Video Delights

Just as I was finishing work today, my Skype rang with the Heinrichs on the other end. My work computer has audio support for Skype but no microphone so I could hear them but couldn't talk back. I had to type all my responses which made for an interesting conversation. But it was neat to hear from the kids and talk about Thanksgiving plans. Someone will be snowboarding and mountainbiking this weekend providing the answer to a frequently asked question on this blog.

On the way home, I dropped a letter in the mailbox at the post-office and with this simple task, achieved another small victory. It began with me having to figure out where to buy a card since they are not sold in supermarkets but, as it turns out, in book stores, called libreria (where you buy books) not biblioteca(where you check out books). It's a lot of fun selecting a card when you can't read what it says. "Oooh pretty picture, I'll take it!" Card in envelope, envelope addressed, time to buy a stamp. I refuse to go to the post-office to buy a stamp because that puts me in the clutches of the Italian bureaucracy and that I avoid whenever possible. In the post-office there is a small machine that distributes tickets. You take one when you enter and when your number is called you go to the corresponding window to be helped. But there are four buttons on the machine, each for a different post related service and as I've experienced, a terrible fate awaits anyone who takes a ticket for the wrong service. Fortunately, there are small shops called Tabacaria where you can buy stamps, along with lottery tickets, cigarettes, candy, and I think porn, and never step foot in the post-office. Stamp purchased (Vorrei spedire negli Stati Uniti per favore - 1 Euro - Grazia - Salve.) I headed for a mail-box, dropped my letter, and sauntered somewhat cockily into the night.

Back to a recurring theme...While completely benign, my successful interaction with the negoziante (shop-keeper) was cause for another head-slapping realization. I say head-slapping because it's a fairly obvious observation but one that gave me pause. Learning Italian has made me think about language in ways I never really did before (sad and embarrassing considering I've worked for language companies for nearly 10 years). As I learn these new sounds and begin to use them, I can interact with people - I can get things, ask questions, share thoughts (well not yet, but I will be able to). Before I knew what "Vorrei spedire negli Stati Uniti" meant and how to say it, the phrase was just a series of nonsense sounds and I couldn't get a stamp. But after learning the words and the correct way to say them, when I repeated them to the shop-keeper, I got a stamp. Wow. While it was completely innocuous interaction to the shop-keeper, it was astounding and thrilling to me. Because language is so natural and second-nature I didn't really think about it, until it became unnatural. Then its full power and implications smacked me in the head. Probably everyone who has ever studied another language has already had this realization so here I am late to the party, but wow, neat-o.

And now for some Italian YouTube fun...



Raimondo can't get enough of this one. Berlusconi's accent cracks him up every time.



We can't tell if this is endearing or desperate.

I wonder what Eric is doing right now? (He's in the Suburban, driving to Sunriver.)