Italian (page 2)

Beginners Italian I (ITAL 201) – Attending an Event

Student, Fall 2023

“For this month, I attended another circolino caffè e conversazione event. This time, I felt as though the other students were more comfortable speaking Italian. People spoke about their backgrounds, the languages they speak and what sports they like to do. I explained that I am from Venezuela, but my maternal grandmother is from Molfetta. I then described to the group where Molfetta sits on the map. I made sure to speak as much Italian as possible, but I did miss a few words. Some examples are; più basso and vicino all’oceano I caught myself describing my sister incorrectly and I fixed it according to what we learned in class so instead of “la mia sorella” I changed it to “mia sorella”. It was a small mistake, but it makes a difference to understand why I said it wrong. I got to know more about my classmates and I met some new people. Everybody spoke a lot which was beneficial because listening to Italian can also help me learn it better. Hearing other people make mistakes makes me think about how to correct their sentences, which helps improve my own Italian. I think that the caffè e conversazione events are a good way for people to practice their Italian and meet new people

An off-campus event that I attended was a dinner party with my coworkers. I work at Alforno Bakery and Cafe which is a part of the Teatro group and which is a chain of Italian restaurants. For our staff party, we went out for dinner at one of our restaurants named Cucina which means kitchen. The restaurant has incredible food. I ordered a truffle lasagna which was delicious. With the information I learned in class, I practiced ordering my meals in Italian with my friend, but since the server did not speak Italian, I did not mention it to them. I learned a lot about the culture behind the meals we ate and the drinks we had. I learned that each wine comes in a particular glass in order to accent the aroma. At the end of the night, I ordered a cappuccino because I needed energy to drive home. The cappuccino had no milk foam on the top so I would classify it as a latte macchiato instead. I know that in Italy, you should not drink coffee with milk after noon, but I really love cappuccinos so I could not resist. Over all, I believe that this experience was beneficial to my learning, because I saw foods and drinks on the menu that I had learned about in class.”