What I Learned Today

I’m going to be visiting Italy in December for a conference, which provides me with a chance to dabble in yet another language (see previous adventures with Japanese and German). This time I’m armed with an iPod and have discovered learnitalianpod.com, which makes for great commuting accompaniment. So far I have learned:

• Ciao! Hello/goodbye!
• Come stai? How are you? (apparently informal; change stai to sta to formalize it)
• Bene. Fine. E tu? And you?
• Piacere di conoscerla. Pleased to meet you.
• Sei italiano? Are you Italian (masc.)?
• Io sono americana. I’m American (fem.).

The absolute best thing about Italian so far is the intonation. I love how the words go UP and DOWN in an unending, lilting fashion. To me, it feels like extreme exaggeration, or as if I were parodying an Italian accent — but apparently, no, that *is* how you’re supposed to say it! So it’s more like

Ciao! CO-me STA-i?
BEH-ne! E tu?
BEH-ne! Sei EE-ta-li-AH-no?
No, EE-o SOH-no A-me-ri-CAH-na.

Only it’s far, far more contrast than I can show with only caps and lower case. It’s like a little roller coaster flowing out of your mouth each time you open it. I especially like “bene”. That might be my favorite Italian word so far, already competing with my favorite Japanese word, “kippu”. The first ‘e’ in “bene” not only gets emphasis but it also seems to get drawn out: BEEEEEEH-ne!

Slightly less exciting are the immediate hash collisions I’m getting with other languages (hopefully this will go away as I learn more). “Sono” is a word in Japanese (with an entirely different meaning). Bits of other words sound variously French or Spanish to me. “Come stai” clashes with “como estas”, and “e tu” with “et toi” and “y tu”. I foresee more confusion along those lines. Happily, some generous soul has compiled a French/Italian comparative guide.

Other resources that look promising:

• mahalo.com’s guide to learning Italian: a nice aggregation of many different resources, organized by difficulty.
• livemocha: an online community for learning a variety of languages; there are Rosetta-stone-style lessons (which have intrigued me before) and the ability to write or speak exercises and have them critiqued by more experienced (or native) speakers in that language. You can also offer critiques on items submitted in your own native language(s); there seem to be many ESL learners out there, so there are plenty of English submissions to browse and comment on. I’m still exploring this one.
• Guide to Italian Grammar: yay! Let me at the rules, instead of making me infer them on my own solely from a bunch of sample sentences!

After months of squeezing in language study where I could, my trip with Kate to Japan in May taught me what words were really most useful. These were the ones that we used daily as we navigated Tokyo, Nikko, Kyoto, Koya-san, and all the spaces in between:

• wakarimasu (I understand) and wakarimasen (I don’t understand) — probably the most useful phrases ever.
• daijobu: It’s all good, everything’s okay.
• sugoi: wow! amazing!
• chizu: map (surprisingly common!)
• gomi bako: trash can (surprisingly rare!)
• A bunch of handy train words, including tsugi (next), hidari (left), migi right, eki (station), and noriba (platform). Useful for learning which door (left or right) will open at the next station.
• nimotsu (luggage) and omoi (heavy)
• ichimai (one), nimai (two), sanmai (three): counters for flat things, like…
• kippu: ticket (this is one of my favorite Japanese words to say. It’s just fun.)
• iriguchi (entrance) and deguchi (exit) — I even learned the kanji for these, since we encountered them so often
• oki (big) and chiisai (small) — I also learned kanji for these, primarily from toilets. You can select a big flush or a small flush based on the kanji labels.
• kore o, onegai shimasu: this one(s), please — this was my generic way to indicate that I wanted to purchase something.
• shita (under) and mae (in front of, before) and ue ni (up, above) and shita e (down, lit. “towards under”)
• shite imasu: know
• panfuretto: brochure (from “pamphlet”?)
• mizu: water
• tori: bird
• kaieru: frog
• chou: butterfly
• taki: waterfall
• zembu: all
• itsumo: always
• nani mo nai: nothing (lit. “what more not”)

There are far, far more that we used (consulting our phrasebooks frequently), but these are the ones that stuck with me. There’s nothing like living it to provide a great incentive to learn it!

I am planning a trip to Japan in May, and right now I’m working on finding places to stay for a few nights in Tokyo. It’s Japan, so naturally I want to stay in a ryokan to get the full experience. I browse the various ryokan websites and check review sites to get other travelers’ impressions. And then — lo and behold — in walks Youtube. You can search for a ryokan’s name and get videos people have posted from their stays, e.g., this video walkthrough of a room at Hotel Edoya (a ryokan, despite the name). It’s fascinating and yet somehow eerie to be able to preview the rooms in this informal way (perhaps made more eerie by the guy behind the camera getting a shot of his shirtless self in the bathroom mirror).

The other ultra-cool thing about trip planning, at least with respect to Japan, is Google Maps. I requested directions from Tokyo to Kyoto just to get a sense of how far apart they were. Instead of driving directions, maps.google.com gave me train directions. What does that say about cultural assumptions? I was blown away by how cool this integration is. It shows you four alternate trips, starting with the next departure time, and lists each train you need to take, how much time between connections, and how far you’ll need to walk (if at all). You can also give it future departure times to plan ahead. Why can’t we have this for the U.S.? I’d love it if the LA Metro schedule were integrated into Google Maps. You get all of the beautiful google zooming and panning, topography and satellite images, and you can (for example) follow your planned path and see just how close the train gets to Mt. Fuji. Totally awesome.