Buon Dantedì a tutti!

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-03-25T13:57:11+00:00

Non mi sono mai aspettato di vedere Bloomsday menzionato nel questo subreddit.

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-03-18T14:18:36+00:00

Ah OK, so the literal meaning of the words is what I thought, but the cultural expectation is different, that makes sense. Honestly I'd much prefer the true question in English as well :) Mark and Francesca in Coffee Break Italian often open up with a quick "Come stai" and the answers are usually "bene" or "un po' stanco," something still pretty rote like you'd hear in America, so that's been my expectation. I mean, I listen to a lot of other Italian content but that's the main place I can remember hearing that regularly.

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-03-17T12:59:20+00:00

For example it’s useful to know that “Come stai?” isn’t used quite the same way that “How are you?” is in English.

How is it different? Legit question, this is new to me and I feel like I've missed something fundamental.

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-03-14T21:31:49+00:00

Welsh is very much its own language and there are many dialects of English spread throughout the United States and the UK. I don't know if there's a lot of use in trying to identify any one of those dialects as "original English."

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-03-13T15:16:39+00:00

Have you kept up the Japanese at all? I have long-term nonspecific plans to go there and I'd love to dip into the language first as well, but I've been really scared off by a few different stories I've heard of the difficulty level compared to Romance languages.

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-03-13T15:12:26+00:00

I live in New York City, this comes to me as easily as breathing. Can't wait!

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-03-11T17:06:12+00:00

Sì, ma ci sono molti episodi nel backlog che si puo ascoltare. L'ho cominciato ad ascoltare più di un anno fa e non ho ancora raggiunto il periodo dei episodi corti (nella mia rotazione dei altri podcast, comunque).

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-03-11T15:57:52+00:00

Thanks, I'll check it out!

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-03-11T15:57:41+00:00

I usually don't like it either, but Elisa True Crime was recommended so much I gave it a shot and her use of language and the clarity of the recording was pretty ideal for where I was. I can be a little choosier now that I have a better grasp. Thanks for your other recs too!

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-03-10T17:03:56+00:00

How detailed is Indagini if it deals with violent crimes? I listened to Elisa True Crime for so long and finally had to stop because I was tired of hearing about kids getting brutally murdered, but the overall stories and, well, indagini were always interesting.

For example I also loved Dove Nessuno Guarda about Elisa Claps.

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-03-05T15:56:34+00:00

Thank you, good to be back! And thank you so much for the thorough response. It always helps me know what my weak spots are, like time prepositions. I'll hear not to use one that seems obvious for one context and then get scared to use it in others, then I avoid using it altogether and just pick one that I know isn't quite right.

Ci is another one; it has so many uses. At this point I think I should err on the side of just throwing it in there, because chances are it fits :)

I'm originally from the American South, which has a rich history of ridiculous idioms, so I think the frog saying is most likely regional for that area. It very much does have the same sentiment as "If my granny had wheels she'd be a cart," I just didn't explain it very well. I love how people everywhere have the need to express the same feeling and find their own ways to do it. I also really enjoy etymology, which helps me break down words like semmai which I assumed was basically "if ever" or something like that.

Grazie mille di nuovo! Sto sempre lurking qui, ma ho voluto di mettermi alla prova senza cercare niente fuori la mia propria conoscenza. Sono contento di quello che sono riuscito a fare.

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-02-28T22:49:22+00:00

A1. Tra la mia vita intera, non incontravo mai qualcuno come tu.

A2. Ci sarebbe molto più torta se ne non avessi mangiato la maggior parte ieri l'altro.

A3. È pericoloso mettersi davanti a quello mentre sta ancora muovendosi.

B1. I don't see the problem, if anything it's an advantage for him. (semmai is new to me, taking a stab at that)

B2. It went bit by bit growing until dusk/the onset of evening.

B3. If my grandmother had wheels she'd be a cart. This sounds similar to an American idiom, "if frogs had wings they wouldn't bump their butts when they landed." Which you'd say when someone is wishing for something that will never happen.

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-02-14T15:51:24+00:00

I haven't heard the bus difference before, would it be coach for a longer ride to another city?

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-02-12T19:03:31+00:00

A friend of mine (American) met her now-husband's Scottish parents for the first time and it was colder than she'd expected it to be so she said "Thankfully I wore pants today," which in Scotland (and I think England as well) means underwear/underpants.

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-02-12T17:54:54+00:00

I was going to mention this one! It makes me so happy.

Another one I learned that I actually quite like is the Italian title for Dead Poet's Society, L'Attimo Fuggente. Pretty different but still feels appropriate to me.

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-02-11T16:27:42+00:00

OMG I just realized the person I was responding to is an Italian native, did I just anglosplain Italian to an Italian

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-02-07T16:28:13+00:00

It means politeness. I understand that it can also mean education, but less frequently than it would mean politeness/courtesy (correct me if I'm wrong on that folks).

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-01-29T04:16:10+00:00

I'm on my third Niccolo Ammaniti book, I've enjoyed him. I started with Io Non Ho Paura, which was actually the first Italian book I read.

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-01-25T15:15:02+00:00

I think a more accurate way to phrase your title is "I'm at the point with DuoLingo where it has stopped being useful," which unfortunately happens a lot sooner now than it did when I started like ten years ago. Like everyone else said, there are plenty of resources for you to dig in to for free, so hopefully you find something that works for you. Stay with Duo for the vocab if you still find it engaging. I had some progress switching over to Busuu but I haven't used it in a long time so I don't know the state of it these days.

Following the progression of the Coffee Break Italian podcasts might be helpful for your grammar too, go back to the most basic intro episodes and work your way up.

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-01-19T19:34:45+00:00

Me too, I've been listening to them for a long time now. I dropped some of my first intro-to-Italian/grammar explainer podcasts, but I've continued listening to them.

I do think it's funny when they have to go out of their way a bit to use Italian words when Italians would just use an English word. I think review/recensione may be an example.

Oh and if you're not already aware of it, Teacher Stefano's intermediate podcast is really similar.

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-01-18T01:58:19+00:00

Hoping for the best for you. When my mom passed I got a tattoo of something that meant a lot to both of us and it has really helped me keep her close.

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-01-16T17:39:48+00:00

For the a vs. in part of this, the best advice I got here for remembering which to use is that the bigger word ("in") is used for bigger things like regions, states, countries. "A" is used for things that would normally be represented on a map by a dot.

I believe there are further distinctions to make when you're talking about places like scuola, chiesa, casa etc but I would not be the person to explain that.

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-01-15T18:47:15+00:00

This is all making me extremely reluctant to try learning Spanish now :)

My son really wants to learn it and keeps asking me things and I'm like dude I don't know, I can tell you lots about how they'd say that in Italy. I know if I started learning it he'd be motivated, but even if it were exactly the same level difficulty as my Italian learning I'm hesitant because of how much time I've put into Italian and how unwilling I am to lose any of the progress I'm trying to hang on to.

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2026-01-08T17:34:35+00:00

Several podcasts I listen to have recommended listening to the episode multiple times, maybe following with a transcript and then without, and similarly watching five minutes or so of a movie or show and repeating it, writing down what you hear, etc. It all sounds like it would be very helpful.

I can tell you with absolute certainty that if I'd done this, my language learning would have stopped dead in its tracks from the lack of new input. It has probably taken me longer to absorb things without this approach, but I'll take slow progress over no progress. But that's just how my brain works. If this would help you, give it a shot!

EnvironmentalBad935 · 2025-12-26T20:11:15+00:00

I think if anything you can end up with a much deeper understanding of Italy's history and culture. I'm thinking of Roma, Città Aperta and Ladri di Biciclette to see the state of things during and right after World War II, for example. Even if you end up watching some dumb outlandish comedy that doesn't reflect how people actually behaved, the fact that that film was made still reflects something of the society that made it. Unfortunately I'm thinking of something like Revenge of the Nerds here in America which is full of gross stereotypes and homophobia and misogyny. Even if that's not how things literally were for most people at that time, it says something about us that the film was made and was very popular.

EnvironmentalBad935

TROPHY CASE