Mischief Corner Books, LLC
  • Home
  • Bookstore
    • Coming Soon
    • Paperbacks
    • Audiobooks
    • Translated Works >
      • Translated Paperbacks
  • Authors
    • Andi Anderson
    • Angel Martinez
    • Carole Cummings
    • Evelyn Benvie
    • Foster Bridget Cassidy
    • Freddy MacKay
    • Gregory L Norris
    • J Scott Coatsworth
    • Jana Denardo
    • Jayne Lockwood
    • Jill Wexler
    • K.S. Trenten
    • Kassandra Lea
    • Lou Sylvre
    • Mathilde Watson
    • Mere Rain
    • Nicole Dennis
    • Sandra C. Stixrude
    • Silvia Violet
    • Siri Paulson
    • Toni Griffin
    • Tray Ellis
  • Submissions
  • Our Blog
  • Where is MCB
  • Shenanigans Press

Stuff We Like - #56 Italian

1/6/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Today's edition of SWL comes from J. Scott Coatsworth, who is crazy for Italian.

I love Italian.

I'm not Italian in any sense of the word. My family tree reaches back to the UK and Dermany, and even to Denmark, but not at all to the Italian peninsula.

Nevertheless, I love Italian.

I fell into the Italian language through the back door. When I was a junior in high school, I moved to California and ended up enrolling at Etiwanda High School late. I had to take two years of a language, and the Spanish and French classes were already full. So I ended up taking Latin. It was one of those "back to the basics" school things, and I found that I loved the Latin Language, in part because it also included a crash course in Italian culture and history. And I fell in love with that, too.

Flash forward twenty years, and my husband Mark and I decided to go to Italy. I'd always been a little fearful of going to a country where I didn't speak the language, so we decided to take a crash course at our local Italian Cultural Center, here in Sacramento. We took a five week traveler course with Patrizia Cerruti, and then proceeded to confidently use our broken Italian in Italy. It was amazing - I even helped an American woman at the Vatican request an audio tour. And an Italian clerk at McDonalds in Florence (I know, but we were starving and it was at the train station) told me I spoke the language really well.

Three years later, planning another Italian trip, we decided to dive in and learn Italian for real. We lucked out - our class became a family, and we have now been studying together for eight years, five of them at The Center and three on our own.

Italian is a beautiful, lyrical language. It sprang from the Tuscan dialect when Dante (yes, that Dante) standardized it, and spread to become the lingua franca of the country

They DO lie to you a little to get you started - for instance, they tell you that you can spell any Italian word by just listening to it because Italians pronounce every letter (80% true), that almost every word in Italian is accented on the second to the last syllable (50% true) and that Italian is an easy language to learn (a flat-out lie).

And Italian is fascinating, It often abdicates personal responsibility - you are never late in Italian - you are instead in a state of lateness (presumably caused by someone or something else). In Italian, you don't "like" something - instead it is (or isn't) pleasing to you - again, apparently its fault, not yours). And if you are going out on a date, the language can betray you - you have to either specify who you are going out with because Italian words are masculine or feminine. In English, I can say "I went out with a friend" and be purposely vague without actually lying. In Italian, you have to specify "male friend" or female friend,"

Learning a new language is hard. But it has its rewards. We've made some dear friends here and in Italy because of it. We've enjoyed some great moments speaking with Italians in unexpected circumstances. I have written (and will continue to do so) a number of Italian characters, and my River City Chronicles is being translated for an Italian audience. Plus, it's supposed to be really good for your brian as you age.

​So pick a language. It doesn't have to be Italian. I promise, it will be amazing!
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    September 2021
    August 2020
    March 2019
    February 2018
    August 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014

    Categories

    All
    66
    AIESEC
    Anchorage Books
    Andi Anderson
    Angel Martinez
    Anthology
    App
    Audiobooks
    Authors
    Autism Awareness Blog Hop
    Band-aids
    Beer
    Blog Hop
    Blog Tour
    Brimstone Series
    Cabin For Two
    Care Packages
    Charity Miles
    Comics
    Dirty Little Secret
    Freddy MacKay
    Gay Heroes
    GRL2014
    HAHABT
    Holland Brothers
    Hounds Of Hell
    Internment
    Jonathan
    Mathilde Watson
    MCB Quarterly
    Men Of Charlestown
    Mina MacLeod
    Mischief Corner Books
    Movies
    News
    Not In The Stars
    Outside The Margins
    Paperback
    Pride Promotions
    Prism Book Alliance
    Reading
    Release
    Review
    Sandra C. Stixrude
    Shrug It Off
    Silvia Violet
    Smokey Mountain Bears
    Sock Poacher
    Sons Of Aphrodite
    Stuff We Like
    SWL
    The Atherton Pack
    The Borillian Twist
    Toni Griffin
    V8
    Voice Reading

    RSS Feed

We Would Love to Hear from you!


Hours

M-F: 9am - 5pm EST

Email

mischiefcornerbooks@gmail.com
  • Home
  • Bookstore
    • Coming Soon
    • Paperbacks
    • Audiobooks
    • Translated Works >
      • Translated Paperbacks
  • Authors
    • Andi Anderson
    • Angel Martinez
    • Carole Cummings
    • Evelyn Benvie
    • Foster Bridget Cassidy
    • Freddy MacKay
    • Gregory L Norris
    • J Scott Coatsworth
    • Jana Denardo
    • Jayne Lockwood
    • Jill Wexler
    • K.S. Trenten
    • Kassandra Lea
    • Lou Sylvre
    • Mathilde Watson
    • Mere Rain
    • Nicole Dennis
    • Sandra C. Stixrude
    • Silvia Violet
    • Siri Paulson
    • Toni Griffin
    • Tray Ellis
  • Submissions
  • Our Blog
  • Where is MCB
  • Shenanigans Press