Italian - English
cinema - cinema
danza - dance
dentista -dentist
galleria - gallery
poeta - poet
poesia - poetry (I think of poetry and prose to rmember to add the letter s to distinguish the word fro what is written from the person doing the writing)
Useful websites
duolingo.com
On a hiking holiday to Spain I met a fellow hiker who was ordering food in Spanish. I asked him if he had learned Spanish in school. No, he had taught himself Spanish, every day for a year, ready for his holiday.
I was inspired by his success and dedication. I decided I would learn Italian for my next forseeable trip the following summer.
I learned Italian on Duolingo. Each time I started a new set of exercises, I began to make two lists of words I learned on Duolingo, the easy ones, which is encouraging, and fun. Then the harder ones which I need to practise.
You might like to test yourself, from your own list, or mine, or both. Make two columns of words in any language you are learning, a minimum of 5 to 15, a maximum of twenty to thirty.
Then cover each column and test yourself. Keep repeating your self-administered quiz until you score full marks once, after some hesitation and thought.
Then repeat another time or two until you get 100 per cent right. Instantly and effortlessly.
At the end of the day, or week, or month, look back over the previous lists, or my posts. Duolingo will help you learn the grammar and sentence construction. My lists simply help you with the vocabulary for reading comprehension.
Easy Words
Italian - English
classico - classic
fame - fama
familiare - familiar (adjective, not the noun family)
finendo - ending
fisica - Physics
foto - photo
immagini - pictures (like images)
muro - wall (like mural)
sezioni - sections
stile - style
studi - you study
video - video
English - Italian
finding- trovando - like a treasure trove ando is an ing ending, going on AND on n END (other words end endo
sections - sezioni
wall - muro
Difficult words
Italian - English
mostra - exhibition (I thought it was a mosque wrong. more like a demonstration)
placo - stage (like a platform, or place to perform not
a park)
English - Italian
exhibition - mostra (think mounting pictures)
pictures - immagini
It is Sunday and tonight on Duolingo the top learners in the Leaderboard go up to the next level. So I am learning extra new words.
Italian - English
architetto - architect
architettura - architecture
Cinema (ponounced chin ay -ma) - cinema
circo - circus
concerto - concert
classico - classic
dentista - dentist
elefanti - elephants
galleria - gallery
gallerie - galleries (feminine plural ends in e)
idea - idea
locale - local
medicina - medicine
nuovo - new (like the English word novelty)
romantico - romantic
scena - scene
speciale - special
vestito - dress (as in the old-fashioned word vestment, still osed to describe the dress of Roman Catholic clergy)
voce - voice
English - Italian
architect - architetto
architecture - architettura
classic - classico
cinema - cinema
circus - circo
concert - converto
dentist - dentista
dress - vestito
elephants - elefanti (plural ending in Italian is i, like the word spaghetti)
gallery - galleria
galleries - gallerie
idea - idea
medicine - medicina
new - nuovo
romantic - romantico
scene - scena (prounounced shen -uh)
special - speciale
voice - voce
Websites
duolingo.com
wikitravel. com prhasebook
UK
Clocks change on the last Sunday in March in the UK and much of Europe. The clocks march forward in March. This chance is also called Daylight saving time. Or British summer time.
The clocks change after midnight during Saturday night, so when you wake up in the morning, any clocks which co-ordinate with a rddio controlled system are automatically updated.
You need to check your watch, microwave, old fashioned battery operated wall clocks. And your car clocks.
With most systems such as a laptop, you have a setting for time and date, so you can change to the local time when travelling.
So, in the UK, in springtime, my watch tells me it is 8 am, time to get up. The Kitchen clock has re-set to 9.
I used to go to a book group on the last Sunday in the month. In Springtime, if I went by my watch on the old time, I was late, because at 4 pm when the meeting started, my watch said it was 3 pm.
You lose an hour of sleep if you get up at the new time. But you catch up later, because the new clock time is already midnight when a watch set to yesterday's time tells your body clock it is only 11 pm.
The clocks are re-set on Sunday, or course, to you can get up when you like, and don't risk being late for work, so long as you don't work on a Sunday.
USA
The Americans have a rhyme to help you to remember which wasy the clocks go. Spring forward, fall back.
The Australian and New Zealanders down under have winter in the UK's summer snd summer in the UK's winter. One might hope that they would change their clocks in the opposite direction on the same day. No. The same day as who? Australis and New Zealand are a day different, especailly if you fly in their diection from the UK.
Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Summer_Time
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time_by_country
French
At school I learned French, for O level and A level. I concisdered myself bilingual. When I went to Belgium, I found a bilingual country, with signs in French and Dutch.
Spanish
At my late parents' second home in Spain I picked up a little Spanish vocabulary. Is there a word for this basic knowledge?
Tests Of Language Levels
What about the tests administered by universities and employers and language courses. Levels A B and C?
Singapore - Chinese
In Singapore, hearing four languages on the trains inspired me to start trying to learn to recognize Chinese signs. Signs everywhere were in four languages, English, Chinese, Malay, Tamil.
Finally, in Singapore I started an online Toastmasters club and learned a few words of a new language every week for a year..
Chinese was challenging. So were Japanese, Korean, and Indian languages. Suddenly, Spanish seemed easy.
Baack inBritain, I speak French fluently, and can translate signs in Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. But, am I bilingual in French?
Words For Multingual Learners
When I was employed to translate packaging for a cosmetics company into French and German, I spent a week hunting for the French translatoion of the word for nail file. So, at that time, I was not really bilingual. I was what? I just found out, in March 2025, that there are several handy words or labels for succinctly describing the type of bilingual I am.
I did know that I am a native speaker of English.
But what about my knowledge of other languages? How to describe it accurately, without making false claims, nor belittling myself?
1 Aspiring Learner
Firstly, I am an aspiring bilingual speaker of Italian. My first aim is to be able to read signs and menus.
I have learned new words to describe my aims and achievements in learning this year's new language, which is Italian. I am an emergent (still learning).
Reader - Receptive
My first aim is to be able to read menus and street signs to get to a restaurant, hotel, or museum. And find the toilets and exits.
The magic word describing this level is receptive (understand spoken and written words) bilingual. Not yet proficient in speaking and writing, but able to read menus, streets signs and newspaper headlines.
Productive - Producing Writing
If you can spontaneously speak and write, you are a Productive bilingual. You produce thoughts in the other language so you speak without hesitation.
Whether you are watching opera on YouTube or in an Italian theatre, eating a meal in Italy or at an Italian restaurant, or buying a ticket in person or online, here are several words you will instantly recogize. With very little effort you will be able to translate back to Italian from the English.
Italian - English
arte - art
cliente - client
danzo - dance
farmacia - pharmacy
film - film
galleria - gallery
una (feminine) lettera - (a) letter
musculo - muscle
musica - music
poeta - poet
silenzio - silence
teatro - theatre
English - Italian
art - arte
client - cliente
dance - danzo
film - film
gallery - galleria
letter - lettera
muscle - musculo
music - musica
pharmacy - farmacia (I think of Maria in the farmacia)
poet - poeta
silence - silenzio
theatre - teatro
Mother's Day in the UK is Sunday 30th March 2025. The celebration is also known as Mothering Sunday.
In the UK the corner shops or newsagents display Mother's Day cards. You can buy cards, balloons, and bunches of flowers.
