Learning to Speak Italian Part 1

I am going to learn to speak Italian in advance of our upcoming trip to Italy. (After the bar mitzvah in Manchester.)

I'm not going to be one of those stupid American tourists who goes to Italy who doesn't know a word of Italian and expects the locals to speak English.

I hope to be one of those Americans who goes to Italy knowing 15-20 words of Italian, and expects to have meaningful conversations in Italian with the locals, without the locals dying of laughter.

I think it is always important while traveling to be able to carefully communicate in the native language important statements like "I am lost", "I thought this train was going to Florence!" "You might not believe this, but I am an American."

And hope that what I say doesn't actually tranlate into "Your mother looks like a horse."

I plan on building on my fluent knowlege of Spanish from 2 years in HS and many more years of reading El Diario over someone's shoulder in the subway. And Italian is just like Spanish, right?

I have taken out several Learn To Speak Italian tapes from the library.

So far have just been listening to the tapes to get the rhythm of the language. So that if I, say, wander into Switerland or France by mistake, I will realize it immediately.

The tapes promise long lasting benefits. Like being able to understand Opera. Like understanding the names of all the different pasta shapes.

I may not be able to learn important phrases like Where can I get an internet connection so I can blog, or Where can I buy a SD chip for my digital camera, after all these lessons are mostly on cassette tape. So I suspect they may not be up to date on the latest slang.

Maybe I will listen to the tapes while I sleep, and learn subliminally in a method developed by Eli in elementary school.

I look forward to impressing the locals with my fluent misuse of the 15-20 words.