Italian - 19 April

Italian is one of my original languages, which is to say that I've collected about 800 sentences/phrases since the end of January. The language f l o w s. It flows to such a degree that feel like making changes.  To go with the flow. I want to process more text. I want to cover more ground.

And so I'm thinking of augmenting what I do with Zona Pericolosa (Killing Floor by Lee Child). I fancy I'd like do a little listening. And for that I have Harry Potter to rely on. I don't know - I'll give it a trial. I'll get back to you.

Lingqs like Steve's

In Italian, I see the word 'D'accordo' in a text. I realize, from having seen the English version of that text previously, the the word means 'OK'. Also, I suspect that I've seen something similar in French and Dutch. So that's a kind of link created in my mind (or 'lingq" as Steve Kaufmann would put it). It is a thin layer of incremental knowledge. It's a veneer, or cat of lacquer on the product on the way to achieving a finish.

What this means in practice is that the next time I meet it, is that I have a slightly greater chance of recognizing it, and, what is more, it'll take me a little less time to recognize.

Italian into the mix

Since my goal is only to recognize the written script - at least initially - then it doesn't hurt to do more than one language at once. In fact it helps. I may recognize a word better if I know a bunch of languages, because of the greater chance that it resembles its counterpart in at least one of them.

Additional languages help each other, therefore. They don't interfere with each other. All of which is to introduce the fact that I've taken on board another language: Italian.

I couldn't resist it, when I realized that I have Zona Pericolosa (Killing Floor, Lee Child's first in the Jack Reacher series) on my Kindle.

Italian has a great deal in common with several other European languages. So much so that I feel I'm at the 10% level without having opened a book.

Well, that's not entirely true. Two years ago I did in fact take a gander. I can tell because I highlighted words that I could recognize from the context - roughly 300 of them, approximately one word per sentence. So maybe I'll continue doing that.

As an observation, I enjoy using a separate authentic text for each language. I also enjoy having different activities for them all.

titolo, mi, arrestarono, mezzogiorno, uova, caffè, ritardo, zuppo, dall'autostrada, piedi, piccolo, nuovissimo, lungo, banco, porta, finestra, giornale, articolo, elettorale, votato