Silentium

LOL that was exactly my thought

yes i am. I dont like finnish, but i'm looking forward to learn norwegian. It isnt such a difficult language. After, i'd like to learn swedish... Someone I know(German) had a hard time learning Norwegian, despite being a native speaker of a Germanic language. I'd say it's a fairly difficult language anyway, the fact of speaking a romance language won't be too much of a problem if you're really interested and motivated. Swedish is not a tonal language, there are only a few words characterised by tonal peculiarities but they're easily recognisable from the context, unlike Chinese. As to Neapolitan dialect, I admit I have serious difficulty understanding it, if I heard two people from Naples speak in strict "dialetto" I'd lose track of the conversation. Same happens with all the other dialects except for the ones of Toscana, Umbria, Marche and Abruzzo. Younger generations in Italy tend to speak more or less the same language anyway, with slight accent variations.

Before you start you should think of the reason why you want to learn Greek. The more you are motivated to learn a language, the quicker you'll learn and retain grammatical structures and vocabulary. You should ask yourself questions such as "Why do I want to learn the language?" , "Do I want to acquire a decent level of fluency or just a basic grasp of the language?" and so on. Once you know the answer to these questions it will be easier for you to plan a learning strategy. If you start learning a language just for the sake of it -or worse because you're forced to- it will take much more time and efforts, conversely if you have a strong motivation to learn the language you'll be able to achieve good results in a relatively short time. In my opinion it would be better to start with basic grammar (and just a bit of phonology) and later focus on vocabulary and more complex syntax. Once you're done with that -and if you want to take your language skills one step further- you can start learning idioms and pronunciation nuances. Bah, I'm a useless pedagogue anyway :bag:

Ciao e benvenuto! It's nice to see another compatriot here.

Soit le bienvenue ici, Ozymandias!

Par Conditio. Some prefer its misspelled version, Par Condicio.

I'm going to see Depeche Mode live@Stadio Olimpico in July, can't wait!

I can't believe it..they even have a video of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? XD (don't worry, I'll spare you that )

I'll cheer for Italy, not that we have a chance this year but we still have our favourite gladiator =)

Aren't you a native speaker of Italian? I took up some Finnish while in Finland, extremely beautiful but fifteen cases were a bit too much for my brain to handle . Having other languages to deal with didn't help either =|. Now Swedish would be easier, considering its Germanic roots. I think dialetto abruzzese is one of the most diversified Italian dialects, each village seems to have its own code. Forms like "lu" and "lo" for example are probably the most widespread. Another variant of the definite article I've heard in a couple of villages not far from L'Aquila is [ju], apparently the lateral [l] turned into a semivowel [j] for some reason. Very interesting.

Yes, I heard about Lordi winning the Eurovision contest..I could not believe it well, I still can't believe it actually..

Uh oh... was my Italian that bad? No, not at all I simply wasn't expecting a reply in Italian =)

Well, the most famous sights are the new and old city "Mala Strana" and "Stare Mesto" (in Stare Mesto you'll find the astronomical clock Viggen posted about earlier, with the statues of the apostles coming out of it, it lasts for a minute or so every hour). The Old Town square is fascinating, I can't tell what's so special about it but there's a certain charm about the place, same for Charles Bridge. Not far from there you'll find "Prague's little Venice", they take you around with gondolas and all that lol =) Another must see is the castle and of course S.Vitus' Cathedral (they will charge you for taking pictures/videos though..). Make sure you take a boat cruise along the Vtlava river, the view of the city from there is lovely, food on the boat is ok as well (strangely enough I didn't miss Italian food lol). I know you only have 3 days but you should definitely visit Karlovy Vary and Kutna Hora, first one is a thermal city in the middle of Boemia, the landscape is breathtaking, the second is a medieval town (part of the UNESCO world cultural and natural heritage..). I could go on for hours but I'd better stop here I couldn't resist, webcam here (from behind the Old Town square): http://dokumenty.prague-city.cz/camera/fullsize.jpg

LOL --------------------- Well, that's the one I've got and would have suggested

In effetti

Actually, the [dz] sound does exist in English, in borrowed words mostly: pizza being the prime example. It's not a hard affricate for English speakers to come up with...unlike the palatal liquid (gli), which is murderous on English speakers. I guess the same could be said of [r] I know someone who's lived here for years now and still can't pronounce it correctly. -------------------------- Ciao Ginevra!

Italian. Both my mother and my father's families are from Roma.

-edit Omnia mutantur Everything changes

You hear this a lot but I don't remember who said it: Veritas filia temporis Truth is the daughter of time. So true.

I haven't read the book but I already know what the film is all about because of the whole (Opus Dei) diatribe here..and I'm not sure I'm interested.

dignitas? I'd call it (probitatis) simulatio. the recount..LOL. Anyway the "new guy" won't be able to form a government in the short term because we need to have a new "Presidente della Repubblica", who formally appoints the Premier and the ministers. As to the rest, I don't think any of the things mentioned is likely to happen..

http://www.collectbritain.co.uk then collections> the way we speak> view whole collection This website's really good, it provides all sorts of collections, from Victorian photos to manuscripts, drawings, maps..anything really. I noticed there are no clips for the Scottish and Welsh accents though =/

Try this one http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/collections/dialects/ I used it while working on a thesis I had to write, the interesting thing is some of the clips were recorded in the 50s, before the relative "linguistic unification" that took place in the last few decades (well, that is what some people claim anyway, I don't know since I'm not a native speaker). Of course there are also recent recordings, so that one can make an adiquate comparison and notice the linguistic changes that affected the dialects of certain areas through the years.

Oh, really? =) I'm going to spend 3 months at the university of Birmingham next semester (Erasmus program, yay).