10.05.05
Conversazione "In Tandem"
One thing that Jason, my team leader, has been trying to drill into my head is the importance of “language partners.” We’ve learned a great deal of Italian at school, but a lot of what we do in class is artificial. It’s fine for working in the classroom, but we are rarely taught how real Italians actually use their language. Our school recently offered a system to match up native Italians who want to learn a foreign language with people like me who are trying to learn Italian. I finally took the plunge last week and called up “Cristian,” who was listed on the board as wanting to learn German and English.
We met at the smaller train station and then went up to the city center. We spoke mostly in Italian. Believe it or not, my Italian is better than his English. After a nice dinner, we walked around the city center with no particular destination - very Italian.
Introverts like myself don’t always enjoy calling up strangers for conversation. But I had a great time and am looking forward to meeting with him again. I definitely see how a conversation partner can jump start your language learning.
PS - Did you know that the Italian political system has at least 18 parties?! Learned that last night.