I’m Smarter in Italian Than in Arabic

I started the day with Pimsleur lesson 15 (Level I), which went fine. This is so, so much easier than Arabic or Russian.

Today Barnes & Noble delivered the VocabuLearn I ordered. I listened to it in the shower and while getting dressed, and realized I already know a lot of it, plus I’m retaining so many new words just by adjusting forms and vowels from what I know in Spanish. Therefore, I went ahead and ordered the second level of Italian VocabuLearn; there are three altogether.

I did a lot of work on flashcards today. While I was practicing with them, my sister Rebecca called. I told her that after two months of feeling kind of stupid, I’m suddenly like, “Oh my god, I’m so smart!” She laughed.

Later I ran into an Italian-speaking friend, Julian, who lives in my building, and he asked me, in Italian, how the Italian was going, and if I was practicing. I understood both questions. Not easily, but still. I felt very happy about that.

Numbers seem so straightforward in Italian—what a gift. They were difficult in Russian and Arabic.