Ho perso le parole (I have lost the words) is a very nice Italian song by Ligabue but this is not what I wanted to write about. Instead, I wanted to say that I am the one at this moment who has lost the words. At least when it comes to the Italian words because as a recent Skype call proved, the little I knew in Italian, has wanished within a month. I tried to have a somewhat meaningful conversation in Italian but all I managed was a series of umm's.
As you can imagine, I am not at all happy with this discovery. The little confidence I had abot this language, is now gone. The last week or two I spent in Italy passed in a blissful knowledge that even though it will take years before I can discuss, say philosophy, in Italian, I can at least keep up a light conversation and I will not get discouraged after the second question. For me it was a great achievement as previously I could not even understand the simplest questions among the simple questions.
And now I am back to square one? When it comes to speaking and listening, yes but fortunately reading simple texts is not too difficult. Also, there are always dictionaries nearby, if needed. But when it comes to spoken text, right now I wish everyone had those comic book-style text balloons which would allow me to see where one word ends and the other one begins.
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