So I’ve been here for about a month now and I thought I’d do a check-in on the progress of my Italian.
- I realize when I don’t think before I speak, I speak way better. I got annoyed at one of my friends and yelled at him in frustration and the Italian came out effortlessly lol.
- I really need to stop speaking English lol. It’s better to struggle through italian than to the fall back on my english.
- I’m not as bad as I think I am. I’m improving little by little. (LESSON NUMBER 6: Celebrate your victories no matter how small. Any progress is good progress.)
So one month down and I’m finally getting the hang of Perugia. One thing I wish I would have known is how hilly and steep Perugia is, like literally Perugia is all steep hills and steps. After this trip I will have the strongest legs in the world. It’s funny because I see old people passing on the steps and I feel so weak lol, but I’m getting used to it slowly, I think, I hope, I pray.
This week I got assigned my class for English tutoring and I’m excited to shape Italy’s young minds. I start next Monday and the my students range from the ages of 17 and 18. The only bad thing is I have to be there at 8 am and I’m so not a morning person. It’s about a 30 minute walk from my apartment so we’ll see how that goes.
One cool thing about taking classes with other international students is getting to understand other cultures from my fellow classmates. I don’t know if anyone remembers but a couple of years ago there were campaigns in America about stopping a festival in China where they ate dogs. Like most Americans I was outraged that this was happening. I asked one of my fellow Chinese classmates about this festival and if she thought it was okay to eat dogs. She said something that really made me think, she asked what made it okay to eat chickens, cows, or pigs? I really started to think about who decided which animals were okay to eat and which were not. In our American society we have decided that cats and dogs are off limits for us to eat but that doesn’t mean we should police other cultures about what is off limits for them. When you think about it eating a dog is just as bad as eating a chicken. Also I’m really close to becoming a vegetarian lol.
So during my 2nd week here I discovered that I may have dyslexia. During my first year studying abroad I discovered that I might have had a learning disability so when I got home I got tested and diagnosed for ADHD. Now I discovered that sometimes people get misdiagnosed with ADHD when they really have dyslexia. Right now I’m working with a counselor here and they think that I have based on my learning experiences. Unfortunately it’s looking like I won’t get an actual diagnosis until I return back home. One thing that they told me is that learning a second language for people with dyslexia is really difficult, which explains why after four years I’m not as far along as I would want to be with Italian. But I’m glad I might have finally figured out my problem. I’ve been given some accommodations and extra tutoring time.
I’m really thankful for the staff at the Umbra Institute, they really have been going out of their way to help me. I feel like this time around I have a great support system. In the past I’ve been told that I wasn’t picking up Italian the way I should have because I didn’t care. Being told this like that really discouraged me because I knew I was trying my hardest but my professors didn’t see that. I think this has been the best learning environment I’ve been in while learning Italian. Everyone is really supportive of me and I just thank God for placing these people around me. I’ve been in learning environments where people would literally laugh at me when I messed up when I was speaking Italian, which didn’t make me want to continue practicing. No matter what I don’t want to give up, no matter what I have to do, I will improve my Italian.
Italian phrase of the week: Ancora imparo – I am still learning.
Alexis Takes Italy 