never give up

This morning I did try to study a little. Feeling confident now that my automatic responses are a mix of Italian and English no matter which country I am in, I headed for my "help page" on a very useful Italian language site I subscribe to.

Bad move. I felt like giving up.

Recently a friend told me that while my Italian was technically correct, and easily understood, it was "too heavy". As I reviewed this page, now with enough knowledge to cringe at every point, I see exactly what was meant. Perhaps my friend was being polite, not wanting to say that I sound "too English".

It's tough, this language stuff!

I remember, way back when I taught English in a secondary school, debating with my Head of Department about correcting students who wrote 'different to' instead of 'different from'. The language is changing, she said. You must accept both, without correcting the former. But the latter is correct, the students must know the difference, I insisted. I don't remember that we agreed to differ, but I had to defer. I continued to point out that one used "different from" in formal prose, while admitting to students that in colloquial language "different to" was (shudder) becoming acceptable.

Oh that I had a smidgeon of that level of understanding in Italian!

Today I am grateful for informative language blogs.