In an attempt to stave off dementia and keep the neurons firing, for the past eleven months I have been learning Italian. Due to scheduling constraints, I started at the intermediate level which I thought would be okay because I already speak Spanish and French, and Italian seemed to be a hybrid of the two - just spoken more loudly and enthusiastically.
The sound and rhythm of Italian have always resonated with me; I can’t help but smile when I hear it. So now that I’m an empty-nester and have a bit more time, I have taken on this challenge. Every Monday evening, I meet a lovely group of middle-aged women and a spirited instructor online for ninety minutes. All of them are more skilled than I am and have been studying longer, but still, I persist. For the past several months, I’ve been enrolled in the advanced class. I have multiple grammar gaps including whole verb tenses that I have not yet learned.
I can say “I am sorry about those tariffs” (present tense), “I will be sorry about those tariffs” (future tense), “I was sorry about those tariffs” (past tense), but not “I would be sorry about those tariffs” (conditional), or “They hope that I am sorry about those tariffs” (subjunctive) - phrases which may come in handy if I travel to Italy.
Hopefully the Italians will show me and other hapless Americans some grace. After all, they were led by-and subjected to-Berlusconi, three times! And we don’t hold it against them. But maybe Berlusconi is just a distant memory for Italians by now. Or, as they say in Italian, “Chiodo scaccia chiodo” (literally “one nail drives out another”), meaning that a new trouble will make you forget about an old one.
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