Morning all – here’s the time right now:
What I wanted to do in today’s blog is really (well as I do in all of them) – write this as a reminder to myself that I really need to get my arse in gear when it comes to actually learning Italian.
So during the summer this year I spent 10 days in Italy with Strawberry’s family and hung out with Strawberry and her family.
As with every trip to Italy I make – it again was clear that to be a proper member of this family – I need to learn to speak Italian.
Otherwise, I’ll go all my life without properly communicating with her parents and her wider family which totally sucks.
With this in mind, I decided to take it upon myself to get an Italian tutor.
I ended up after searching – finding one from Napoli called Salvatore – who’s currently studying for his PHd – and I found him of all places through focusmate.
Random connection but there you go.
Anyway – we’re probably 7 lessons into our journey and I’m not at all making the progress that I want to.
We’re working together 2-3x per week.
If I look at it from a ‘raw progress’ perspective – the fact that I’m doing something is definitely progress.
However – what’s become quickly apparent is that I need to do some of my own outside studying if I’m going to make this work.
I specifically searched for someone that I could just practice speaking with and work by learning intuitively.
And whilst in every lesson there’s a constant stream of new words – the problem I have is that I’m being lazy and not making time to go back to the words that I learned in the last lesson….
And try to embed them in my mind.
This is where there’s a requirement for deep work and focus – and it’s in this space that I’m evidently lacking.
Deep work and focus actually hurt your brain and I think I’m avoiding it because learning a new language requires deep focus.
This is something that I’ve forgotten how to do, I think.
Writing – as I am now with a countdown clock in the foreground, white noise, and preparing it as a stream of consciousness – is easy for me.
Ironically – everything I’m doing with this blog is about making things as easy as possible for me – without necessarily thinking about what it is my audience actually wants.
This probably explains why this blog hasn’t seen the kind of growth (really any) that I’ve been hoping for.
But I enjoy it, and it’s easy and so I persevere.
This just isn’t the same with Italian.
I feel like it’s a slow chore that won’t reap results over any short period of time.
HOWEVER……that’s why I’m here writing about my Italian journey.
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I want to get better at the art of speaking (and I’m basically a ‘zero’ in this regard) – and this is why I’m publishing it here on my blog.
Getting a tutor alone unfortunately hasn’t worked for me.
I have canceled, rescheduled, and just decided to not go to lessons.
I’m basically a sh*t student – something I’m trying to correct as quickly as I can.
Which is why I hope this public declaration serves me well.
The very next step is to write up my handwritten notes from the 7 Italian lessons I’ve had.
Even if I could just remember the words and expressions from those 7-lessons – I could contribute so much more to the dinner table conversations Strawberry has with her family.
For this failure then – I blame myself as having been together for 8 years+ now – I should be a fluent Italian speaker.
But that’s why I’m writing this blog – I’m trying to pull out all of the stops to drive the motivation needed to get this done.
Imagine me in 5 years from now being with an Italian woman for over 10-15 years and still not being able to speak Italian.
When you think about it in this way it’s embarrassing.
And when we do have children…not being able to communicate with them is going to be terrible – if they just spoke English.
Speaking totally in Italian at home would be amazing.
With this in mind then – the journey MUST begin.
Let’s do this!
I’ll report back before the 1st of November with an Italian language update!
