Today in preparation for our holiday to the Italian Lakes in September Mr White and I went to Waterstones. (Let me add at this point that Matt’s wife Christina and my fiancé Chell will be coming with us - prompted by a healthy fear of the rumour mill’s well-oiled cogs)!
So with heads held aloft we proudly walked to the languages section in order to search for a ‘Learn Italian’ course…and what a selection there was to sift through! The shelves bowed at the weight of row upon row of Italian workbooks, phrase books, audio CDs, interactive PC programs and even tapes! Tapes for goodness sake! Now that’s old school!
After much deliberation we decided to purchase two sets – one an early learning set…to learn a few phrases and the other an Italian conversation set…both with CDs and little books.
On the journey back to the office we popped the CD in the player and entered a time warp: Ooo, those close-miked, breathy vocals… Eeek, the dodgy BBC effect library sounds… Alas, a weak attempt at some kind of plot (you’d rather they hadn’t bothered at all!)… and the final straw, characters which are far too easy to hate! It’s amazing how quickly you can be transported back to GCSE language classes!!
I wonder if all Italians talk to you in such close proximity that it feels like your ear drums are being polished by their teeth? I know for certain that I can’t wait to find out…
2 comments:
I'm really excited too......I've no doubt our evenings in Italy will be filled with you and Matt serenading Chell and I in your newly aquired Italian language skills!
Italy is the most beautiful place, we're going back again this year...I learnt scusi (excuse me) gilatti (ice cream) and pizza funghi (mushroom pizza) they were all very helpful!
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