A new development: I just realized I can now read my Italian nephews’ Facebook postings—i.e., in Italian! I translated a couple for Brandt. Without a dictionary there are still words I don’t get, but with a dictionary…
I woke up at 5:00 this morning. I am way too hyperactive about Italian. I almost got up to do grammar exercises, but Brandt talked me into staying in bed. I put on a headset, began listening to Pimsleur, and…
This is my 140th consecutive day of language learning. I haven’t missed a single day since I started this whole thing on July 1. I marked the anniversary with a bunch of Pimsleur lessons, grammar exercises, and VocabuLearn. I also…
This morning I tried the flashcards again. More of them are sticking, but at this point I’m not moving them into the done box until I get them right several times in a row. Certain ones I get wrong…
I have finished all 90 Pimsleur Italian lessons. It took me 19 days. Now what am I supposed to do? I am trying to concentrate today on additional Italian studies (books, vocabulary, etc.), but now that I have no more…
I’m still trying for an Italian job. Today I wrote to the Italian Trade Commission on the Upper East Side asking for (uncompensated) work. I really, really, really want to be surrounded by Italian full-time. A language exchange thing…
This morning it seemed to take forever to get to the Bronx. Fortunately, I had grammar and vocabulary exercises to keep me company on the subway. I arrived at Mike’s Deli, located in the back right corner of Arthur…
I am starting to think that my building is filled with people who surreptitiously speak Italian. I had no idea how many of our neighbors were fluent in it. Every week I find a new one. Today I learned that…
Last night I dreamed I was teaching a foreign language (don’t know which one) to a girl of about 15 or 16. There was for some reason an urgency to this undertaking, so I was trying to teach her as fast…
While running in Central Park today, I started wondering whether I should replace one of my non-European languages with Dutch. Even though not many people speak it here now, it was important in New York history, and that could be…
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