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Old October 18, 2009, 07:49 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Villa View Post
As you know or may not know I just came back from Italy. When I first got to Vicenza, Italy I stayed with an American couple who are in the military in Vicenza. They have been in Italy for over two years with one more year to go. Neither one of them speaks Italian. They live in an all Italian neighborhood. Nobody speaks Englsih. I know the neighbors are friendly because I spoke to them. They have Italian TV and radio. The wife claims she doesn't really want to learn Italian
and the husband says he wants to learn and has been trying to learn but just can't seem to learn Italian. They both
mentioned that the Spanish speakers learn Italian while the English speakers are left to flounder. LOL!

(It's comical that the wife claims she knows more Italian than the husband who is trying to learn Italian while the wife isn't.
She actually makes fun of him. Says she can order food in a ristorante while he can't. etc. etc.)

As if all this wasn't bad enough they would at times be very nagative about Italian culture etc. etc. Needless to say I couldn't get away from them fast enough. That negativity can rub off on you. Don't hang around Americans in Italy. Go total immersion. I did.

In my case I lived in Italy for two years, learned Italian and then came back to California and learned Spanish eventually getting my master's
degree in Spanish. All because of my Italian background. It would not have happened if I didn't know Italian. My knowledge
of Italian made it easy to learn Spanish plus my Italian background gave me the motivation to learn Spanish since there were
no Italian speakers around. When I would speak to Spanish speakers I felt like I was back home in Italy. After many many years
of not speaking Italian I started to study Italian 4 years ago. Because I had the Spanish it was easy to go back to Italian.

Over the years I have met many Italians nationals(not Italian Americans) here in California who learned Spanish. Infatti I have
yet to meet one native Italian speaker here in California that did not learn Spanish. They usually learn Spanish first and then English.

At the Bed and Breakfast place I stayed at in Vicenza the owner who only speaks Italian says he has no trouble understanding
a Mexican friend who stays with him every year. The Mexican friend speaks Spanish to him and he answers in Italian. He has
clients from Spain and says the samething about them. Also one time while I was speaking on the owners phone I spoke in Spanish
thinking he wouldn't understand. After I got off the phone he said he had understood every single thing I said. We laughed and laughed about that.

So if you're an English speaker trying to learn Italian and had the chance to learn Spanish and didn't you really missed the boat.
Or if you have a chance to learn Spanish and aren't learning it you're missing the boat. Not talking about just taking Spanish in
school. I'm talking about getting out and speaking Spanish with Spanish speakers. Also watch Spanish television and listen to Spanish
radio. Here in California we have the oportunity to do this. In many places in the U.S. you have the opportunity to learn Spanish.

English is not a Latin language but even still English vocabulary is about 50 to 60% Latin. So now just imagine Spanish which is a Latin language.

Phonologically, Spanish and Italian are very similar, so that a Spanish speaking person could effortlessly pronounce Italian, while
you cannot say the same for French for example. Italian and Spanish are closer to each other than say Italian and French yet Italian
is closer to French than Spanish is a proposito.

interesting story