italiano. italiano. italiano.

Section one: Complete the sentences- Come ti chiami? Mi chiamo Shannon. Quanti anni hai? Ho ventuno anni. Section two: Name the object in singular and plural forms- La sedia, le sedie. Il libro, i libri. Section three: Read the story and answer the questions based on the story. etc.

This is all simple stuff, I flew through the first section in 10 minutes. Then I reached the next section and realized that this was the section that would determine whether I got into Advanced Italian or not. If I don't get in, I can't take Italian while I am in Italy because I have already taken Intermediate and it will not count for anything. How much would that stink, not being able to take the language you have been learning for three years while you are in the country that speaks it. The second section was all grammar, and while I do remember learning all of this, I just could not remember the conjugations, I kept getting confused. I haven't take an Italian grammar class in a year. The last two classes I took were literature in Italian and culture in Italian. There was no English in the classes, but we didn't review grammar.

My other problem is that I understand the language, I just struggle when it comes to speaking it. I have to stop and think about how you say a certain word and the order the sentence should go in. The other day, my friends and I couldn't figure out which way to go on the metro in order to get where we wanted to go. So, I walked up to one of the workers and asked in Italian, which direction is Cavour? They told me after that it sounded really natural and I got really excited about it, but I still don't know if I said it correctly, but it was enough that he could understand what I was asking.

Now, not to sound conceded or anything but in the Italian class yesterday, I felt that I was the most advanced person there. There is only 5 of us trying to test into either Intermediate or Advanced. The professor speaks very little English, so he talked to us completely in Italian, I understood just about everything that he was saying to us, and everyone else was looking at each other with blank stares, and everytime the professor left the room, everyone would ask was he said, and I seemed to be the only one who really understood. The exam said that we had to get at least 80% on the section of the class that we wanted to place into, but with all the grammar in that section I don't think I did that well. After the exam we were reviewing the passato prossimo versus the imperfetto. During the exam I couldn't remember exactly which was which and when we started going over it in class, it all clicked again. I really think that I can handle the advanced, I just need someone to remind of the reasons for using each tense and it will all click back into my head. I tried to re-teach myself from a book, but it is so much easier when somebody is telling you, especially when it is someone who really knows. I mean, you can't ask a book a question can you? I mean you can, but it won't answer.

On the positive side, I scored the highest in my class, which is very rare for me. I am not a bad student or anything but there are always smarter people than me in every class. On the negative side, it was not high enough the qualify for taking the advanced level. (Even though, it is the same class, so I really don't get it to be honest). Now this causes a dilemma back at school because I have already take Intermediate like I said, and the other course I got approved to take here, I cannot take because it conflicts with my Art and Culture class, which I love!

So, me being me, I freaked out about this whole dilemma. I talked to Rosanna, our director woman here and explained to her that I need the Advanced credits to transfer, and this is when I found out that I got the highest grade, but not high enough. It was frustrating to me because I saw my test, and got at least half credit on each grammar section, which means I know it, but I couldn't remember all of it, (back to the whole haven't take a grammar class in a year thing). And she said there was really nothing they could do, since I didn't place, but the score didn't include any of the oral conversations we did after the class or anything, so again, more frustration set in. She told me to contact my school and see what I could do, so, being my panicky self I emailed Dean Knowlton at was to her 6 in the morning. The email was probably about the length of a novel, explaining how I couldn't take Italian V in the fall because of conflicts with another class, and how these are the last two classes for my minor, etc, and sent it off. Now, again being my crazy self, I called my house, it was about 6:30am at this point, and both my parents were still sleeping. So of course when I get on the phone with my mom, freak out mode kicks in again.

I have sort of gotten over this whole thing, I am frustrated that I didn't make it into advanced, but I found out that Assumption may give it to me as an advanced class anyway. Basically it is like our level five, because we are just doing grammar review, and not speaking in English, the fact that the professor barely speaks English helps with that. And I have become much more comfortable going into a store and speaking in Italian, however they always seem to know that I am American, because they will answer me in English. Still trying to figure out what gives it away, but they do give me credit for speaking to them in Italian or at least asking if they speak Italian (parle inglese?) before I start speaking to them in English.

Hopefully by the end of this month I will be able to be conversational in Italian, I am not saying fluent because that is definitely pushing it in my opinion, but conversational. So when I get home, I am going to have to find some Italians so that I can keep practicing my Italian when I leave.

Ciao for now!