С Новым Годом !
Happy New Year!

hi!
"è un po' che non uso questo sito" is the most italian way to say it ;)
but "in a while" = "da un po' (di tempo)"

don't worry about it =)

i'm good thanks! I've just been studying a lot, so i had no time to read anything!

i'm sorry you've been unwell, do you feel better now?

don't worry, i'm also pretty busy and there will be days in wich i won't find the time to reply! "what a handful" is nice! i'm gonna use it =D

colloquialism!!!! here's how they're called!! (in italian it is "colloquialismi" so, no excuses, i'm legit ignorant XD

as soon as i have time i'm going to try to read something by Chaucer, then i'll tell you weather i can understand it or not. ^_^
I Liked Paradise Lost too! that, together with "the Rime of the ancient mariner" by Coleridge were my favourite things to study for school =)

the point is, we don't have a clue about their accent. We study Latin at school, but it's not like learning a real language, you are never gonna talk in Latin with anyone, unless you are a priest, maybe, dunno... it's just translation. And nobody knows how Romans used to read it. I think it's the same about Greeks and all the others...

but i have to admit that hearing someone read Latin with an english accent is always funny... i'm thinking about Harry Potter spells, and other stuff in movies =P

OMG! Are you? really? what a coincidence!! and Under the Banner of Heaven is on my to-read list aswell!!! o.O

so you can really say "i love to eat"!?
that's interesting! they've always correct us for something that was right. I think i can see the difference between the two... kind of.

"used to" may not make sense but it's easy lo learn and use =), my porblem was "would" as in
"when i was young i would play all day long" now it finally sounds ok in my head, but at first it didn't.

in italian it's easy, you just use imperfetto:
"quando ero piccola giocavo tutto il giorno"
maybe you already know... =P

in italian we have abbreviation too!
the most used are
x=per
k=che
so... xk=perchè
dv=dove
nn=non
ndr= in interviews "nota del redattore"

... i'll tell you if i can think about more.

yup, i learnt enough abbreviations to understand "ikr? c u l8" (that was a real message i got) so i think i can manage =)

I don't know if the majoity of the people who went there are from Naples, but they're defenetely from the south =)

I don't know Chaucer, i think the oldest thing i read in English was John Milton's Paradise Lost. (and yup, you said it right, good job ;D )
Hahah i noticed the english accent in movies about greeks and romans too... now, for some reason it has become something i kinda expect =P

I've never read Eco but i quite like Calvino =) I'm reading Walden (by Thoreau) atm. my favourite American writers are Fitzgerald and Poe =). Are you reading something now?

I can tell you the reason why word ending in -ing are called gerunds XD i think it all goes back to latin. In italian we have "gerundio" which translates the -ing form in the present continous. like: "sto mangiando"(i'm eating) mangiANDO is gerundio =)
but in english you use it more than we do. like some verbs need it aftewards... love for example, "i love doing s.thing" italian people will tend to say "i love to do s.thing" because in italian it is: "mi piace fare qualcosa" =) and fare is infinite

"They let you make nouns out of verbs" do you mean using them as a subject? ex "Studying english makes me happy"? or what?

another thing i struggled to understand was the would form as "used to" ... that made no sense for me at first! =D

in italian we tend to use the simple present more. even when you use the progressive form, i think you can always use present simple instead of the continous even in situations like "i'm leaving now" = "ora vado via" is more used than "ora sto andando via". Yes, spanish people use it more than us =)

Keep your eyes peeled! is creepy! but it's pretty self-explenatory =)
in italian you can say "occhio!" just "eye" to say "watch out"

another facinating things are abbreviations. the first time someone wrote me "brb" i was like... what? XD
my fav (se what i did here? XD) by now is w/ for "with" but it's also bad because people get used to it and they forge

hahaha thanks for the translations of "muzzarell" and "com se deech" XD

Actually i don't think you've ever heard the dialect that's spoken in here, because most of the people who went to america in the beginning of last century were from the south of italy. My dialect is more of a mixture of french and italian, with some other stuff. and i think it's even more difficult to understand, but, unlike in the south, almost no body knows it anymore, because in the 60s and 70s many people came here from the south and the east of the country, so they all had to understand each other and started using italian.

L'inferno is quite difficult to understand even for an italian! it's like you started reading Shakespeare in english... i'm picturing you talking like Dante in an english accent. hahaha

i grew up with Rohal Dahl, but some of the most famous italian book for children are "Pinocchio" (duh? XD) and "Il giornalino di Gian Burrasca", and a contemporary writer i quite like is Alessandro Baricco.

Gang fights at school!!? OMG! Again, be careful, and don't break to many young girls hearts XD

(students like me = io piaccio agli studenti... litterally it would be something like "i'm liked by them". hope this makes sense)

I don't think that english is so difficult to learn, italian grammar is way more complicated, and exceptions are everywhere! but there are some things that still don't make a lot of sense to me: like "i look foreward to going" why do we need a -ing form here? it sounds better without XD

then there are what i call "urban dictionary expressions" that kind of puzzle me, but i love them at the same time. expecially american ones. teach me some! =)

oh, and of course there are many in italian too!
like "piantala!" (literally "plant it") that means "stop it" and it's so used!
ex: "piantala di lamentarti" = "stop complaining"

tnx for pointing out my mistake =) yes i knew, but it's helpful anyways.

see ya! =P

I think it's pretty cool = penso che sia figo

is there a specific word for 'substitute teacher' in Italian? = c'è una parola specifica per "substitute teacher" in italiano?

there's a lot of crime, gang problems, drugs, etc.= c'è un sacco di criminalità, problemi con le gang, droghe, etc.


They kind of scare me sometimes! Some of the students are legitimately dangerous. = a volte mi spaventano abbastanza! Alcuni studenti sono legittimamente pericolosi




oh... in the previous message i mispelled "brought"

i know, and many italian people who live in the US can't speak italian anymore, or think that their own dialect is italian. You see in italy most of the people is bilingual because every region has got its own dialect (my granny only knows that for example).
So old people who went there brough with them just their own dialect and taught it to their children calling it italian, but it's actually not, and when we hear them speak it's kind of hilarious, but we most likely don't understand them.

Reading is a good thing to do. it's the best way i know to learn new words. I started reading childrens books in english back in the day... like Dr. Seuss =)

I think it would be better for you to read something in italian written by an italian writer. Not that the translations aren't good, but i think you would find more interesting expressions... and you don't already know how it's gonna end =P

As for my accent, i think i'll be always able to do an impression of a strong italian accent, so i still can make english speaking ppl laugh if i want ;) don't worry

I'm teaching some english to my mum and she's hilarious. she now calls my father "husband" which she pronounces (since you know italian, read this as you would read an itaian word) "ausban". hahah
Yesterday she wanted to tell me to shut up and she said "speak down!" XD

substitute teacher = supplente ;)
o.O that's kind of scary! there's a lack of respect towards teachers in here aswell, but "legitimately dangerous" students is kind of a shocking thing. be careful!

I bet you are popular among children. They have got the ability to perceive passion and dedication.

i can tell you what are the most difficult things to study in english, what doesn't work in the method they use in italian schools and what worked with me in the end if this can help you =)

now:

ok, i'll tell you if i catch any. A lot..... = ok, ti dico se ne trovo qualcuno. Molta grammatica inglese non ha alcun senso e confonde molti

yep, sbagliarsi does mean "to make mistakes" ;)

Thank you, but i really do make mistakes sometimes with spelling, prepositions, and -ing form =S
I think it's a lot easier for anyone to study English than for you, English speakers, to learn other languages because it's everywhere! in songs, in ads, it's becoming part of our languages too!
"wireless", "look", "shopping" are just some of the many words that are used in italian aswell! My goal is to master it, and to get completely rid of my accent, but i guess that in order to do so i should spend sometime in a English speaking country.

I think your job is quite interesting! you are a teacher, right? it's one of those jobs you must be very passionate about. What subject(s) do you teach? how old are your students?
i don't think i'd be able to be a teacher cause you need a lot of patience and ability to involve your students. it's kind of tough, and a lot of people underestimate it.
But you have a strong power as you're the ones who shape the minds of our next generation, therefore of our future. So be proud of it ^_^

Can't complain at least = non posso lamentarmi se non altro
Everything else is quite ok... See ? You're pretty good at it! Oh and by the way... Please correct me if i make mistakes, even small things. I'm here to improve my english too of course! =) i'm studying graphic design

So just write in english the Words you don't know and i'll translate them ^_^ but whatever... How are you? What do you study? :)