Over the past 14 years, I’ve had many Italian teachers. At the present time, our teacher is Valentina, a lovely young woman from Italy with infinite patience. Last Tuesday before class started, I began speaking in Italian and started to make the same mistake again with articles and possessive pronouns. She patiently started writing on her “whiteboard” and gave a great review on the correct way use these pronouns. I can now proudly say…mia Mama. But La mia amica is correct for non-family people and items. La mia casa…Il mio libro…I know, you have no idea what I’m trying to convey. But when I fly off to Italy in October, I’ll be traveling with 4 other people who don’t speak any Italian. It’s a lot of pressure! In addition, I have many friends in Italy with whom I want to converse. So I cannot let up for a moment in learning to speak this “bella lingua” correctly.
Once I am in Italy, I am fine. But here, I stutter out the words. Sigh! I have exactly 210 days before I hop on that plane to become fluent. In tanto, studiero’ sempre!
Ciao