Tobias Jones should watch more football

I've just started the chapter on The Dark Heart of Italy called Penalties and Impunities, which is supposed to be about football. I am sort of excited because that's definitely something about which I'll have comments to make. And before I even got through the first couple pages one thing already caught my attention: Tobias Jones, when analyzing the different styles from different countries, dares to say that Italians "hardly ever foul" and, in case they do, "they will pick you up, bow and apologize".
I must say that this is not quite the impression I had, and if you are reading this, Mr. Jones, I suggest you check out the Italian player Marco Materazzi! Also, if you ever come across Zinedine Zidane, make sure you ask him about this whole "bow and apologizing" thing. Just be careful because he might get angry and head butt you.

The Dark Heart of Italy

I finally started reading The Dark Heart of Italy, and after a slightly boring and confusing preface, which in a way lowered my expectations, I was really surprised with an awesome first chapter. First of all, I felt as if Tobias Jones had stolen one of my ideas for a book chapter. For the past two years, since I moved to the US, I've been paying attention and reporting the same kind of linguistic observations, trying to give sociological explanations to why specific words are chosen rather than others (like 'bello' rather than 'buono') or why some words are absent (such as storia meaning both a story and history) in a specific language. I thought that the whole chapter was very interesting and very instructive as well, since he talks about many Italian colloquial expressions that are used by the actual population.
I was also thrilled by his comparisons between the English and the Italian languages, and between Italian and British people, as I always am when these kind of discussions take place. In my specific case, most of his "discoveries" hold true for other romantic languages, like Portuguese, and it's very interesting to see an English speaking person perplex before the preoccupation with form rather content that is very common on a speech given in such languages. I would disagree with some of his affirmatives though, especially when he talks about how it is chic to say words in English, when speaking Italian, and that is why a lot of importations occur. I believe that that is part of it, but he should also have mentioned the fact that Anglicisms, and importations in general are sometimes seen as intrusions to the language, and a disrespect to the country's culture (just like Halloween, as found out about by our colleague Marc).


I found this book cover online (which is probably of the first edition) and I thought it would be interesting to have it here, since it is mentioned in the book, for having the ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi giving a speech on a balcony in Milan.

More on The City of Falling Angels

I've read some more of The City of Falling Angels and more interesting facts, which are somehow related to our project came up.
First of all, there is a big discussion after the fire at the Fenice episode, about who was responsible for it and how the negligence from the part of the authorities may have contributed. They even suppose that there could have been some interested parties, since Rome would now send a lot of money to Venice for the reconstruction, and many people, including high level artists, would have to be employed on the new project, which could revitalize the Venetian art scenario. These ideas reminded me of my group's studies and investigations on how politics and external interests may be affecting the implementation of the cargo transportation system in Venice.
Also, there is a brief section about the history of Venice, which taught me some facts I did not know of. I did not know that Napoleon had been responsible for bringing the mighty Venetian empire (whose mightiness I wasn't aware of either) to its knees, in 1797. Interestingly, and rather ironically, this fact has to do with the intactness of the Venetian architecture nowadays, because the abrupt decline of the empire was followed by two centuries of poverty, which reduced the city's capabilities to adjust itself to modern times and made isolated Venice from the architectonic tendencies that appeared in Europe during two hundred years.

The City of Falling Angels

This term is proving itself one of the busiest, but still I've been trying to find some time to do some reading. I started with The City of Falling Angels and so far I've read the first two chapters.
I really like the way the book was written. John Berendt makes a journalistic narrative that really reminds me of the style of Fernando Moraes, describing real facts but not in a documentary style.
The first two chapters talk about the fire that destroyed the Teatro La Fenice in 1996. The author does a really good job in expressing how fond venetians are of this theater, and the text is very impacting.
I found two points that can possibly be related to our project - Socioeconomic aspects of Venice -, more specifically related to tourism. First of all, it describes how tourists were completely lost and didn't know where to go during the emergency, which contributed to increase the chaotic atmosphere. This is interesting because it reinforces the image of Venetian tourists being always in the way, never really caring about the city's problems.
The other point which I found interesting was the remark by Girolamo Marcello (I think) about the fire, saying that, this time, Venice couldn't blame it on the tourists, nor on natural conditions, it was all their fault. Negligence and lack of professionalism by the Venetians themselves. This relates to our project in the sense that we want to study the myth of tourism being "the enemy" of Venice.

cose che io voglio sapere in Italiano

So we are finally about to start with real Italian classes! As our first assignment we have to choose a few words and sentences we would like to learn in Italian. This is what I chose:

2 verbs:
to wait
to remember

10 nouns:
picture, street, tree, window, door, table, book, pen, pencil, light

5 phrases:
What is your name?
Where are you from?
I don't speak Italian very well.
Do you speak English by any chance?
I'm lost.

I think those would be quite useful once we are in Venice.

alcuno progresso

I've been trying to study Italian at least a couple times a week, and I do feel that I'm making some progress. I think that from now on I'll start trying to post in Italian, because even though it requires a lot more time and a bunch of dictionary looking up I believe it will help me.
I installed the Rosetta Stone software, which is also being helpful, although I really don't think you can learn a language that way. It teaches you a bunch of vocabulary, sometimes really unnecessary vocabulary, instead of showing you more of grammar and sentence structuring, which is the most important in my opinion.
I've also been following one of the tutors' advice and using the RAI website to watch some video clips in Italian. They have some interesting TV shows, and even though it may be hard to understand everything they say, I understand what's going on.
I've watched the two first episodes of Le Ragazze di San Frediano which takes place at the end of the second World War and tells the story of this guy who becomes a hero by accident.

musica

I haven't really written anything here in a while. I guess the complete lack of comments is not very motivating lol. So, I'll look at this as a personal diary and write stuff for myself...

From my experience in learning another language, I know that music can be a great way of getting more in touch with a language. It's closer to the way native speakers actually speak (especially when compared to language books and newspaper articles) and songs are easier to memorize, increasing one's vocabulary considerably.
I must confess I don't know many names of modern Italian musicians. But I found it really funny that when I went to an Italian music website, one of the only Italian modern singers I knew - Laura Pausini - was actually the top seller of the week!

I decided to post here the lyrics to La Solitudine, which is a song I've always liked, especially because a really famous Brazilian singer who was of Italian descendancy, Renato Manfredini Junior, of whom I am huge fan, used to sing it amazingly well.
Maybe on a next post I'll try to translate it.

La Solitudine
Testo e Canzione: Laura Pausini

Marco se n'è andato e non ritorna più
Il treno delle 7:30 senza lui
È un cuore di metallo senza l'anima
Nel freddo del matino grigio di città

A scuola il banco è vuoto, Marco è dentro me
È dolce il suo respiro fra i pensieri miei
Distanze enormi sembrno dividerci
Ma il cuore batte forte dentro me

Chissà se tu mi penserai
Se con i tuoi non parli mai
Se ti nascondi come me
Sfuggi gli sguardi e te ne stai

Rinchiuso in camera e non vuoi mangiare
Stringi forte al te il cuscino
Piangi non lo sai
Quanto altro male ti farà la solitudine

Marco nel mio diario ho una fotografia
Hai gli occhi di bambino un poco timido
La stringo forte al cuore e sento che ci sei
Fra i compiti d'inglese e mathematica

Tuo padre e suoi consigli che monotonia
Lui con i suoi lavoro ti ha portato via
Di certo il tuo parere non l'ha chiesto mai
Ha detto un giorno tu mi capirai

Chissà se tu mi penserai
Se con gli amici parlerai
Per non soffrire più per me
Ma non è facile lo sai

A scuola non ne posso più
E i pommeriggi seza te
Studiare è inutile tutte le idee
Si affolano su te

Non è possibile dividere
La vita di noi due
Ti prego aspettami amore mio
Ma illuderti non so

La solitudine fra noi
Questo silenzio dentro me
È l'inquetudine di vivere
La vita senza te

Ti prego aspettami perché
Non posso stare senza te
Non è possibile dividere
La storia di noi due