc. very often you will see a little sign saying ‘spingere’ on the side that you have to push, and ‘tirare’ on the side that you must pull. In this way the verbs spingere (push) and tirare (pull) gradually become embedded in you memory without you even realizing it.
So how can you reproduce this process of contextual learning when you are at home and far from Italy?
Well one simple trick is to make your own labels and strategically place them around your house, or even your place of work. For a start you can make your own spingere and tirare labels so that every time you pass through the door you will notice those words. Eventually the act of pushing open the door will be linked to spingere, and pulling will be linked to tirare.
With this useful strategy in mind I’m going to do a series of word lists that you can print out and attach to the appropriate objects in a way that you will see them on a daily basis. Allora (so), let’s start with la cucina (the kitchen):
il tavolo (the table) see my blog Tavolo or Tavola
la sedia (the chair)
la pattumiera (the rubbish bin)
il lavello (the sink)
il fornello (the cooker)
il forno (the oven)
il microonde (the microwave)
la lavastoviglie (the dishwasher)
il frigorifero (the fridge)
il congelatore (the freezer)
l’armadietto (the cupboard)
il rubinetto (the tap)
la lavatrice (the washing machine)
lo scolapiatti (the dish drainer)
il tostapane (the toaster)
l’interruttore (the switch)
la spina (the electrical plug)
la presa (the electrical socket)
I recommend that you only print out the Italian word, and let the context of where you place the label tell you what that word means, hence every time you use the washing machine you will see your label saying la lavatrice.
Divertitevi!
Comments:
Ewan:
Great Idea…I have been meaning to do something similar for a long time now, but will follow your lists! 🙂
Vince Mooney:
Salve Serena:
I love the idea of doing this and I have used stickers to some extent in the past. However, it is easier to do when you live alone.
I hope you do a lot of these lists. I can think of many things, for example, that are in a bathroom that would be very useful.
One thing: if ‘il fornello’ is ‘the cooker’ , then what is a ‘cooker’? I don’t think I have ever used the term ‘cooker’ except to apply to the cook (one who cooks). While my wife cooks, I don’t think she will allow me to put a sticker on her. : ) If I did however would the correct term be: ‘la fornella’?
Vince
Melissa:
I’m sure Serena will give you a more in depth answer, but in the meantime I will add my two cents…
Il fornello = stove or kitchen range in American English, where as “cooker” I believe is the British equivalent
In Italian the person who does the cooking would be “il cuoco” (male) and “la cuoca” (female – you can put that sticky label on your wife!)
There used to be a cooking show in Italy with Antonella Clerici called “La Prova del Cuoco” (which roughly translate to something like “Test the Chef/Cook” – it was a variety show that challenged contestants to cook with a limited ingredients in a limited time frame on camera, and Antonella sang songs in between!
Buon apetito!
Serena:
Salve Vince, Sorry for the delay but we’re in the middle of moving my parents to a new appartment, ed è stato pazzesco! Fortunately Melissa came to my rescue, so you can refer to her comment for the U.S. translation. As I lived in England for 14 years and my husband is English, I have learnt to speak U.K. English, so naturally I tend to use U.K. terminology. A stove in U.K. English would be a heater, and would translate into ‘stufa’ in Italiano, e.g. ‘stufa a legna’ = ‘wood burning stove’, ‘stufa a gas’ = ‘gas heater’ etc. Very common here in Italy, especially in rural areas, is ‘la cucina economica’, which in England is called a ‘range’, perhaps Melissa knows what it is called in the U.S.
I’m glad you liked my word list, I thought you might! Yes I will be doing more of them in the future.
A presto, Serena
Serena:
Salve Melissa,
Grazie per l’aiuto, as I said in my reply to Vince I’m not really familiar with U.S. English terminology, in fact I have to use the U.S. spell checker when I write because many words are spelled differently in U.S. English.
I have heard of “La Prova del Cuoco” but I’ve never seen it, we don’t have a television and only watch it sometimes when we are with friends or relatives. T.V. here in Italia is about 30% adverts and it’s getting worse, most of the programmes are rubbish, ci rompe proprio le scatole! Although I have to admit that we enjoy ‘Chi Voule Essere Milionario’, with Gerri Scotti, and my husband usually watches ‘il calcio’ with my dad.
Kate:
This was a great suggestion; I labeled all my kitchen appliances and quickly memorized them. Also loved your tutorials on the congiuntivo. Io vado a Trieste per un mese all’inizio del 2010 per studiare l’italiano più intensamente. Il suo blog è stato di grande aiuto nella preparazione. Molte grazie. Kate
Serena:
Salve Kate, I’m glad you enjoy my blogs. I’ve just published another word list, this time it’s about il salotto. I’m teaching English to a friend here in Italy and her kitchen is full of labels in English! Caso mai, lei non è mica la Kate di Nottingham che ha studiato nelle mie classi di GCSE ed A Level?
A presto, Serena
Kate:
Caso mai, lei non è mica la Kate di Nottingham che ha studiato nelle mie classi di GCSE ed A Level?
No, quella sarebbe stata qualcun altra. Io abito a Chicago; prendo le lezione private per web cam da una signora che vive in italia. I don’t know if you are interested in suggestions for topics to cover in your blog… but I am really struggling to understand when to use che vs. quello vs. quello che vs. il quale, etc. For example, “Who is that man? He’s the one who called you yesterday… era quello al quale hai telefonato ieri,” (but I didn’t translate that myself…. Questo tipo di frase mi fa spasmo al cervello.) Any help would be wonderful. Grazie mille- Kate
Serena:
Salve Kate, I’ll write something soon about che vs. il quale (which are both pronomi relativi). I’m not sure what you mean by che vs. quello as these two are not interchangeable.
The correct translation for ‘He’s the one who called you yesterday’ would be `è quello che ti ha chiamato ieri.’ The translation in your comment: ‘era quello al quale hai telefonato ieri’ actually says ‘he was the one whom you telephoned yesterday’. Do you mind if I ask where the translation came from?
A presto, Serena
Melissa:
I think Kate may be struggling with things I am struggling with a bit too with che and quale and cui. I really need to study up on these.
for instance are these correct:
Il libro di cui non si puo’ parlare….
Il libro del quale non si puo’ parlare….
Il libro, che non si puo’ parlare, …
Il cui = whose
che = that
La donna, il cui gatto e’ nero, e’ malato
La donna che ha un gatto nero e’ malato”
Kate:
Serena- The incorrect translation into English was mine. My teacher wrote: ‘era quello al quale hai telefonato ieri’ to give me some examples, and I incorrectly put that into the English version that you kindly corrected above.
To clarify my confusion with que/quello che, here are a couple of sentences, and I didn’t know which was appropriate for each, although I’ve now been told that these are correct..?
“Qual è il nome dell’opera che vedremo?”
“Non ci crederai a quello che sucesso!” Not sure why the ‘a’ is here, or if it’s essential. In this 2nd sentence, the ‘quello che’ translates to ‘what happened.’ When the word ‘what’ (as it would be translated into English) is used in a non- question format, is ‘quello che’ the appropriate translation in general? Thanks much.
Kate
Serena:
Salve Kate, I’m just about to publish an article about ‘che’ and ‘il quale’. I hope you’ll find all the answers you need in it. I think you are confusing the relative pronoun ‘il quale/la quale/i quali/le quali’ with the interrogative adjective/pronoun ‘qual/quale/quali … ?’, meaning ‘which… ?’ in English. The interrogative adjective/pronoun is always used without the article, as in your example “qual è il titolo dell’opera che vedremo?”, whilst the relative pronoun is always preceded by the article: “il signore al quale hai telefonato”.
Regarding your question about “non ci crederai a quello che è successo”, the ‘a’ is necessary because the verb ‘credere’ in Italian is followed by the preposition ‘a’: credere a qualcosa, credere a qualcuno, the ‘ci’ is actually redundant but is very commonly used in spoken Italian. By the way, you need to put the è before successo: è successo = ‘has happened’. Part two of your question is quite difficult, I’ll have to think about it a bit more, but I can say that we very commonly use the word ‘cosa’ or ‘che cosa’ to mean ‘what’ in so called indirect questions, such as: non so (che) cosa fare (I don’t know what to do), raccontami (che) cosa avete fatto ieri sera (tell me what you did yesterday evening), indovini (che) cosa è successo (guess what has happened).
A presto da Serena.
Serena:
Ciao Melissa, sono contenta che la mia spiegazione sia molto chiara. Volevo correggere un paio di frasi che avevi scritto riguardo ai pronomi relativi. Hai scritto:
Il libro di cui non si puo’ parlare….
Il libro del quale non si puo’ parlare….
Il libro, che non si puo’ parlare, …
Le prime due frasi sono corrette (la prima è la migliore), mentre la terza è grammaticalmente sbagliata perché in Italiano si dice ‘parlare di qualcosa’.
Gli altri due esempi:
La donna, il cui gatto e’ nero, e’ malato
La donna che ha un gatto nero e’ malato
In tutte e due le frasi c’è lo stesso errore, cioè ‘è malato’ si riferisce al gatto perché maschile singolare; la frase giusta sarebbe: ‘la donna che ha un gatto nero è malata’, oppure ‘la donna, il cui gatto è nero, è malata’ (ma questa seconda frase non suona bene in italiano).
Ciao e a presto!
Serena