So many people enjoy learning Italian. It is so melodic – it’s the language of beautiful poetry, music, and the closest to Latin, the “dead” language that spawned dozens of others. While not everyone can travel to Italy, everyone can try to learn Italian, which is the reason that the Five Favorite Italian Words post struck a chord with so many readers.
Ever since my friend Jessica wrote a guest post about her five favorite Italian words, I have been getting great feedback about the post via comments, Twitter, and Facebook. For the past three months, the post has been one of the most popular posts on Italofile and I credit that to Jessica of the Italy Roundtable for her wonderful writing and to the Italian language itself.
One of the readers that got in touch wrote to me asking where she could learn even more Italian words using the five-words-per-day method. Here’s a snippet of her email:
Recently I have started the plan to learn Italian by myself. I used to have a phrase book, and I also brought a better (Colorful) one with a CD. However, I found it hard to learn things too quickly, mostly sentences gave me the hardest time.
So I went back to the basics and rules, learned and reviewed them, and used sites which helped such as livemocha.com. Then I suddenly realized an easier way for me which is learning five different words everyday. Those words are preferably random, and not categorized, such as: family members, colors…etc.
So I started searching about this online when I found your blog which had a topic ”Five Favorites: Italian Words” I really liked the way they way [sic] written, the words are differently nice, the pronunciation is there, and the meaning with a lovely story also there.
This got me thinking: wouldn’t it be great to get a meme going around of other travel bloggers and Italian language learners to share their five favorite Italian words on their own websites? This way, we could help out N.A. (and maybe others?), promote the Italian language, and get to learn some new Italian vocabulary words ourselves.
The way that it will work is like this:
1) Write a post on your own site about your five favorite Italian words. You can choose anything you want, but do refrain from curse words. Also provide a short back-story on why you chose the words that you did…why are they meaningful/amusing/helpful/memorable to you?
2) Within your post, link to this post using “five favorite Italian words” as the anchor text. Also link to the friend or friends who tagged or linked to you (see #3).
3) Also within your post, tag (link to) 2 or 3 other friends’ blogs who you think would enjoy writing about their own five favorite Italian words.
4) When you’ve finished your post, also leave a comment here. This way N.A. or anyone else following this meme will know where to look for their next language lesson.
So, who is up for this challenge? I’m hoping that the following friends and Italian language lovers will consider writing a post of their own or spreading the word to others:
Cherrye of My Bella Vita
Madeline J of Italy Beyond the Obvious
Alex of Blog from Italy
Vince of Scordo.com
Robin of My Mélange
Jessica from Italylogue is, of course, off the hook. But if you’re reading this, Jessica, I’d love for you to spread the word (or, um, la parola)! And thanks again, Jess, for the great post!
Photo © dneese_l
Last updated on December 10th, 2020Post first published on April 29, 2010
