TOP TEN REASONS TO LEARN ITALIAN

Here are some that I found surfing the web:
1. Why do you think Mozart composed most of his operas in Italian rather than in German?
2. According to UNESCO (the cultural and educational agency for the United Nations) the most of the world’s cultural heritage sites are in Italy.
3. Italy is one of the top economies in the world, and many employers are seeking people who speak both Italian and English. An estimated 7,500 American companies do business with Italy and more than 1,000 U.S. firms have offices in Italy, including Chrysler, IBM, General Electric, Motorola, Citibank. Many Italian firms have offices in the U.S.
4. If you like arts, music, design, architecture, opera, food, etc. this is the reference language. Knowing Italian is greatly beneficial in several career fields. Italy is a world leader in the culinary arts, interior design, fashion, graphic design, furniture design, machine tool manufacturing, robotics, electromechanical machinery, shipbuilding, space engineering, construction machinery, and transportation equipment
5. The Italian language is the closest to Latin, the common ancestor of all romance languages.
6. Italian developed from Latin and an estimated 60 percent of the English vocabulary also comes from Latin. Knowing Italian may help improve your scores in English.
7. No need of subtitles to see Fellini’s, Visconti’s and Pasolini’s movies!
8. A recent study showed that enrollment in Italian language classes at U.S. high schools and colleges is growing 15 to 20% faster than enrollment rates for Spanish, German and French.
9. Italian is recognized as one of the most beautiful spoken languages on the planet
10. Italian has the highest number of words for describing food!
🙂
Students, what are your reasons?

“Natale” di Giuseppe Ungaretti


A great poem and a good listening and pronunciation practice: Natale by Italian poet Giuseppe Ungaretti (1888-1970)

Non ho voglia di tuffarmi in un gomitolo di strade
Ho tanta stanchezza sulle spalle
Lasciatemi così come una cosa posata in un angolo e dimenticata
Qui non si sente altro che il caldo buono
Sto con le quattro capriole di fumo del focolare
(Napoli, il 26 dicembre 1916)

I don’t want/ to dive / into a tangle / of streets
I have so much / weariness / on my shoulders
Leave me / like a / thing / placed / in a / corner / and forgotten
Here / one feels nothing / but the good warmth
I’ll stay / with the four / somersaults / of smoke / from the hearth.

Ciao

Here we are

Buongiorno, buonasera, ciao, buona notte, buona giornata, salve, buon pomeriggio, arrivederci, a presto, a tra poco, ci vediamo, buona serata, addio.