Starting sales...

Time has come, and after some months I had my first sale on etsy!!
This bracelet of mine was send to France. Hopefully it will become a fine present for someone.

I wanted it to be a present just as it came out from the envelope! I hope my packaging could render the idea!


It was a great emotion to prepare it from someone who considered my work valuable!




From my hands to their hands...






Soon after a new sale came.. just yesterday night! The buyer is a friend of mine who now lives in Germany. When I saw the order I smiled and then I thought she could tell me before buying. I wrote an e-mail to her and she answered to me saying that the price is already too low, so she doesn't want any discount for her purchasing ...
My very first earrings are going to become the present for a friend of hers ...
I'm very happy about it, I perfectly know that my friends see what I do with "the look of love", but I can't help appreciating their words so much!

Language learning: two languages, two experiences

foto from Flickr

In my long journey as a language learner I've understood a couple of things; I've experienced it as a student, but also studied it. I started studying English when I was quite young (10 years old), and my teacher was Italian. With German, things were different. I started to study it when I was at University (20 years old), my teachers were mainly mother-tongue. These differences made me think about how I apprehended these two languages.

English at the beginning was totally a matter of fun! our teacher showed us cartoons, and then taught us some words and phrases. I can't remember any writing exercise during the first year. We learnt to say something and mainly how to use those phrases. Nothing about grammar or how to build up sentences. Then time for grammar came: present simple, Subject Verb Object structure, and so on... but only later. What we learnt first of all were Formulae. It was not important to learn the rule, but how to say things, because we need to spend time talking, somehow.

German came to a very different time of my life. After so many years at school there is something in your mind that tells you that the way to learn thing is to deeply understand them. Unfortunately that is not always true!
The first time my teacher came in class I was so scared! She started talking in German, only very few of us could understand what she was saying; I remember I thought something like: "How am I going to learn anything about it if she's not going to stop and explain us what she's saying?!" I was wrong; what they were trying to do was a total immersion in the language and also they tried to make us used with the sensation of not understanding each and every words they say.
Something in my mind was not helping me, because I wanted explanation, but actually I didn't need them.

The first thing is talking. That's why I started this new topic giving just phrases and words and not rules. I'll give some basic rules, if the time comes. In the meantime, stay tuned!

I love you...or not?!

Thinking about the next lesson with a question in my mind: what is worth after greetings and presentation, what do you need to enter the Italian language?!
I could not find an answer, but I realized what will be the next lesson:

expressing feeling/sentimenti

No need to say that feelings are not to be translated, but what we can translate is the way to express them. A friend asked me about German language some days ago, we were discussing sound and so on... I was telling him that German is not that harsh to pronounce and he told me "How do you say 'I love you'?", "Ich liebe dich", "you see, it sounds better in Italian or Spanish..."
Probably, it is right, the sound of the whole expression is a bit harsh, let see the Italian for
I love you: ti amo; very easy, two words. Anyway, pay attention on how to use it! Any Italian mother-tongue speaker will tell you that this formula is used only to express your feeling to the man/woman you want to share your life with. You usually do not use it with friends, relatives, or any other similar context. If you want to express your loving feelings towards other people (brothers, sisters, friends, parents, and so on) say:
Ti voglio bene: very difficult to translate it is a mix of I care of you/I want the best for you. Unfortunately, you can hear it in combinations like: "Ti voglio bene, ma non ti amo"; that we could translate as: "I really care of you, but I don't love you". A polite, but very sad way to say that your feelings towards the other person are not so deep.

Anyway, thinking about it I realized also, that I actually use it in different ways... Just a couple of example... When a friend says or does something peculiar for me I could express my joy in that moment saying "ti amo!!" but clearly, it is an exaggeration that help to express how happy I am about it. Sometimes I can express my reproach for something bad that one cold have said, saying "ti amo anch'io!" (I love you too!), it is of course ironic, the meaning is more or less "Your reproach is too hard to me, but I understand what you are saying!". Here of course the way it is said express more than half of the meaning!

About love

image taken from here
original text taken from here:

Eine Kleinigkeit
(für Catherine)

Ich weiß nicht was Liebe ist
aber vielleicht ist es etwas wie das:

Wenn sie
nach Hause kommt aus dem Ausland
und stolz zu mir sagt: »Ich habe
eine Wasserratte gesehen«
und ich erinnere mich an diese Worte
wenn ich aufwache in der Nacht
und am nächsten Tag bei der Arbeit
und ich sehne mich danach
sie dieselben Worte
noch einmal sagen zu hören
und auch danach
dass sie nochmals genau so aussehen soll
wie sie aussah
als sie sie sagte -

Ich denke, das ist vielleicht Liebe
oder doch etwas hinreichend Ähnliches





A littleness

I don't know what love is
but perhaps
it is something like this:

when she
comes back from abroad
and proudly says to me: "I've
seen a water rat"
and I remember these words
when I wake up at night
and the day after at work
and I miss that
these very words
once more I hear her saying

and again and again
exactly seeming
as they seemed
when she said them

I think that perhaps it is love,
or at least something very similar to it.

translation is mine, any advice is welcome.

Dictionaries and co.

Foto from Flickr
If you study languages, or are interested in language learning one of your best friend is called dictionary. I often use online dictionaries, because it's quicker than turning pages. You just type in a word and wait.
Doing my german homework I've found a couple new sources that deserve mention in this blog. The first is the online version of SANSONI provided by the italian newspapaer "Corriere della Sera", which is a really good dictionary and of great help. But one of the greatest problem when you study German is the possibility of creating new words that could generate confusion in the reader, and here the second source could be of great help. Bab.la is something more than a dictionary, because provides you the meaning of the words, but also an example of use. But the thing that deserves mention is this: whenever you cannot find there the word you need you can look for it in another source (so far, quite obvious)and then put it there. It will be checked, but in the meantime it is available with the red writing "non verif." (not checked).
That's great for a basic reason, language is something alive, then changes and enlarges itself, so obviously a living dictionary is a great advantage.
Of course there is the negative aspect that we always find talking about online sources: reliability. But as always the solution is to take it as a starting point and not as a universal truth. To have an initial meaning (the most unprecise it could be) it is better than wondering without knowing.

A new Banner

There is a new banner in my blog, it comes from a page that has something to do with language learning.
When you start learning a language one of the most important thing is vocabulary. To learn new words is the first step to express yourself in the target language, and I found a way to improve your vocabulary and help to fight hunger.
Freerice is an opportunity for language learner, for those of you who want to learn English French German Italian or Spanish.
When you open the page, you'll find a quiz, there are words you are asked to translate in English, and for every word guessed 10 grains rice will be donate through the World Food Program.

I found it some time ago thanks to Karenuccia, but after my last template change it went lost, now I redescovered it for my German training, I'm always trying to find new ways to improve my vocabulary, and I think that is a great way!

For any other information have a look to the page!

Sometimes....

Sometimes you get up so early in the morning....

Sometimes you are ready to come back as soon as you get to University...

Sometimes you expect to hear that you have to be back for the exam the day after, and you are told that you'll be the last of that very day.

Sometimes you wait so long for your exam that you have no more hope, and you seriously think to run away...

Sometimes when you enter the door your expectations are so low...

Sometimes professors are not that bad, and somehow they try to help you...

Sometime you run to get the train and your heart is lighter...

Sometimes on the train you see a friend you haven't met for ages, and you deserve a fine talk....

Sometimes you come back home really late, but you are happy!

Surprise surprise...

foto from Flickr


It is at least surprising with this great crisis, money crisis, University crisis, whatsoever crisis... that my University was able to buy three (not just one, but three!) new German vocabularies!

I'm almost moved... and pleased, because the former were impossible to use!
... I attend to the 2nd oldest University in the world, you know!

Things you learn going to University...

This morning I sat the German written exam, I had to translate a text that my teacher took from La Repubblica, an Italian newspaper.
So far nothing strange, but the article dealt with the biological problem in language learning! Researchers from the University of Chicago have found out that there is an area in our brain that help us (or doesn't) to learn a foreign language. If this area is well developed you'll make no particular effort to learn the language, instead...

Was she trying to tell us something?!?!


P.S.
For those lucky of you, who know this marvellous language that is Italian the article is here!

new opportunities

As you should have understood so far, I'm desperately trying to find a good way to improve my German (I'm not saying that my English is perfect...). I subscribed a blog with German podcast, without finding there a real help, mainly because I have no great time to spend with podcast, but today I found there something very useful for a "languagelearner"!
http://www.bitesizedlanguages.com/
In this site you can subscribe (totally free) and then receive e-mails with words and phrases in the language you are learning. Unfortunately now there are only three languages available:
spanish
portuguese
french
But you can also subscribe for language to come, among which I found German.

In the meantime, I have also subscribed portuguese, because it has always fascinated me. Such a strange language, with a peculiar sound...

Language learning is relative....

My father always says that learning Italian is quite easy.

Then he usually goes on saying that the reason why Italian is so easy is that words are pronounced the very way you write them. This is more or less true. We have pronunciation rules, that's all. German too! But we also have a very complicated verbal system composed of several modes and tenses.
At this point in the conversation my sister usually says :"Some modes and tenses are no longer used in Italian!". She refers to passato remoto, and some kind of congiuntivo. Go and ask to southern people if they no longer use passato remoto!!

Passato remoto is used to narrate events that happened very long ago, or at least that's what my teacher told me when I was 6! Speaking Italian I very rarely use passato remoto (telling once-upon-a-time stories, imitating southern people...), a class mate of mine, who come from the south of Italy used passato remoto to tell me about events that occurred the day before...

When I spoke to Elena (American student), during the exchange, I had the opportunity to ask her what is her greatest difficulty speaking Italian. I expected she to say: Italian verb system. She told me several things that were difficult for her, but she didn't mention verbs! I must confess I was a bit disappointed!

My German teacher in my first year at the University, used to underline that Italian is far more complicated than German, because irregular verbs in German show their irregularity in precise "points": 2nd and 3rd singular person, Praeteritum, and Partizip. No more no less. While in Italian you don't know where you can find irregularities.
Anyway someone should remind her that German still have declination for nouns, articles, and adjectives, and there is no way at all to guess the gender of words!

So... time is not the only relative thing, I assume!