What a wonderful day it's been today. If someone had told me 5 years ago I would be doing this I would have laughed out loud!

Almost 3 months ago I began volunteering as an Italian instructor at a Senior Community Center here in NYC, and I just wanted to share what a fantastic journey it's been so far.

I've been studying, listening to and speaking Italian for the past five years, and don't consider myself fluent, but I do pretty well when traveling in Italy, where I try to keep the use of English to a minimum. To me, Italian language is really beautiful music. And I felt drawn to teaching others, so when this opportunity came up through my job in publishing, I just dove in, sink or swim. At first I was terrified!

I built a ten week formal course syllabus of 1.5 hour classes, and added some fun extras of my own to encourage conversation and interaction. The first week, I had six participants, and four of those were very timid. Over these weeks the class has become more popular, and last week, 17 people showed up!

Some weeks, I felt so exhausted after a long work week that I wanted to just stay in bed on Saturday mornings, but when I arrived to find all these wonderful enthusiastic folks waiting for me, I always felt uplifted. It was great to help them gain confidence in pronouncing words correctly, and discovering new idiomatic expressions, and go from saying just one word at a time to flowing 2 sentences together.

Some wonderful people joined us, like the lady who lived on Capri many years ago when Graham Greene was still alive and lived there, And another woman who lived in Rome during the fifties and saw Marcello Mastroiani when he was still a stage actor!

Today was the last class, now I will take a break until after my next trip to Italy in May. I was so moved, because by the last class, each and every person was able to read a very short story of their own and the whole group was able to hold a good, if brief conversation with each other, with very few mistakes. What an amazing reward!

Then came the icing on my cake, when they left the room for a few moments and returned with a bouquet of yellow roses, and a card, a box of chocolates, and a CD of Italian music. Two of them made a little speech in Italian to thank me, so there were a few teary moments! One woman who grew up with SIcilian parents actually told me I changed her life! I think it will take a few more hours before I come back down to earth, and I can't wait to start again!

Hi Bella,

Good for you.

>One woman ...actually told me I changed her life!<

That's why we teacher types stay in the business, despite all the s**t.

Buonissimo! Great story. My husband and I are struggling slowly over a self-teaching CD set, and may come up to the fluency of an 18-month old by the time we leave in Maggio.
Have you read Francis Maye's _Bella Tuscany_? There is a chapter toward the end with some very funny insights into learning Italian.
Keep up the good work. (How do you say that in Italian?)
Vera

How wonderful! You must be an incredible teacher. Tante grazie for the uplifting post!

What a wonderful story! As an instructor do you have any advice for someone trying to learn th elanguage? My boyfriend and I are traveling to Italy in September and I have just started an Italian for Beginners class but I'm wondering if an audio instruction for my car traveling time might also be helpful.

Any advice?

What a wonderful story bellastarr! Congratulations!

Yes, how wonderful and congratulations from me too!!

Thanks you all,
To Ira, yes, that must be the reason, and in fact I still remember one or two of my teachers growing who had a life long effect on me...so thank heavens for all you "teacher types" who stay in the game...

To Vera- Sometimes it can be a challenge studying with your life partner- and then you will both reap such great rewards when you get to Italy and use what you've learned-thanks for the book recommendation, will try to pick it up as soon as I finish the Carlo Levi book I'm reading at the moment...
If you are going to Italy in Maggio, perhaps we'll be there at the same time, although I am going to sort of a remote area to take photographs. If we cross paths, I will be sure to greet you properly in Italiano!

Tante grazie anche a lei, Weadles!

to goingtoItalia, my only advice is to give yourself as many opportunities as possible at the beginning to work on pronouncing words and phrases so when you get there, you will already feel somewhat comfortable using them because the "ice" will already be broken so to speak.

Car tapes are a good way to do that if you live in a place where you spend any length of time driving, it's a private environment and therefore easy to feel relaxed about trying to speak out load without hesitation. And you can repeat yourself over and over, which is very useful too. Good luck to you both in your travels...

Thanks also Seaurchin-
just read your fantastic and funny trip report "Rome trip and photos: oh solo mio" thread for those who want to check it out) and am on my way to find some old cheese to polish my mahogany coffee table, thanks to your tip! And I loved those Rome photos so much, as always your pictures are fine! And what's this about spores? I take it you have yet to visit the underground caverns of Napoli? (Sto scherzando un pò, lol)

bellastarr: your remote region wouldn't be le marche, woudld it? If so e-mail me at mypen4hire at yahoo.com
Vera

Complimenti, sono veramente commosso e immagino la sua commozione quando Le hanno portato i fiori. Penso che una soddisfazione come questa non abbia prezzo!

Mante -