Tasting Life Twice

Author Crystal King muses on life, history, writing and food.

Posts about Italian Language:

Eight Tools for the Language Learner

Eight Tools for the Language Learner

I've been learning Italian for the better part of the last fifteen years. It's a lot of work and not so easy doing it as an adult. But when I'm in Italy I can converse without switching to English, and that comes with a whole bunch of perks when I travel. But I have to keep it up in between visits, or all my conversation quickly goes by the wayside. 

If you are serious about learning another language, perhaps you too might benefit from some of these tools that have helped me to study, memorize and move further along the path toward fluency (and yes, it's a long path). Note that all these services offer the ability to learn languages other than Italian.

All Things Italy Spring Roundup 2018

All Things Italy Spring Roundup 2018
Emilia Romagna

I've been planning a trip to Bologna, where part of my third novel is set. I've been researching the heck out of that area. I already knew it has the oldest university in the world, but one of the things I was most intrigued to find was  Bologna was a city of towers. There were at least 100 towers, many of them upwards of 32 or more stories. Here's an artist's rendering of what it might have looked like in its heyday:

Can You Guess How to Pronounce Apicius?

Can You Guess How to Pronounce Apicius?

 Writing a book set in Ancient Rome means that I have to work with a lot of names that are probably unfamiliar to people, such as Thrasius, Sotas, and Ruan. And, ironically, when I included ancient Roman names that have survived the centuries, such as the name Melissa, my readers told me that the name felt too out of place.

L'Amore Esiste - Love Exists

L'Amore Esiste - Love Exists

One of my favorite Italian songs is by a young pop star, Francesa Michielin, from her 2015 album di20. She rose to fame when she won the 5th season of Italy's X-Factor. I find great emotion in this song. I think she captures much of what I have felt in my life when I have been (and still am) in love. Lyrics in both Italian and English after the video. 

Learning a Language - Can You Use That Word in a Sentence?

Learning a Language - Can You Use That Word in a Sentence?

One of the challenges of learning a language is understanding how to best use all the vocabulary terms that you are learning. It's one thing to learn a word, but quite another to know how to employ that word in a sentence.
I think this is one of the most challenging things for me when I am trying to learn on my own, without my tutors available. Take the word impiegare, for example. It means to employ, to engage or to use. But I'm not entirely sure how it's used in a sentence and when I turn to various resources I get conflicting answers.

Dante and Roberto Benigni - Tutto Dante

Dante and Roberto Benigni - Tutto Dante

As someone learning Italian, I feel especially fortunate that I live in a city that lets me pick up at least one Italian channel on cable. In this case it's RAI, but not the channels you would see in Italy. Instead it's a sanitized, washed out version for Italian audiences, mostly consisting of Italian game shows, soap operas, calcio (soccer/football depending on where you live), funny variety music shows and a smattering of news. Every once in awhile there is a gem, though, like the show Il Provo Del Cuoco, which is a cooking/cook-off show.

Learning Italian - La Bella Lingua

Learning Italian - La Bella Lingua

Learning Italian isn't something that I decided to do when I was young, but I wish I had! Instead, when I was in high school, many many years ago, I thought it would be great to learn French. Other kids in the high school in Boise, Idaho were learning Spanish, or perhaps German. I don't even recall if they offered other languages at my school at the time. French seemed elegant, refined, literary and Spanish, while beautiful and I can appreciate it more now, seemed oh so utilitarian back then. Boring.
I was never overly dedicated to the learning the language, but I did ok. The problem was that coming from a family with no money and no passports, the thought of going to France seemed like such a pipe dream (I"ve still not been!). And living in Boise there wasn't a soul with whom I could practice. Still, I persisted even into college, minoring in the language.