I have this friend that been traveling Italy, I guess 4 years or so. When he came back he discover new stuff and that makes me get excited too. He said that learning other languages makes him more knowledgeable in term of communication skills. For me I have been interested in learning Italian Languages lately, as I surf the internet.

I agree!
Learning a language is like entering a new way of thinking. All cultures' ideas and philosophies and thought processes are both reflected and expressed through their languages. The way to get inside another culture is through language, most fundamentally.

Language shapes how we think, how we see the world, how we approach others. And it is really only in the learning of language that we truly can understand how another thinks and feels.

I love learning Italian. I'm still trying to get past the "Io ho due cani" stage, but I'll get there! :D

Teresa

When I took the first looks at english grammar, I felt quite relieved to see that the grammar itself was much more friendly than italian's.
Seeing it in reverse, I can understand what can be troubling for those who use English as primary language.
First of all the verbs. In the english language, apart from irregular verbs, the forms and tenses are much more straightforward. Unfortunately the situation in italian language is quite different: there are so many "Modi" and "Tempi" that could easily scare a student at his/hers first approach to a foreign language.The fact that (with only a few exceptions) every "Persona" has a different suffix, makes the situation even worse. Its a matter of fact that a good slice of the italian population cannot coniugate the verbs correctly, and a lot of those who can, probably cannot identify the correct Modo and Tempo without thinking about it for more than a few moments; of course this is directly correlated to how much time has passed from schooldays. Historically the verbs had led to many jokes, especially about the use of "modo Congiuntivo" and "modo Condizionale", the most notable of wich is Fantozzi's italian: in the Fantozzi movies, nobody not even scholars, could use the Congiuntivo correctly.

Another funny thing that an english can stumble upon is the "sexization" of words. When I approached english, I felt really happy for not having to memorize or to think about the sex of spoons and forks (i.e. IL Cucchiaio è maschile ,LA Forchetta è femminile) :) . For people coming from a language whose only articles are "the" and "a" and the words are, more conveniently, all neuter, italian may seem alien at least. Many foreign girls I girls I met in the past, found the italian words very cute because they ended in vowels and they liked how they sounded. I used to smile and tell them (in my awfully slow and clunky spoken english) that unfortunately those vowels weren't there just for cuteness but in general they were used to specify singular/plural and gender of the word itself.

Am I right? Of course my point comes from what aspects of the english language i found easy compared to italian, so I'm not saying that this is truth, it is... some kind of speculation. What else do you find difficult?

Firstly, Pietro, I must congratulate you on your English, it is quite good!

And secondly, since I am currently learning Italian, I wholeheartedly agree with the difficulties one encounters with genders, articles, and in my case also prepositions: why is it andare "a" scuola versus andare "in" palestra is not only unclear, it is a challenge to remember.

But that is how I am taking up Italian: as a challenge. It is a beautiful language, rich in subtleties and intonations....and let us say it is a lot simpler than Mandarin for example, where different accents on the same word could give it upto four different meanings!

Or simpler than Hindi, where a vehicle can be masculine when it is standstill but feminine when running.....or worse, you not only have levels of tu and lei to address someone, you have one in between, with all its accompanying grammatical changes in the sentence!

I hope to learn Italian well within this year, it will be a huge challenge, but so worth it!

why is it andare "a" scuola versus andare "in" palestra is not only unclear, it is a challenge to remember.

That, my dear, is a mystery for me too.

Aaah the elusive prepositions - sbaglio quasi sempre.

I'm just getting comfortable with the "non pleonastico" - "Ho aspettato finché il treno NON è arrivato."

On the subject of learning languages, many English speakers aren't familiar with the parts of speech. Stop someone on the street and ask them what a gerund is, and they'll call the cops. If you don't know an infinitive from a participle, a review is in order - it will make your learning much easier.

jim

Chiaroscuro, thanks for telling me about your trouble with prepositions. I had begun to feel extremely alone and retarded here. If you have learnt them, I can too.

But I must say something for Italians, they patiently correct me everytime I mess up their language: every Italian I have met has so far been exceptionally kind on this. Hopefully I will get better with my prepositions soon and not try the patience of my Italian friends too much!

I must add as an update here, that with listening to spoken Italian as much as possible,(and trying to speak it as much as I possibly can with my tight schedules) the prepositions have become a little simpler....now I understand why my Italian friends used to respond to all my grammatical "why" questions with "perche' viene cosi', devi sempre ricordare!"