Let's talk about Italian (1 Viewer)

[The Curr]

Yeah, I can often make sense of Italian articles. Well, football ones anyway.

Do you speak Spanish as well, Martin?

 

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[Martin]

Yeah, I can often make sense of Italian articles. Well, football ones anyway.

Do you speak Spanish as well, Martin?

No, but just a few days ago I had the idea to try and see how much I could understand. I read some beginner content in Spanish and looked up the basic verbs and a bunch of other words like ya = già, and I could read it quite fully. If I load www.marca.com I can probably understand more or less what is going on in those articles.

I also tried listening to some easy recordings and I think that if I were to do a lot of this I could probably learn Spanish mostly doing just this.

 

[Christina]

I can speak a bit of the basics but I understand better, and also a lot of the words I know are dialect. I'm also not really great with grammar, I just took it in grade 10 to refresh my memory, but forgot again.

 

[Martin]

@The Cur
Okay, why don't I make a small demonstration of this.

Spanish article:
http://www.marca.com/2011/03/08/futbol/equipos/real_madrid/1299607658.html

1. Florentino bromea sobre el Barça-Arsenal: "No quiero que el Barça pierda, me vale con el empate"
2. Florentino ?????? sopra il Barca-Arsenal: "Non voglio che la Barça perda, mi ???? ??? ?? ??????"
3. Florentino ?????? about Barca-Arsenal: "I don't want Barca to lose, ???? ??? ?? ??????"

1. Florentino Pérez, en el día de su 64 cumpleaños, bromeó con Salvador Gabarró, presidente de Gas Natural, sobre el Barcelona-Arsenal de esta noche
2. Florentino Pérez, nel giorno del su 64 compleanno, ?????? con Salvador Gabarró, presidente di Gas Natural, sopra il Barcelona-Arsenal di questa notte
3. Florentino Pérez, in the day of his 64th birthday, ?????? with Salvador Gabarró, president of Gas Natural, about Barcelona-Arsenal of this evening

This is about as much as you can understand knowing only a) Italian and b) what the basic verbs are in Spanish. Obviously you do some guesswork like "sobre" = "sopra" which isn't used the same way in Italian, but the meaning is pretty clear.

Word order is so much the same that you get an almost perfect correspondence. And without a lot of effort I could fill in the gaps here.

 

[WΏΏdy?]

From Melo's facebook page: Knows Italian, Urdu, Chinese, Norsk

Melo knows chinese

malagaphi

 

[Martin]

I can speak a bit of the basics but I understand better, and also a lot of the words I know are dialect. I'm also not really great with grammar, I just took it in grade 10 to refresh my memory, but forgot again.

Which dialect?

 

[Christina]

Abbruzzese

 

[Martin]

Abbruzzese

Is it very different from standard?

Would someone who doesn't speak any dialect understand you?

 

[rounder]

Great idea, Martin. I personally needed something like this. Unfortunately, I barely have any free time anymore. I'm going to refer to these threads in the future though.

 

[Christina]

Is it very different from standard?

Not really, just a few words we use that I haven't heard in say, Calabrese for example. Most in my area are Sicilian/Calabrese and I know that dialect is a lot different than standard.

 

[Martin]

Not really, just a few words we use that I haven't heard in say, Calabrese for example. Most in my area are Sicilian/Calabrese and I know that dialect is a lot different than standard.

But your "home language" is still English? In your house I mean.

 

[Christina]

But your "home language" is still English? In your house I mean.

Yeah. My parents speak in secret in Italian, as if we don't understand.

 

[Ironz]

Im half siciliano and another from the nothern parts of Italy around the Parma region. My dad who is sicilian often speaks to me in Italian well in fact virtually all the time as it goes. its funny how sometimes he speaks to me in half English and half Italian, with words all over the place as he wants me to understand, but he knows i understand him anyway. But its the Nothern Italian Dialect that is so hard to understand. When my grandmother is Off on one, i often thinks shes from another planet. I can speak enough to get me by, but i once went on holiday for 6weeks to sicily and i virtually was even talking Italian in my head, so i need to be around the Italian speaking people to keep improving. Ok realised im waffling on here. Anyways im in. And if my spelling in Italian is bad.......just say. cheers.

 

[Gamaro]

I learned Italian back in 2002 even before i learned English.My grammer is very good,but due to lack of practice my vocabulary is not that much.

 

[Martin]

This is all great, guys, but let's make some threads in Italian then.

 

[Christina]

The Italian/English mix is pretty funny. This is how my nonna talks, these videos are great.

 

[Klin]

Sto meglio quando io leggo la lingua Italiana di parlare la stessa lingua.

I don't even know if that makes any sense.

 

[JCK]

I like it.
I don't speak it.
I would like to speak it.
I don't have a history with it.

 

[Kate]

Perhaps there should be a thread for complete beginners, where we can keep the level down quite low? I know seeing huge paragraphs of it can be intimidating.

 

[Zé Tahir]

I took Italian for one semester my first year at Uni but I don't remember much. Wish I could have continued but I transferred to a diff Uni and they didn't offer it as a course :depressed