Finito Italiano

Well, it's over.  Italian I class...is history!  I never thought I'd get through it.  But, I did!

As you know, we had 10 classes of Italian and though I can't say that I am fluent in the lingua, by any means, I can say that I have certainly learned alot.  I have come to appreciate this beautiful language even more than before. 

If that was even possible?

You may remember that our professoressa was having a contest.  She  told us to keep adding Italian parole that we learned, to our vocab bank, and that the person with the most words at the end of class would win.  Something.  I was hoping the prize would be an all-expenses paid trip to the Bel Paese.

Being that I am a competitive person, I added new words like a mad-woman.  My strength is usually in the vocabulary and the memorization of said words.  My weakness...ahem, grammar.  So, this contest played to my strengths.

I started my vocab bank with a mere 100 words.  I am happy to announce that the night of our last class, I had 547 words!  Yep,cinquecento quaranta sette parole!!!  And I owned 'em!!

When the insegnante heard how many words I had, she said "Whoa, va bene, va bene!"

She grabbed my quaderno and started quizzing me.  As if she didn't believe me.

After she declared me the winner, she presented me with two little doni.

First, she told me to open the piccolo one first.  She said it was *the card*.   And this was my card...

A little pin that says.....I Love Italian!!   È vero!!! 

The second gift was a copy of a popular American children's book . Tre Orsi.  The Three Bears.  Awww, how cute!!  A perfect gift!

Allora, we are left to our own devices for the summer.  Italian II does not being until September.  We will be challenged to keep up what we have learned and not lose it.  I have found this free Italian pod-cast that can be used as basic review.  I am considering investing in some Pimsleur Cd's and of course we continue to rent Italian movies through Netflix.

I am sure you all have some even better recommendations for how to keep up on our new Italian language skills. 

I would be grateful if you shared....