About Italian class

Dear Sarah (o connor) and Büchli!

Since last Monday we are having Italian class here and will have for four weeks. The school is a nice old building directly at the sea. So when you have lessons at the right side of the building, you can watch the sea when you look out of the window during class. Unfortunately until now I’ve always had class at the other!

Usually I spend most time with the other 7 volunteers, not only in activities we’re involved in because of the project, but also in freetime. School is an exception, I’m in another class than the others because I’ve already learned Italian for four years in Highschool and the others just start to learn Italian here. My class is pretty small, we are just 5 people including me: One girl from Ireland, who has already visited this school in the past,

an old woman from New York who has a very strong American Accent, also the Irish girl has a strong Accent. I wonder whether my German accent is as strong as their accent; when you hear people from other nations you notice their accent very fast but you don’t hear your own accent, but I guess I have one becauseI’ve already met people here having fun when I say: Sono di TSCH – ermania. Then there is a woman from Switzerland, she studied psychology and I like her.

In breaks I like asking her questions about psychologystuff, bodylanguage..whether she analyzes people now more than before she studied it. find that to be very interesting. And there is a woman from Finland participating in the course, she reminds me of the intendant of ZWINGER 3 in Heidelberg, a theatre where I’ve made a internship once, and a bit of Bibiana Beglau: she speaks very calm but has also something hard stubborn, knowing what she wants. I think she’s smart.

So enough about people in the class-

When I sit in class I feel again like in school and remember old Italian classes by Signora Ickler and Wölfl and an assisstant teacher Alessandra Grammolini who is from Italy too. These were my favourite lessons in the past, and I like remembering it. We have class for four hours (five days a week) and two teachers a day. So the first two hours are held by one teacher and after break another teacher continues.

The first teacher Anna Flavia is what I imagine when thinking of an typical Italian woman, with much energy, very selfconfident, expressing herself and laughing a lot. Even in situations I find just a bit funny but not too much, she breaks out into big laughter. But I like these strange flashs. In her class

we also speak more often or do grammar exercises which I find to be more funny(talking) bzw. senseful(grammar) than the exercises the other teacher tells us to do, this second teacher is ok, but boring. And the exercises even more boring. Matching half an hour pictures of different kind of doctors with the fitting vocabulary is just not my thing.

But in general I enjoy school and having good old school atmosphere!

When I have break I sometimes meet the other volunteers or i try to have italian conversations with people from my class or with a guy from Hamburg and a French woman i got to know. We want to meet a day to have dinner together to practice our Italian during having a nice italian meal.

In the class of the other volunteers, there is a girl named Kate from England, she’s been at our Sangriaparty last Friday, too. She’s calm and nice, and between all these impulsive loud italian temperament ladies(not that i dont like that) – could be- ,as Karo would say, a good variety.

Ciao! Antonia