It's no secret how much Kelly and I love all things Italy. With our Mum being Italian and us having grown up around our Italian Grandparents, Italy very much has our hearts. Over the past few weeks we have been immersing ourselves in the Italian language, writing to each other whenever we can, speaking words or little sentences to each other as much as possible, and even watching Italian TV shows with no subtitles; because, I am ashamed to admit it, while we grew around many Italian speaking people, and often had Italian TV playing in the background when spending time with our Grandparents, we are not fluent in the beautiful language.
When I was thinking about it the other day I felt compelled to write a blog post. I thought back to my high school days of learning French and how much I hated it and I thought about kids nowadays and wondered if language is a top priority for them, or if they too dislike it. My reason for not caring much for French was simply because I wanted to learn Italian, but my school didn't offer that. Looking back, I know I should have still cared about French, I should have been more enthusiastic towards learning another language. It has been a hot minute since I stepped foot in my old high school, but I wonder if times have changed? Do they offer more languages? Do they encourage students to keep it up? Do they teach the importance and value of knowing another language? I kick myself that it has taken me the best part of twenty plus years to get serious about learning Italian and I feel this is something we should be thinking about for our kids. I feel it's rare that I hear a kid is going to Italian group or Spanish group after school, it's more the likes of football or dance clubs.
Practicing more than ever before, with books & Italian DVD's!
In today's society there is a lot of fear. We fear the unknown, we fear change, we fear races, we fear religions, we fear things we do not understand. When Kelly and I used to talk about going to Italy, we would feel anxious and scared at the idea of not going with our Mum, because who would speak for us? Who would help us with the language barrier? Now, we are determined to know enough to get by. Learning languages is incredibly difficult and I know I used to give up because of that, but in the past year or so I have pushed myself out of comfort zones and have done things that scare me, this time I do not want to give up. I am determined to learn.
Wouldn't it be awesome if we each took the time to learn another language? Maybe even two? Wouldn't it be amazing to knock down barriers and banish fears through communication? I think this could be such an incredible thing for the world and our human interactions, if we stepped outside our comfort zones (and not be lazy, slaps wrist) and took the time to really listen and learn from others from all countries and cultures.
I actually had a course, it was only allowed for one semester, while I was in middle school. It wasn't about just one language, it was multiple languages and I thought that was interesting because I found out that I had an easier time with certain ones than others. Japanese was one of my favorites! I could not (and still can't) roll my Rs so that eliminated Spanish and that was one that you could take in high school, along with German too! The only part about it was this was one that I wish was offered in both semesters because you only got a week of the language before taking a test and moving onto the next one!
It's never too late to learn and it sounds like you already have an ear for Italian.
Yes, because who would speak for us?.