Translating into Italian

Etsy is growing... and learning a new language: Italian.

The project started, and many members of Etsyitaliateam are helping in this great issue of translating etsy into Italian.
I've never translated a web-site before. I am very gratefull to my informatics course at University, otherwise html would be an enormous difficoulty. These codes are everywhere while translating and sometimes they make it difficult to understand the real meaning of a very simple sentence or phrase.
It's tricky, but so far is also interesting.

What is strange about it is that it must be functional, there is very little to "read". What we are translating are basic information to surf the great sea of shops on Etsy. Thus, we need to focus on the very use of words.
Another thing to take into consideration is lenght. Bottons and links are supposed to take the same amount of space of the english ones.

Luckily, we have a thread to compare our doubts and talk with the admin to be sure of doing a good job. Once again, what makes Etsy different from other places on the net, is the main idea of community.

Working (and living) with what has to do with languages, I've been wondering about this project before joining. We are doing it as volunteers, we are just partecipating in what we want to became real. We first wanted this site to speak Italian. But translation is also a serious matter, people do it for a living, so... how fair is it doing it for free?
I hope someone is supposed to revise our whole work, in the end. Someone that do it for a living.
So far, once again I am learning something new!

Back from holiday

Italian lessons start again after holiday and to report the days spent on the mountain or the seaside...

Dove sei stato in vacanza?: where have you spent you holiday?
Ho passato le vacanze (ferie): I've spent my holiday

in montagna: on the mountain
al mare: on the seaside

Ferie/Vacanze: it is almost the same thing, the only difference (not always underlined) is that usually the word Ferie is used to indicate a pause during work.

Andare in vacanza:to go on holiday



The picture I've taken is from Lago di Ledro, a very nice place not far from Garda Lake, near the Alps. I really love mountain, probably because I live quite near the sea and when here it is very hot, all I can desire is a bit of cold breeze...

leave you with a song, hope you've enjoyed your holiday!

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!

sources and words

Writing academic essays in English, I've sometimes found it difficult to translate technical words. I mean those words that refers to a very specific meaning but sounds like other words. I'll make an example to be sure you can understand. Last week I was wondering how to translate "sensibile" from Italian to English, but I didn't mean the adjective (sensitive), but the substantive that indicates a particular musical note that in a scale risolves to a note one semitone higher. Putting just 'sensibile' on google translate or any other online translator I could not find the word I meant.

The solution is easy, anyway. If you don't have a specialized dictionary (which is a very good way to solve the problem, but it is quite difficult to have one specific for each and every semantic field!!) you can just go on wikipedia, and search in your own language the word you are interested in. Then, you can click on the list of languages on the left and what you get is the corresponding entry in English, so your perfect translation. Moreover, the complete entry makes you certain to be perfectly right.

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!

Shaking hands

Foto from Flickr


Today's Italian lesson:

Introducing- Presentazioni

Ciao, mi chiamo ...: Hi, my name's ... (informal, just to say your name, to make it formal, just change Ciao with Buongiorno)

Piacere di conoscerti/la: Nice to meet you/How do you do

Come ti chiami (inf)/ Come si chiama?: What's your name?( for a suitable answer see the first sentence)

E' stato un piacere parlare con te/lei: It's been a pleasure talking to you (inf/form).

It is quite usual among friends too shaking hands while you introduce somebody. Quite rarely you exchange kiss while introducing for the first time. It could happen among very young people (teen agers and so...), just a couple of kisses on cheeks.

Lesson Number One

Knowing the risks of my laziness, I decided to start a new topic. It is not a casual one, but the reason of it will be revealed a bit later...
This new topic is: Italian lessons. I will write some basic Italian for beginners, but anybody can ask questions and I will be pleased to answer.
So, let's start, Lesson number One:

Greetings- Saluti

Ciao: Hello/Hi; very informal, but also common among friends and so on... You can use it either when you arrive or when you leave.

Salve: hello; a bit less informal, but anyway not a formal way of greeting.

Buongiorno/ Buon giorno: Good morning; You can use it until noon, as in English. You can say Buongiorno when you start a conversation, when you arrive and (in formal context) you can say so even when you're leaving. My Granma used to say that it was more polite than "arrivederci". Actually, nobody would say that "arrivederci" is unpolite!

Buon pomeriggio: Good afternoon; I think that a common grammar would tell you that you can use it when you arrive or starting a conversation after noon, but it is quite unusual to use it like this. If you really want to say so, and not give the impression of being a foreigner, use it before leaving, is a good and polite way to wish a nice day!

Buona sera/Buonasera: You can start using it after noon. As Buongiorno, is mainly use when you arrive, and if you want to be very polite you can say so when you're leaving (see Buongiorno).

Buona notte/Buonanotte: Good night; mainly used before going to bed, or very late at night.

Try Again!

Yes, That's it!

Now it is a year (and some day) since I last wrote something on these pages... I feel a bit ashamed, but since I need it, I really want to try again!

Try again to write something ( I hope) interesting.
Try again to be diligent enough.
Try again the trick of blogosphere to help my language learning.

I hope I'll do it better this time!

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!

Language education

I live in the north-east of Italy, in Veneto, the Italian region were the local dialect is used the most, as I learnt from my latest exam. My family is a mix of different cities inside this very same region, my father’s family is from Rovigo (the city where I live), but my mother’s family is partly from a village near Venice and partly from a village near Treviso (I’ve already talked about where they live). Anyway part of my family live in Verona, and others live between Mantova and Ferrara… And they are only those with whom I am in contact.

At home wespeak Italian, and that was the language that we, children, were supposed to learn, but of course when we get in contact with our granpas and granmas we hear other languages. In my father’s family a chair is a ‘carega’, but in my aunt’s house (near Ferrara) there were other objects, ‘scarana’ (chair-sedia), ‘granadel’ (broom-scopa), ‘bagaj’ (thing-coso/a). And different ways to say things, another language…

I learned Dialect when I was grown-up, I used to spent much time with my granparents and the only language used at home was dialect; my sister didn’t like it, she insisted to speak Italian, and sometime reproached me for my talk. At school, no doubt, Italian was the only language allowed, and also with unknown adults. My granma worked as a tailor, there were many people at any time of day at home, and I could appreciate moments in which (and clients to whom) she spoke a fine Italian, and others when dialect was possible.

Until high-school I’ve always used Italian at school, but then in my class I was the only one coming from the city (if we can talk about city…) and all my mates came from villages around Rovigo and Padua the language used among us was definitely dialect. I still remember a group of girls from another class saying “How rough, they speak dialect!”. That’s how it was considered.

Venetian dialect is the language of great writers and artists through different centuries, and part of this language became Italian in the long process called “questione della lingua” that started with Dante, went on with Manzoni, until the language that is now called Standard Italian. So, it is clear that it is not rough or anything, they were (and probably still are) a group of posh girls!

Now, I speak Italian the most, with some of my friends I speak dialect, at home I know that there are different dialects to use with different people, and there are still words that are unknown to me in some of my family languages. But dialect is a kind of code for me, I cannot recognize the code-switching moment, but when I use it I feel at home. I consider it much more expressive, because is the language in which I usually express feelings, bad feelings most of all. When I’m too nervous to control what I’m saying I don’t use a proper Italian….

If you ask me, I speak a very good Italian, I can speak a good English (or i hope so!), and I get angry in Dialect.

On facebook

Photo from Flickr

As I wrote more than once, I've learned that modern technology can be really useful to learn a language (particularly English, of course), and I've discovered many different tools that I'm currently using (this blog of mine, for example), during last year course at Uni.

I can easily remember during a reflective lesson about Personal Leanguage Environment, a collegue of mine talking about social network, in particular she was referring to myspace, but then facebook was named too. I ignored what these things were, and I could not have an idea of how to use them. Then we spent some time to talk about it, and I could make some theory on these things, but they didn't sound so good to me.

Now, I'm one of the I-Don't-know-how-many people who have an account on it, and I'm much more familiar to social network, I know what it is and how it works, still, I cannot understand how I could use it to improve my language. As it is described in Facebook homepage, it helps you to connect and share with people of your life, and that's definitely true! Moreover there are people in my life, that I could not be in touch withouth something like facebook. A friend of mine lives in Chile, and even though I have his mail address, facebook is a much better tool to be in contact with him. But considering the short message I leave on other people's wall, and I usually write more to those people who are part of my life everyday, I really cannot catch the use of it as a language learning tool.

Anyway, it is a great fun, and I must confess that I spend even too much time with it!

Teaching English...

Foto from Flickr

…is a serious matter! I’m not only a language learner, of course, I’m also a language teacher. I said ‘of course’ because when you start to study at University, people start to have a different consideration of your knowledge. You become somehow an “authority” and when they need help in your field, they come and ask.

But studying English at Uni you understand that rules work a bit differently from what your teachers used to tell you at liceo. And here starts your dissidio interiore. You want your students to be part of this truth that has been revealed to you. You want to tell them the whole story. For instance, you don’t want to tell them that ‘some’ is used in affirmative sentence, while any in negative and interrogative, but you can’t provide them an alternative rule… You don’t want to show them schemes for MODALITY where it is said that can translate the Italian ‘potere’ and HAVE TO is used when it is not possible to conjugate must and so on.

But if you try to do something like this your students will start to look suspiciously at you. No more rules in English? And what about all the things that have been said so far?! What about books written that way?! Those books that provide you few simple rules to use and understand English?! And you, as a teacher, give up and provide them those schemes and rules that make them feel safe (because that’s what their asking you).

Sometimes, you give them a different example, nevertheless, an exception that could convey to what you know is the4 whole story! Who knows, it could even create some… doubts…

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!

Nice trip into science world!

No photo this time!

Another meeting for bloggers, but without any evidence! I'm just back home (well, I had dinner before start writing!) from Pisa, where I met A.C. and qualcosa di bello, and her "baby"! We spent a beautiful day trying to understand something about scientific research. If You have any question ask qualcosadibello, she knows!

It is always a surprise that there are so many different ways to get in contact with people, and that just writing some random thoughts, you have the chance to meet such beautiful people.

I have no other words for tonight, (I had few words during the whole day!)...
but thank you!

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!

be correct-ed!

When we were having our student exchange with American students, Sarah told us to pay attention when we talk Italian with them, not to talk too fast, not to use strange words and structures, and not to correct them too much when they talk!

Then, I asked Elena whether it was all right, in our exchange, the way I talked to her, the words I used, if I was too quick. That was mainly because Sarah told us they were intimidated by our English, and their Italian was not at the same level (consider they've been studying Italian only for 4 years).
I've always said to Elena that she could feel free to correct me any time I deserve it, she's never done it, not because I didn't deserve it, just because she's very kind! I corrected her only if she said incomprehensible words or totally failed the structure, and that happened rarely too.
I noticed that sometimes native speakers avoid doing so. When I talked to Sarah, or with my cousins, I realized that I had said something wrong (always after having said it!), but they never interrupt me. I like the idea of finishing my sentence, but I also appreciate the opportunity of improving my language, so I don't feel uncomfortable when someone corrects me!

I didn't. Last week I had an oral exam on linguistics with an American (native speaker) teacher, she's never corrected me while I was talking about the subject matter, but when the exams finished she corrected me 3 times while I was asking about my other marks... I made some very silly mistakes (...she didn't told us...), and I felt so irritated! And I thought about those things Sarah told us about correcting people that are learning a language...

I still think I need corrections, probably what irritated me so much is the particular relation I have with that teacher, and so it was not the correction, but the one who was correcting me! But probably I've also learned that when you are learning a foreign language you need to talk, first of all.
My best friend went to live in Germany, and when she was trying t learn German her boyfriend's family always corrected her mistakes (German is a very difficult language!!), and she hates them doing so. I tried to explain her that they probably had the best intention, but without a real success.

Italian and German are not so popular as foreign languages (German is becoming more popular, but still schwierig!), and so Italian and German people are not used to talk with people who are learning their language, while English people are used to, and so a bit more polite, probably.

Anyway, probably you shouldn't correct each and every words one says, but sometimes I found useful that someone, politely, underlines my mistakes, to help me improving!