That's Amore!

I have a confession: I LOVE DEAN MARTIN!!! Haha, I have for the past 10-15 years or so. I was listening to some of his music today when That's Amore came on. If you're unfamiliar with the song or just haven't heard it in a while, it is sung in a mix of English and Italian (Engliano perhaps? Is that a phrase? If it isn't, it should be!) So here is the song! And I will have a list of the Italian he uses in the song and what it means in English below =)

Amore-Love
Vita Bella-Beautiful life
Tarantella-A rapid whirling dance originating in southern Italy.
Pasta Fazool (should be pasta fagioli)-Means "pasta and beans" and it is a traditional meatless Italian dish.
Signore-Sir
Scuzza me (should be mi scusi)-Excuse me

And that's it! Easy enough =) 

~Ciao Ciao Bella~

PS- All the Italian players got knocked out of Wimbledon =/ We'll see how they do at the US Open!

Wimbledon

I've been a bit lazy with my studies... So I'll talk about Wimbledon instead!

The grass seems super slippery this year and many top players have been knocked out, leaving some opening in both the women and men's draws.

Andreas Seppi still left on the men's side (to face Del Potro in the next round, quite a tough match there!), and three Italians are left in the women's draw!! So I will be cheering on Flavia Pennetta,
Karin Knapp and Roberta Vinci!

Viva l'Italia!

 

caffè sospeso

Just read a nice story about suspended coffee or "caffe sospeso" which originated in Naples. The basic concept is someone who is feeling generous pays for two coffees instead of one, then someone who is a little hard pressed can pop into the coffee shop, say "caffe sospeso?" and claim the free coffee.

Basic pay it forward, random acts of kindness type of thing- such a little thing can make someone's day great =)

Click here if you want to read the story too!

Ciao!!

una frase che spero di non utilizzare

I downloaded a trial version of babbel for my tablet, and it's actually quite helpful! Would love to know if anyone else has used this program and if it is worth the investment.

Anyway, while going over basic numbers, I was given a phrase I hope I never have to use!

Which is: Di nuovo dei gemelli: cuattro bambini!

Which translates to: Twins again- 4 kids!

Twins run in the family! Hopefully I won't be fated to have one set, much less two! haha =P

~Ciao ciao bella!~

perdonarmi di nuovo per la assenza prolungata (e eurovision!)

Sorry again for taking such a long absence. I moved, then Derby happened and it took me longer than I thought to settle in to mi nuovo appartamento. But I am settled now and enjoying getting back into Italian! 

I have basically had to start over from scratch (which in all reality is not that far behind where I left off.) And since I am rehashing what I'd already learned and since I don't feel like rehashing the same topic for a blog entry, I have decided to talk a little about Eurovision!! (aka the best competition on Earth!)

Eurovision is similar to American Idol, The Voice, The X Factor etc. etc., except it predates all of these shows. Eurovision was started in 1956 as a way to help reunite Europe after WWII. Each European country that is participating will send one singer, they each sing an original song, each country will vote for their favorite (and they can't vote for the singer your country sent) and when the votes are in, the winner is announced and winner's country will have to host the event the following year. Eurovision has been won by ABBA and Celine Dion (for Switzerland, which seems a bit unfair since she isn't even from the country, but some countries will do whatever it takes to win if they want to host it badly enough!)

Italy had opted out of participating for a few years but came back in 2011, and I am glad they did because it was one of my favorite songs from that year. (It finished in second place so I think many people were in agreement with me!) Love the jazz influence and his smooth voice!

Music is one of the best ways to learn a language, and I can't wait to find some more Italian singers to listen to! If anyone out there has any suggestions, I would love to hear them!

due cose

So I have due cose (2 things) to share.

First, I have watched some videos from the Youtube channel I shared before. I watched two or three videos from a channel called 'Peccati Originali' (Which means original sins! Haha, I thought peccati sounded liked 'pica' which means snack in Spanish... although now that I think of it, it does sound more like 'pecado' which does mean sin.). It is a show about making dessert, and even though I don't understand tons of what she is saying, I can keep up by the visuals going along with the show.

Anyway, while watching the video for 'il crumble di mele' (apple crumble), I may not have been paying as close attention as I should because I was watching TV at the same time, but I did hear the chef say to use "burro"... And I was thinking, "Did I hear her say 'burro'? I hope it means something different in Italian than it does in Spanish!" (In case you don't know, 'burro' means donkey in English.) And it turns out I did hear her say 'burro', and luckily it does mean something different in Italian- so no donkey going into this apple crumble, just butter! =)

The second thing is today we had a family from Italy visit the museum! (Meeting people from all over the world is definitely my favorite part of being a tour guide!) I got to talk to them a little about visiting Italy this summer while I took them out on tour, and I understood a lot of what they were saying to each other in Italian! For example, it was so cold today that when we got back inside the father touched his son's face with his had, and his son said 'guanti!' The dad turned to me to explain that 'guanti' means gloves in Italian, but I already knew that because the word in Spanish, 'guantes', is so similar.

Glad to see my Spanish vocabulary is not always a false cognate in Italian!

~Ciao Ciao Bella~

How I fell in love with Italy

So hopefully by now you realize how much I love all things Italian (tutte cose italiane!) But I have not shared how this love affair began.

When I was 17, I had applied for summer learning program that is offered free to qualifying students here in the state of KY. It helps prepare soon-to-be high school seniors for college. I was very confident I would be selected, but I was not. I was crushed and my ego was a bit bruised, but I am so glad I failed because what came from it was one of the best experiences of my life.

After learning I had not been selected, I remembered a brochure I had receive in the mail from Duke University about summer learning programs they offered abroad. I dug it out of my box of college pamphlets and looked through it. I was torn between applying for the Greece and Italy program, but decided on Italy since my birthday fell within the dates for the Greece trip. (Isn't if funny what we found to be so important when we were in high school!)

I applied and was accepted to the program. So I took all the money I had saved to buy my first car (because unfortunately this program was not free!) and used it to make my way to Italy.I got to spend a marvelous 2 and a half weeks traveling around with about 15 other students and our teachers. My first day I couldn't believe how beautiful and historic Rome was, and I felt like the lucky person alive to get to experience it.

We went to Rome, Pompeii, Naples, Florence and Sienna. All my class lessons took place at the actual site for what we were studying. It was as if my text books had come to life! I got to go to the Colosseum, walk around the statue of David and climb Mount Vesuvius. And thus my love of Italy (and travel) was born!


Since I went to Italy in the stone age (aka 2003) before anyone owned digital cameras (that's fotocamera digitale in Italian, because if you remember, camera means bed!) All my pictures are on film and only a few have made the digital conversion, but I will leave you with the ones that have. 

~ciao bella~

Victor Emmanuel Monument

 Della Palma

 Pantheon

 River (fiume) in Firenze

 

 Some girls from the program with me at the airport, about to leave Italy

The Vatican

Ciao di nuovo

Hi again! I have a few updates!! I've joined Google+ and I am hoping to increase my use of Google+ and decrease my use of Facebook. This, however, depends on if more people will make the switch to Google+ because at the moment, I only have 3 friends who appear to use Google+ on a semi regular basis. I do know that I will no longer post any travel photos to Facebook since I am not a huge fan of their photo copyright policies, so many photos from now on will be loaded through Google+.

Ok, that was a bit off topic, just a heads up. The main reason I wanted to bring Google+ up was because I found a good starter lesson of Italian through a community on Google+. I'm not sure how often they will be uploading videos, but I found it really helpful and I could actually understand most of what she was saying even though I haven't studied much Italian because it is so similar to Spanish! There where a few words from the lesson that did not mean the same in Italian as Spanish though- these false cognates can easily trip you up!

These are the 2 that come to mind from the lesson: Loro and Siete. In Spanish 'Loro' means 'Parrot', but in Italian it means 'They'. In Spanish 'Siete' means '7', but in Italian it means 'are' for the plural form of you-Voi.

They also appear to have other Italian Language programmes available to watch on their Youtube channel which I will check out later, but for now, here is Laura with la prima lezione di Italiano =)

~Ciao Ciao Bella~

regali e ricordi

So, I've taken quite a long gap from updating this blog, and I am truly sorry for that. I spent the month of September traveling, moved back to the United States, returned to work, got a new job and have been trying to readjust to life stateside in general. One of my new years resolutions though is to resume my studies of Italian, so I will be posting here again regularly once again!

I haven't started studying again yet, so instead of updating you on a fun new phrase or tidbit or on my progress, I will instead share some fun gifts and souvenirs (regali e ricordi) I picked up in September while I was visiting Pisa and Rome.

 A magnet I bought for the family who let me stay with them while in Spain. It's hard to tell here, but there are multiple layers of wood there which gave it an even cooler effect!

 Leaning Tower of Pisa leaning shot glass I got my brother

Pinocchio! I got 3, one for a niece, one for a nephew and one for me =)

I also got my friend and myself t-shirts that look similar to this one! I actually had remembered this shirt from the first time I was in Italy 7 years ago, and I was mad at myself for not buying it when I was there all those years ago, so I made up for it this trip!

These are not things I bought/did, but they made me laugh =)

 Duff beer! Haha, didn't know anyone would make a real version of the beer from the Simpsons!

Saw some guy at the top of the Vatican drinking a Guinness beer!! So funny!!