As you know Italy, and particularly Milan, is famous for its happy hour. Are you familiar with the concept? Here you can find some information. By the way, why am I talking to you about happy hour? Because it’s the perfect way to learn to speak Italian and to improve your Italian accent!
DRINK & LEARN
Many years ago, I went to Dublin with my ex-boyfriend. We weren’t both really fluent in English but we could deal with most situations likely to arise while traveling. One night we went to a pub to drink a beer and to taste the Irish “aperitivo” ; ) We met a group of Americans on holiday and we started drinking and talking. At the end of the night we were singing “Carry me back to old virginny”.
We agree with Katie about the moderation. She writes: “I found that the first drink helped, but any more than 2 and I struggled to keep up with the conversation”. But if your monitor (as Krashen teach us) is very high it’s important to take your time and to be mild with yourself. And how to make it? With an aperitivo language exchange. You can find a lot of them in Milan (pretaparler, passport, paloaltocafe), but we are sure also in your city!
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LEARN TO SPEAK ITALIAN
I know it can be very disappointing when somebody, when you speak a foreign language, says: “Ah, you’re not native!”. But is it so important if you can communicate without misunderstanding? The scholars call it “J.Conrad phenomenon“. The reasons are many and different: the influence of your native language, the age of learning, attitude, personality, etc. You can find really interesting tips here and here. But you can find also good books as, for example, “Giocare con la fonetica” or web sites as adgblog.
ITALIAN ACCENT
Does the Italian accent exist? See this video. So don’t worry about your foreigner accent. We love to report Katie’s words about “ego permeability” but what is also interesting is the speech of the scholar Lidia Costamagna in “Insegnare e imparare la pronuncia” and, last but not least, this link.
At the end, the important things are to communicate in an efficient way and to motivate yourself to speak. And why not by drinking together and learn about each other?
In your city, is there the possibility to do that? Post below the initiatives or upload a pic!
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