I have completely fallen behind on my reading updates, so I thought I'd try to catch up a bit. My most recently read book was read on the journey to Italy, where we are spending a couple of weeks this summer. I know a few words in Italian, but far from enough to talk or understand much of the language. Italian is not really difficult to learn, but as an adult I struggle because the vocabulary doesn't seem to stick as easily as it did when I was young. And of course I don't get to practice it very often. But in an effort to catch up with the few phrases I knew, I bought this book to read on the plane.
I must admit I'm not really a fan of the 'for dummies'-books. I recently started British History for Dummies, and I get a bit irritated because I don't feel 'dum' enouogh. It's style is more suitable for children, I feel. But not this Italian book, though. It tries to cover an enormous area in very few pages and is thus doomed to fail. It lists some grammar and some explanations and a good handful of verb conjugations. (Which I struggle to remember, having forgotten how to be a good student!) It also lists phrases useful for certain situations, like traveling, shopping, being on business travels, asking for medical help etc. It ends up with a rather strange mix of situations, where some seem useful, others not. And I wonder sometimes about the vocabularly that is listed as useful. In the list of animals, for instance, wolf is one of the words included. When is that a relevant word for a tourist in Italy?
But it does what is says in the title: gives you some useful Italian phrases. It might help you ask for directions but you won't be able to understand the answer you're given:) Learning a language takes more than this book, but it might help as a start or for refreshing old and forgotten language skills. Ciao! (Which I now know means both hello and goodbye!)
Onofri, Francesca Romano and Karen A. Möller (2011): Italian Phrases for Dummies. For Dummies. Kindle edition.
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