Quote:
Originally Posted by lottatrvlr
Should I concentrate on refreshing my Spanish skills and/or learn Italian? I'm going to Italy in May and want to know what to do. Throughout the years, I've traveled in Mexico, Guatemala and the Yucatan, visiting Mayan sites and the wonderful El Caribe. My Spanish has served me fairly well, even in the hinterlands of the Yucatan, where Mayan, Spanish and minimal English spoken.
Currently listening to Learn Italian While Driving.
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Hola lotta. I lived in Italy for 2 years and have been back five times. I like Italy a lot.
I learned to speak Spanish after I learned Italian. When I walk down the
streets in Italy many times I think to myself are they speaking Italian or Spanish?
When I first went to Italy I was studing Italian night and day 24/7 with little results.
I had a Mexican Spanish speaking friend I lived with in Italy. He spoke fluent Italian.
I asked him how he had learned to speak Italian so well since I was having such a hard
time learning it. I wanted to know what books, tapes and methods etc. he was using or had used to
learn Italian. I will never forget what he told me. He said all he did was speak Spanish trying to use
an Italian accent at first and after a few weeks he was speaking Italian. No books, tapes or studying!
Furthermore he said that the Italian culture in general was so similar to his culture. We would be driving
or walking down the street in Italy and he would say things like, oh that Italian lady looks like my aunt
Maria, and look how they are doing such and such a thing, just like in Mexico. Catholics in Mexico or
Catholics in Italy almost the same thing etc. etc.
Years later I found out that Spain was a Roman colony for 640 years and in Spain they spoke the Latin
language of the Roman Empire for 840 years. Rome was Spain and Spain was Rome. Spain also ruled
Italy for 3 generations making Italy even more like Spain and visa versa.
What's ironic is when I go to Italy and talk in Italian to people I always meet somebody that reminds
me so much of the many Mexican, Cuban and Hispanics in general I have met over the years.