Wrapping up

For me, learning is what happens during the ‘inbetween’. Not so much The Upside Down, but rather the ‘inbetween’.

The ‘inbetween’ refers to what is in between all of the quizzes, exams, scaffolded projects, structured dialogue, and homework tasks. The ‘inbetween’ is the process of learning a language, it is what happens internally or when you are least expecting it; it is writing verb conjugations over and over again, making your own connections, figuring words out through context or association, correcting your grammar, and helping your peers; it is looking up word meanings via images on Google.it, laughing with an accent, and troubleshooting tech; it is the process of laughing through hour long discussions on the variety of pastas that can be consumed at just one meal, the process of learning the steps of a video game through trial and error, and the process of texting your final project classmates jokes about Italian language and culture, and asking questions; and it is the process of making mistakes, where we make our most significant gains in language and culture.

In between completing MyItalianLab homework, filling in worksheets, taking quizzes, and mid term exams is when the learning occurs. Of course, the final products do matter, but I really believe that the real, long-term language and culture acquisition is found in the process of performing and completing these assignments and exercises, not the completion.

Intensive Italian for Gamers Spring 2019 definitely kept me on my toes! It was demanding, required a lot of time and effort, sped by quickly, and was carried out in a very intentional fashion. It was by no accident that my team pulled off the most spectacular final project! I couldn’t be more proud of my classmates and what we accomplished. As the four of us stood in front of the class, speaking Italian, reading, asking, and answering questions, and walking the class through our RPG Player game, supported by our PowerPoint, parole chiave sign, and our own knowledge, I felt oh-so-very accomplished and proud to be working with this intelligent group of students.

Again, it was all of the ‘inbetweens’ that had led us up to our successful showcase of Team LasagnYay.

#scaffolding #taskbasedlearning

What is Team LasagnYay you may ask? Oh, only one of the coolest and most creative projects I have ever had the privilege to work on. Our Final Project required the a diverse set of experiences and interests, and also allowed us to integrate all of the language learning competencies, writing, reading, listening, speaking, and cultural competence.

LasagnYay

For our format we created our own 10-minute RPG game using the free version of RPG Maker Ace Light.

Project description: LasagnYay is a Fantasy RPG that involves characters passing stages of battles with monsters and bosses based on mythical Italian creatures and folklore. The main objective of LasagnYay is to get accepted to l’università di Bologna, in order to find and perfect the Authentic Italian Lasagne recipe. The character(s) will pass through various cities in Italy seeking to obtain local recipes based on region and time period. Should they pass the stage (overcoming the battle), they will collect a regional recipe as their passing token. Each recipe will provide a skill set. The skill set is a cooking skill, which allows them to move forward, as well as ‘fight’ the future bosses. Upon arriving to l’università di Bologna, they will present their recipe portfolio, request admission to the university, and either be accepted or denied. Our presentation will included a walk-through of the game itself, (i.e. a short demo), and a Q&A session.

We worked on the project over the course of about 6 weeks, employed as much language and culture as we could squeeze into our project. One team member took the lead on mastering the RPG platform, I took the lead on language, and the other two team members supported all aspects including pronunciation help, creativity in script and PowerPoint design, making our ‘key words’ banner, and providing team work and positivity! It truly was a collaboration of all efforts, I could not have done it without them.

And, of course, I truly feel that my most impactful learning moments were those done in when not in the spotlight of presenting or typing, but rather from running lines with the team over and over again in the language lab, to texting about the spelling of lasagne in our group chat, to the final correction our professor made on our key words poster just seconds before we were to begin our presentation. Every little word, conjugation, conversation, game played, worksheet completed, and song heard, led up to the creation of this project.

 

 

 

 

The other day somebody asked me if I thought I had learned 2 semesters of Italian in 1.

No.

I do not feel as if I have learned 2 semesters of Italian in 1.

I have learned so much more than “2 semesters of Italian in 1” that it is really quite difficult to describe. If we breakdown the hours, we discover that an estimated 60 hours were spent in class, and I know I spent about 75-80 hours outside of class doing homework, studying, and working on our final project, so in a 15-week semester, I would estimate I spent about 140 hours involved in the ‘tasks’ of this Italian class.

But who is counting the hours?

The takeaway from Dr. Simone Bregni’s Italian 1200 class is unmatched. I learned an incredible amount for my own teaching practices, found myself positively humbled when working and learning from students 10 years younger than I, and a whole new world of  language and culture was open to me.

I cannot express my gratitude for the opportunity to learn languages, in general, but specifically from people who care so much about not only sharing and connecting the cultures of the world, but instructors who break away into the unknown, and employ innovative teaching methods which reflect innovative eras and support diverse learning styles.

Thus, I look forward to seeing what more can come out of the Italian ‘inbetween’.

🇮🇹 Mio caro italiano, siamo amici per sempre! 🤗

💙 Forever a daughter of Saint Louis University 💙

When I was 9 I told my Mom “Mom, I am going to the University of Washington and I am going to major in architecture”.

Well, one of those two things happened. I did end up going to the University of Washington. I did not end up majoring in architecture.

While I still enjoy gazing at the wonders of buildings, and I also found The Fountainhead to be a favorite read, I did not enjoy constructing balsa wood chairs, nor did I have a head for figures or a spirit for late nights alone visualizing single-dimension lines weaving into complex structures.

What I did discover was Spanish. Spanish was always going to be my minor, but when I forgot about line drawing and number crunching, I let language take lead and Spanish became my major. What that meant was a requirement to study abroad. Oh, shoot. Such a bummer, right? Fortunately, I was able to take advantage of my financial aid awards and leverage them for my study abroad experience. That semester in Granada, Spain changed my life.

I graduated in 2008 with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Spanish.

Next month I will graduate with a Master’s of Arts in Spanish.

In 2024 I will graduate with a Doctorate of Philosophy, in Hispanic Linguistics, and people will need to begin calling me Dr. Jones.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, wait, what’s that you say? Yes, I will finally be embarking on my endeavor to earn a PhD. My grandfather calls it a Fudd. He thinks that’s funny.

Where am I going?

Well, not here-

Or here-

Or here-

But people will need to call me Dr. Jones when I graduate from….

…here!

The University of California in Davis

About 10 years ago my friend gave me a genuine leather, authentic Indiana Jones hat. Once I get my PhD I am going to get a whip, and hang them both in my office.

Of course, my new bear, “Almost Dr. Jones” will be accompanying me on this new adventure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, May 18th, 2019

I cannot describe the immense feeling of pride I felt during these days of Graduation. I have never felt more proud to be a Billiken than in these beautiful moments of fanfare, heart warming stories and speeches, moving music, and the plethora of powerful names being announced, as proud and intelligent sons and daughters of SLU marched across the stage. 💙

 

 

 

🙏 It would take me ages to list out the names of people to whom I am forever grateful for helping support me on this journey, so instead I send out radiating vibes of love, gratitude, prayer for to these amazing people! I do work hard, but nothing is done without teamwork, and I bow my head on gratitude for all the ladies, the men, the students, the baristas, the wine severs, the Google, and the man upstairs for helping me arrive to where I am, and to where I am going.

T.ogether
E.veryone
A.chieves
M.ore

I will only wave ‘Hasta Luego‘ to you SLU, and not ‘Adios‘, as this is not good-bye, but rather a see you later!

Intensive Italian for Gamers – Settimana dieci 10

¡Ciao!

lunedì, il 25 di marzo

So, I did it. I ‘gamed today’.

No, that is a lie. I attempted to play, which lasted about 3 minutes.

What really happened was I picked up the controller…

…no, that is not true. The controller was handed to me.

Okay, I entered class earlier than normal and the control was handed to me to begin Rise of the Tomb Raider.

I really did want to play, but to be honest, I was so nervous! The last video game I played was Super Mario Kart on the Nintendo Switch for an entire summer in 2017; and before that, Super Mario Kart on the PS4 in 2003; and before that I endeavored to pass Level 6 of Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Genesis in probably about 1995….Nah, there were a few breaks in between, with random games like Mortal Kombat, Guitar Hero, and my ex tried relentlessly to get me me to play Overcooked on the Switch, and Star Wars: The Card Game – Fantasy Flight Games…to which I forcefully fought back.

So, Lara Croft fell off the snowy and icy ravine about 5 times while Simone was positively supporting by gleefully shouting ‘a destra, salta!’….’Triangolo‘….’Avanti!’

After about nine lives the students started to filter in and I heard a student laughing. I thought maybe he was on the phone, but no, not so much. He had been standing at the door watching me die over and over again. Which is okay. I will get the hang of it. And repetition is great for language learning!!

Actually, repeating the stages over and over again on a video game is pretty great for language learning. I was receiving oral input regarding how to move forward and play the game, such as “destra!”, “quadrato!”, and “velocemente!”. Additionally, there are Italian prompts and subtitles written on the screen, so there is visual input matching the actions, which is extremely helpful. And of course, there is the added pressure of wanting to not be a total idiot in playing in front of a group of more advanced gamers. The background music is also quite intense. As Lara Croft scivolava (slides) over and over again down la montagna ghiacciata 🏔 I grasped desperately at la console trying to mimic what I had been watching i miei compagni di classe do with such ease over these past couple of months. Well, as soon as more students started taking their seat I handed over the control and gladly watched from my seat. I do feel good to have finally broken the ice and now I feel more ready to try again.

mercoledì, il 27 di marzo

Oggi was un girono di tutto! (Today was a day of everything!)

1️⃣ Prima, for our warm up we huddled up into our groups again for a few rounds of Sapere è potere. GrlPwr did quite well again, I must say. 👩‍🎤

2️⃣ Secondo, we went over the daily plan which includes annunci, and a bit of review in the ‘ripassiamo‘ stage, and practicing new concepts for a few moments of ‘parliamo‘.

Regarding our libro 📕 progress, we are immersed in el tempo, el cibo, as well as parlando about la hora, mastering concepts of reflexive verbs, expressions with avere + noun, and a whole lot more.

👩‍🏫 insegnare: Simone said something on Monday which just cracked me up, “please don’t suffer from reflexivitus”….”when you learn about reflexive verbs in Italian (or Spanish) for example, and from then on feel the need to make all verbs you encounter reflexive” 🤣 Oh, how true this is. È la verità, for sure. Not only do I witness my students making this error in my Spanish classes, but I know I am guilty of it as well. Not only can ‘reflexivitus’ change the meaning of your sentence, but it can also cause hilarious and or embarrassing situations.

Per essempio, diece anni delle passato, I sat with 4 quattro Spanish donne in a small Moroccan casa di tè in Cádiz, Spain. It was la nostra hora di conversazione, trenta minuti in spagnolo e trenta minuti in inglese. During our Spanish speaking time they asked me what I had done earlier that day and I proceeded to tell them….”trabajé, regresé a casa, me corrí, cambié mi ropa…” and I continued on. Although only for about two seconds perché all of a sudden i loro occhi  👀 got very wide, they laughed quite hard for a few minutes, and then thank goodness proceeded to kindly explain why perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea to use correr in the reflexive form (correrse) in such a casual and public setting. Of course, this case is particular to Castellano, but it is a good example to be extra careful when throwing around i verbi riflessivi…..

Ma, torniamo all’italiano!

We reviewed la quantità, il verbo ‘bere’ e le bevande, and possessive articles. We finished up watching an Assassin’s Creed 2 video on YouTube, Simone passed out Worksheet #4, ‘I verbi di azione, le attività, il tempo e la famiglia con Rise of the Tomb Raider’, and all of a sudden class was over and we headed over al laboratorio. The 50 minutes are also so jam packed and end so quickly!

Once in lab we watched a complementary video clip,  and went over a few sections on the worksheet together.

We wrapped up the last 20 minutes or so playing Hidden Agenda. I loved it! It was so fun, interactive, we worked together in small groups, and it was actually pretty intense. In fact, it reminded me a lot of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Dah dahhh…..

Questo gioco è multigiocatori. I downloaded the app (for free) on my iPhone and our team Subze (I typed in Sub Zero as the team name, but it got cut off #fail), played along with the other teams collaboratively making decisions, while the action was being presented on the big screen. There were options to compete against each other or work collaboratively as a one large team. The situations presented were very similar to those old school books, “choose your own adventure”. Of course the primary language was set to Italian and we were following along based on our novice and intermediate levels of Italian. Although, I found that we could also easily draw upon the context to understand more of the situation, quickly allowing us to move forward in our decision making and progression to the next situation.

The room was dark, the music was loud and intense, and we were choosing whether we should save the ostaggio (hostage) or our police partner….good times in Morrissey 3800.

venerdì, il 29 di marzo
Oggi we…
…took Quiz numero tre 3.
…reviewed gli aggettivi possessivi practicing with la famiglia.
– la mia famiglia, la mamma, il papá, i fratelli, i nonni...etc.
…studiamo i pronomi possessivi.
     – il mio appartamento ha molta luce….la mia migliore amica è americana.

On the near horizon is the creation and completion of our progetto finale. Il lunedì prossimo we will meet with our groups and decide on a format and topic. Our team is comprised of a unique and eclectic group of folks, which will bring a diverse set of skills and ideas to the table. I am very much looking forward to our brainstorming session on Monday!

¡Ciao!

Intensive Italian for Gamers – settimana nove 9

Nella serie TV Friends, qual è il cibo preferito di Joey?

🥪 🥪 🥪 🥪 🥪 🥪 🥪 panini!!!!

Whodathunk that being the ultimate Friends fan and possessing more Friends trivia than perhaps even those six actors do, would come in handy in progressing our pink-haired personaggio into first place? Even if it was just for a brief moment…

Today’s class was so fun and perfect for this sunny venerdì.

Perché? 🤷‍♀️ 

Because it was un ‘Giorno di gioco’ 📱

At each table lay a tablet, and at each table sat 3-4 nerdy gaming linguists excited to compete, push buttons, create their avatar, and practice their Italian.

We did not even know what game we were going to play, but we were animated for whatever it may be. It was like back in the day when your middle school teacher rolled in the clunky TV stand, complete with a VCR, and overflowing with tangled up cables. You had no idea what movie would be shown, but movies in class were such a treat and departure from the normal structure of reading, writing, and arithmetic. I remember in middle and high school any movie was really welcome, whether it was Bill Nye the Science Guy in 7th Grade Science or ‘Los Viajeros‘ in 9th Grade Spanish, movies were welcome! I would have to say I think the only time when students grumbled about watching films in class were those two days in middle school, which were awkward af, when boys and girls were split up into two rooms and were flash-taught Sex Ed with educational films made in the early 90s…

But those days are long gone…or are they? I am quite glad it is not 1999 and I am no longer in 6th grade, but rather hold a Graduate student position in the year 2019, and I find myself enrolled in an Undergraduate Italian class being taught by a digitally savvy profesore with years of experience using digital realia to augment his Italian instruction.

So, what appeared on the screen was not an uncomfortable educational film about STDs and 28-day cycles, nor was it a fuzzy 80s film of socks-‘n-sandals-wearing tourists exploring the streets Oaxaca, but rather the super fun trivia game ‘Sapere è potere‘.

First, we picked out our avatar, who was a hoot and a half. She wore rainbow spandex and had capelli rosa and un grande baffo rosa. Her fanny pack was hilarious and upon submitting a right answer, her mannerisms wavered between spanking her own cartoon culo, clapping with delayed Gumbi arms, and doing awkward wiggly dancing. I was playing with two other ladies, so we appropriately and geekily named our character, GrlPwr. Aren’t we super cool?

 It was such a silly day and the activity couldn’t have come on a better day. I know, personally I was feeling rather squirly, what with it being Friday at 2pm, with sunshine and all. The sun is finally peeking out from behind these winter clouds and as I walked through the clocktower square to our class, there were tons of students out on blankets, slack lining, or hauled up in hammocks. There was also a DJ blasting sweet jams and the faces of students seemed to glow with sheer delight of just a small amount of warmth.

Anyway, getting to play this trivia game, in Italian, with Italian culture also integrated in the questions, on this sunny Friday afternoon was just perfect.

A few takeaways:

1. Cultura
   Many of the questions involved themes centered on Italian culture, such as literature, history, famous people, music, and so on.After we finished with our 11 rounds, Simone pulled up a couple of these italiani famosi to add a bit more context about why these people were note worthy.  We discussed a bit about Giocomo Leopardi, who was a un poeta, studioso e filosofo italiano in the 19th century. Although, according to our profe the filosofia of Leopardi would have been described using one of our favorite new phrases, ‘qué barba‘ 🧔🏻

   We also chatted briefly about a modern YouTuber called Sofia Viscardi, who is also una scrittrice, who I may or may not have started to follow on 📷 @sofiaviscardi. Hey, it’s for the Italian practice, okay?

2. Vocabolario
   We got the opportunity to learn new words, such as Abbinamento and  Smistamento, and to practice them over and over again in a fun and highly contextualized environment, due to the various rounds we played.
   The repetition of activities really helped established new vocabulary words, such as the act of choosing categories and the ‘strapoteres‘, and of course the regular game words such as ‘continuare’. 

   As I am finding with all of the games we play, whether it be Assassin’s Creed II, Rise of the Tomb Raider, or Sapere è Potere, the combination of group work, critical thinking, Total Physical Response, repetition of words, and repetition of their corresponding actions, and so much more, really makes for an extremely efficient tool for language learning. 

3. Lingua
   Nerding out on languages is one of my favorite things to do. Being a native English speaker and having a strong base of Spanish almost always provides support to my efforts in reading other languages.

   And today was no exception. One of the rounds we played was a sorting activity in which the names of animals flashed, and we had to pull them either into the category of ‘pelle‘ or ‘pelo‘. Such as 🐖 vs. 🦍 or 🐍 vs. 🐇.

   Fortunately, Italian and Spanish share many words and roots of the words, which made quickly sorting the words that appeared relatively easy. Although there were many words that were definitely not the same, what did add to our success in this round was my knowledge of latin and greek roots. Even if I had no idea what the word was, in the 2 milliseconds we had to guess what the word was, in order to drag it into the appropriate category, even having knowledge of roots aided in GrlPwr also winning this round….🥇

We played Knowledge is Power for about 40 minutes and finished up by reviewing a few exercises from our book. Book wise, we are in Chapter 4, and practicing i verbi reflessivi, avere + noun phrases, el cibo, e molti verbi, regolari e irregolari.

🌇 Mi sveglio alle sei.
😋 Ho fame.
🍷 Vorrei un bicchiere di vino rosso.
🚶‍♀️ Vado a scuola a piede.
🖨 Gli studenti vengono al Language Resource Center per printing and tutoring.
🛌 Esco presto perché mi piace addormentarmi presto.

A la prossima settimana ¡Ciao!

Intensive Italian for Gamers – Giorno 21

¡Ciao! 

mercoledì 20 marzo

Per the ush, as the students go along entering class and warming up for our Wednesday in Intensive Italian, Simone has a game playing on the big screen on the right, and our daily plan presented on the left.

🎮 Gioco: we continue to immerse ourselves with input and activities from Assassin’s Creed and when I came in to class a fellow student was marching Ezio around the streets of Firenze vecchio. The background music was playing, and while most students were paying attention to the game, some were paying attention to their cell phones.  I popped in a wee bit later than normal, just as Simone asked the giocatore to finire. Our classmate closed out to the main menu, and arrowed down to esci. I thought to myself ‘that means to go out or exit’. Then, ‘wait a minute, how do I know that?’ Well, even if you have just a basic knowledge of video game set up, one can configure that normally the option to ‘exit’ is listed at the bottom of the menu. However, it suddenly struck me, I knew the word from our homework last night from MyItalianLab, non-gaming related.

I just checked to make sure. There it is, clear as the non-blue sky which insists on persisting well into March 😣.  There on page 123, Chapter 4, a list of 3 irregular verbs appear, including ‘andare‘, ‘venire‘ and ‘uscire‘.

I’m sure that was no accident, the alignment in the book lesson with our gaming practices 😉

Bravo, Profe! ✅

 

 

 

Lecture followed the normal structure today:

1. Annuncio!
   Simone let us know there would be no class on il primo di aprile….🤔 I was tempted to ask if that was a joke, but he seemed serious and the reason was legitimate, so I let it go. I hope I am not April fooled!
2. Parliamo! (warm up- speaking practice in large and small groups)
3. Studiamo! (introduction to and practice of new concepts such as, grammar, vocabulary, and culture)
4. We also finished reviewing our Mid Terms, which we got back this past lunedì.

👁 Osservare: when practice together as a whole class, Simone makes it a point to call on every single student. There is no one left out, which of course has many benefits. As a teacher myself, I love this tactic, and experiencing this strategy first-hand is always a good reminder to integrate into my own practice, as it almost forces students to pay attention. If you are not paying attention and you get called on….well, your loss.

👨‍🏫 Simone: “Brown always makes you look like a hick”
As we reviewed l’abbigliamento in our conversation today we were contextualizing it with what we would wear to job interviews. Apparently in Italy men’s dress shirts are never white, but generally black or blue. Same with a woman’s power suit, dress, or really any kind of business or business casual clothing. In Italy, in this situation, the expected colors are nero, blu, azzurro, and sometimes grigio, but never marrone, because “brown always make you look like a hick”.

Speaking of clothes and colors, on ‘Wednesdays we wear’…don’t say  it…rosa. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No, but actually, on Wednesdays we have laboratorio italiano, and we always get into something fun there.

Laboratorio 4 – Using adjectives & learning about agreements (M/F, S/P)
DESCRIVI UN VIDEOGIOCO/CREA LA TUA RECENSIONE!

Today’s activity involved a worksheet, and exercises in listening, speaking, writing, research, and group work- Tutto that abbiamo bisogno for a well-rounded and fun learning environment.

1. First, we became familiar with the grammar we would need to write a proper video game review, such as vocabulary, adjectives, verbs, indirect articles both masculine and singular, etc.
   > this set us up with the linguistic resources we need to write our own review.
2. As a class we watched and listened to a recording of una recensione del gioco ‘Super Mario Sunshine‘  that Simone had prerecorded. The script was printed on the worksheet, and included a couple of blanks per line prompting us to fill in various verbs. First, we just watched the video and listened.
3.  We listened once again to the review, but this time with no visual, just audio, while we followed along on the script.
4. Next, as a class we went through the review filling in the missing verbs with their proper conjugation.
   > All of this set us up for success, as our final product was to work as a group and complete an original review of a real video game, which we will orally present next week.
   It was really good practice, and we had all of the resources we needed right there on the worksheet, such as adjectives and the model to follow. Plus, my group of 3 was very diverse in the fact that we had myself, a non-gamer whatsoever, who when asked what game she plays over the weekend, responds with ‘ho giocato correre’ o ‘gioco con le lingue’; there was also the student who is extremely into video games and who hauls around what seems like a 15-pound computer around; and, the third group member fell in the middle. She is quite neutrale, as she has more familiarity with games than I do, but can’t name all the consoles or versions. So, we were a good team.

La prossima settimana we will present our recensioni in front of the class. I will of course sound like an expert when I present on a video game in my third language…

¡Ciao!

 

The elevator pitch

I was in Georgia last weekend for a Graduate student conference and during a coffee convo with a Hispanic Linguistics professor I was asked about this class, “wait – what? Italian for Gamers?”…”Intensive Italian?”…”Gaming?”. Our chat was actually put on a brief hold while the professor took a brief time out to Google the class.  #Simoneforthewin

And, as I did my elevator pitch of this class, so many of the intentions, angles, and purposes behind all of the pedagogical strategies and methods became a lot clearer and more apparent to me. Sometimes it just takes you explaining something to someone else for you to really fully understand it in a more general way and to appreciate it from an outside perspective. Explaining the class to someone who had absolutely no idea about what it entailed allowed me to bring myself outside of the nitty-gritty details of indefinite plural articles, vocabulary, due dates, and irregular verb conjugations, and really understand the value of the class on a more comprehensive level, while zoomed out looking at it from an eagle’s perspective.

1. Everything is a complement 
   Each exercise and activity is very intentional. There is a careful balance of  content and book work from learning the basics of Italian 1 & 2, and while we are following along with the homework on MyItalianLab, our in-class activities, lab assignments, worksheets, and extra credit options on quizzes and exams, are all based around our experience playing video games.I feel like there is this parallel balance in our progression of acquiring the basic language skills and cultural awareness set forth by the book, and the new and authentic material, including tons of digital realia, that our profesore is providing. Which results in an immense, and quite quick, enrichment of our Italian knowledge and ability to apply this knowledge.
2. Real life language
   An extra skill we gain by gaming and our corresponding worksheets is exposure to language that is used in real life, including slang and informal conversations. As a language teacher I am always aiming to integrate ways in which the language is actually spoken in real life, to help motivate the students, and prepare them for real-life situations. Because, as we know, when you are on the streets of Madrid or Milan, you don’t speak vertically while reciting a memorized diagram of verb conjugations…just sayin’….For example, the following are just a few helpful real-life Italian phrases and constructions we have been exposed to from our game playing:
   • ‘Sali!’ – to get on, to climb on, to go up
   • ‘Dallo a me!’ – give it to me
   • ‘Stai vicino!’ – stay close! (*note – prepositions are part of capitolo 2 in the unit about l’università e la vita degli studenti)
   • Sei in gamba! – right on; good thinking; smart girl/guy
   • Aspetta! – wait, stop!
   • Andiamo! – let’s go! (*note – Andare is one of the first -are verbs we learned in class).
   • Fidati, ok? – Trust me. [*fidati dime]
   • Scherzi? – Are you kidding?
   • (Per) di quà – This way, over there
   • Meglio + infinitivo – to be better off doing something…like ‘meglio tornare a casa‘ – to be better off returning home.
   • Mi va – I feel like it…
   • Ti va…? – do you feel like…?
   ^ I feel like this is the equivalent to ‘tener ganas de‘ in Spanish…’to feel like doing something.’
   • Ma dove vai? – But where are you going?
   • Mi basta – it’s enough for me. p.e. ‘mi basta un caffè‘ ☕️ – just a coffee for me.
   • Viene! – come!
   • Vieni qui! – come here!
3. On the streets
   ‘Siamo nel 1476….e nel presente...’ (*millequatrocentosettantasei)
   If you are learning a second language and are unable to physically immerse yourself in an environment where the target language is primarily spoken, such as with a Study Abroad experience, or snatching up an Italian ragazz🐌, then perhaps hopping into a video game is not such a bad substitute. As language learners and instructors, we are always practicing and advising our students to watch movies and shows in the target language, listen to Podcasts, watch Telenovelas, and now some of us are trying out the ‘Language Learning with Netflix‘ Plug In. These are all effective suggestions to increase our language skills. But wouldn’t it be cool if you were actually inside of the movie, speaking and moving along with the characters? How much would that increase your exposure to the Target Language, thus improving your linguistic competency?

   Well, playing these games is almost like that. As giocatori we are plopped down onto the cobble stone streets of Firenze in 1476 moving about the world of la Repubblica Fiorentina e their nemici. We hop across roofs, speak with brothers, steal soldi 💶 to pay medical bills, shout at the enemy, hug our brothers, and even manage to sneak into the case 🏠 🏠 of our ragazze….As gicatori, not only are we able to temporarily entrar into the real world of this language and culture, but through our digital time travel, we expand our exposure to the culture as we creep into its history…

    

   ¡Ciao!

Intensive Italian for Gamers – Giorni 12 e 13

¡Ciao!

We have moved into learning l’abbigliamento 👗 👔 👕 👖and what people wear, i colori, plural indefinite articles (dei, degli, delle), bello (pretty) and quello (that), and tons of -ARE, -IRE, and –ERE verbs. We are also studying for Quiz #2 which is slated for this coming venerdì, and this past lunedì were handed a new thematic worksheet, “Lingua e cultura: Firenze nel rinascimento con Assassin’s Creed II Lezione 2 & 3″ – Describing self and others / verbs and expressions of being and actions.

Well, this is perfect because a) ❤️ adoro i vestiti e b) voglio dress up my Avatar, Polly Glot. (Yes, I am a 11). So, here we are-

Polly Glot, also ama 🖤 nero , just like me 😉

I started up this draft quite a few days ago and had to go on sabbatical for a while from writing as the spring time flings of academic work just whisked me away.

However, thank goodness Polly Glot is clothed. 😎 Although I will need to be careful since there are in fact more colors other than nero, and if Polly only wears black all the time, which she will, then I will need to find a way to incorporate other colors into her world. I plan to do this as I integrate other characters into her mondo 🌏 di molte lingue. At least when her monolingual sidekick arrives into the picture he will be another color…I am thinking he will a mammal in the simian family and of the color marrone. (*Stay tuned to meet Polly’s sidekick who speaks just one language and see how she helps him understand the importance and value in speaking more than 1 language.)

Dressing up Polly was an effective exercise in our strategy of following the content of our standard Italian Pearson book, Percorsi: L’Italia attraverso la lingua e la cultura, and complementing the content with exercises related to the world of video games. So, in capitolo tre as we learn about l’abbigliamento 👗 👔 👖👕 👠, we have the opportunity to apply and practice this new content based on our gaming theme.

An example is found in our second worksheet ‘Italiano con i videogiochi – 2 – Week 5 – Lingua e cultura: Firenze nel rinascimento con Assassin’s Creed II’. As we learn to describe ourselves and others, we also practice with our characters, such as Ezio Auditore.

As I type this up and I reflect on our work with l’abbigliamento 👗 👔 👖👕 👠 I am understanding just how many various types of input and output we have been able to produce with the structure of this course. We have our homework on MyItalianLab, which includes basic exercises such as matching and fill in in the blanks, and in class we practice as a large group, listening and responding to Simone about our real-life clothes, and then we practice as a small group. Furthermore, with activities such as those included in the language and culture worksheet based off of playing Assassin’s Creed II, and dressing up our Avatars, we are really doing everything needed in L2 learning: comprehension- reading and listening, production- writing and speaking, and of course involving the cultural component. ✅ 👍 👍

¡Ciao!

Intensive Italian for Gamers – giorno 12

¡Ciao!

Today we learned how to date an Italian, cuss at someone in an elevator, as well as come arrivarte in ritardo, desiderare un nuovo computer, frequentare l’università de Saint Louis, e imparare il italiano.

Well, we were not actually encouraged to arrive late to class, but we did manage to cover so many topics today! How is that possible in just 50 minutes? Every class goes by so fast, and every minute is utilized to the max, yet it does not feel forced at all.

#culture #context #vocab #grammar #video #speaking #listening #conjugation #videogames

No, I am not just bobbling my head around reiterating buzz words to sound smart. I am not bubbling over with neologisms as Robin does in the HIMYM episode “The Possimpible” when she makes her video interview, and since she has no catch phrase to end her broadcast, she knits together a silly string of phrases and finishes with “wear a condom”.

Wait, how does all of this fit within 50 minutes?

Magic. I suppose it’s pure magic. Nah, I suppose it’s 25+ years of teaching experience our profe has.

As a teacher of Spanish, one thing I am constantly challenged with is how to fit the incredible amount of content required for the beginning classes into the 50-minute class period. In the 3 freezing cold minutes it took to trot back to my office after class ended today, I realized how much material we have covered in just 12 class days. Sure, it has been 5 weeks and, as language learners, we are also responsible for our own learning outside of the classroom as well. But still, 5 weeks into a beginning, albeit “Intensive” language class, we are already roughly halfway through Chapter 2 discussing Le attività, le materie, le descrizione, and introductions to -IRE, -ARE, and -ERE verbs, specifically mastering Il presenti dei verbi in -ARE, like ‘parlare’, 🗣 ‘mangiare’, 🍽 and of course ‘giocare’ 🤸‍♀️ ⛹️‍♀️ 🎲 ⚽️. 

As an avid player of calcio ⚽️, tonight I’ll be practicing the paradigm of Il tempo presente del verbo giocare, plus it makes practical sense, since we use that verb about ventidue times per class.

It also appears that it will prove useful to quickly master fare. (Fare is the equivalent to hacer (to do; to make) in Spanish.)

But back to class today –

It was fun, it went so quickly, and we practiced a wide variety of concepts.

1. Sempre we start con gli annunci as any thorough and helpful teacher will do.
2. Then we reviewed previously learned concepts including, verbs, idioms, and vocabulary from our worksheet  “Lingua e cultura: Firenze nel Rinascimento con Assassin’s Creed II“, and viewed a few minutes of the corresponding demo video. Which is how we ended up in un ascensore shouting out as a class ”Stai vicino‘, ‘Sei in gamba‘, ‘Aspetta!”, and ‘Scherzi?“, among other items.
   • Stai vicino > stay close!
   • Sei in gamba > ‘you’re bright’  / ‘you’re good’
   • Aspetta! > Wait!
   • Scherzi? > Are you kidding?

   [*Play the game, and you’ll find out the other colloquial terms…😉 which you can feel free to use the next time you are running through a wire-y, cage-like building, covered in blood, looking hot af, revisiting the memories of your ancestors, and fighting off Templari, while una bella ragazza italiana tells you to ‘chiudi il becco‘. 🐦

   We also reviewed and practiced  ‘mi piace‘ and ‘mi piacciono‘. Yet this time, in the context of Valentine’s Day.

   • Ti piace San Valentino? 😍 
   Mi piace / non mi piace / amo / odio / è così così / fa schifo (< oh! new word!)
   • Sei romantico/a? 😘
   Si, son romantico/a. / No, non sono romantico/a.

   👁 osservare: it is such good practice to reinforce concepts learned through authentic applications.

   Such as when Simone was going over the annunci del giorno and he was talking about the Italian tutor available on campus. In form of announcements, he reminded us that she is available at this time and how to make an appointment wither, and that ‘ella si chiama Martina‘, ‘lei è simpatica‘, ‘lei è intelligente‘, ‘lei è italiana e perfettamente bilingue‘.

   Oh, I see what you did there. Using what we had studied in our homework last night in a real-life context, hmmmm….sneaky, sneaky Simone. 👨‍🏫

   Last night one of our homework pages consisted of description words , such as….
   • allegro/a – alegre – cheerful
   • antipatico/a – antipatico/a – disagreeable, unpleasant
   • avaro/a – tacaño – stingy
   • bravo/a – bueno/a – good; trustworthy, talented
   • buffo/a – divertido/a – funny
   ….and so on…

👨‍🏫 Simone: “Welcome to dating in Italy” (Cultural input)

• il mio ragazzo 👨‍💼
• la mia ragazza 👩‍💼

• il/la mio/a partner
• il/la mio/a compagno/a

• il mio fidanzato > engaged / committed one
• la mia fidanzata > engaged / committed one

• mio marito > husband
• mia moglie  > wife

So, from my take on today regarding arriving to ‘going steady with someone’, the dating process is different in Italy than it is here in the US. When you are interested in dating someone, the first part of the relationship does not necessarily consist of individual dates where the two interested parties go out for dinner, or to the Zoo, or an art opening, or out for drinks, or whatever people do for first-stage dating these days….But you go out with their friends and hang out in a group for a while. Only then if you “hit if off”, have you arrived to the ‘il mio ragazzo / la mia ragazza‘ stage.

While we had practiced le attività last night for homework, we made sure to go over it as a class, so we could hear pronunciation, and be in a situation that facilitated practicing the new words in context.

Examples of these new verbs are…
• abitare – vivir – to live
• arrivare – llegar – to arrive
• aspettare – esperar – to wait for
• desiderare – desear – to desire
• incontrare – encontrar – to meet
• lavorare – trabajar – to work
• pensare – pensar – to think

This followed with practicing groups of useful words when discussing life in l’università such as le materie e le descrizione delle materie.

Then, we practiced this new phrases in small groups for a bit.

We closed out the class by playing the game we had been working on the worksheet, Assassin’s Creed II. Simone has a student use la controle and andare through the game, while he comments on words, phrases, and we pay attention as a class, repeating, reading, listening, and commenting on il gioco.

When you were a kid wasn’t watching someone else play il videogioco the worst? Didn’t it make your eye balls bleed and your hands jitter around as you desideri giocare? Watching someone else play your favorite gioco, didn’t it just make you want to scream silently “that’s not how I would do it” or “you’re going the wrong way!”, “ughhhh 🙄 🙄 🙄 🙄 🙄 🙄 🙄 “, “DESIDERO GIOCARE!!!! This is mia console e il mio gioco, why did this kid even have to come over after school? He didn’t even eat his Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich….🙄”

[*I remember when I was in middle school every Wednesday I would go over to my friend’s house. They had all the Nintendo 64 games. My favorite was Mario Kart, well that’s probably because that is the only game I knew how to play. But, we would hop off the school bus, let our zaini 🎒 🎒 🎒 fall to the kitchen floor, whip up some toaster strudel, smother them with icing, and fall over each other running down the carpet stairs to the family game room and crowd around the TV, and grab up the le console. But…the weekly problem…quattro fratello e quattro amici e quattro console.…🤷‍♀️ I guess that is a) when math really started to frustrate me, “8 amici – 4 console = 4 amici that cannot play il gioco, and b) when I learned how to practice patience and politeness, as I was a guest in someone else’s house. Of course I don’t mind sitting here on the couch politely watching you all race around the track, that sounds like a gas].

Well, this end-of-class-play-Assasin’s Creed-and-learn-Italian-at-the-same-time-experience is not that. There is a so much else to focus on, and this activity is really for just a few minutes at the end of class to wrap it all together in a fun, interactive, and contextualized way. Well, as I am writing this, just because I am not feeling a maddening desire to rip la console out of my classmate’s hands, doesn’t mean that other students aren’t feeling that way… 🤔 I am sure the 12-year old will come out in all of us, just wait…🤗

In signing off today, I shall keep with today’s theme of  relationships and love. 

love  > amore ❤️

relationship > relazione 👫 👭 👬 

You know, they say, yes, the infamous ‘they’, say a “smile is the universal language”; and in 2004 Cady Herron so “deeply” informed us that she liked math ‘because it’s the same in every country’. Well, none of this is ‘wrong’, but you know cultural concept I think transcends borders?

…pizza. 🍕

Has anyone ever said the word ‘pizza’ to you and it didn’t involve bread and melted cheese? Plus some other kind of delicious topping? If they did, it might because they were bored with you…

🇮🇹 cultura: the idiomatic phrase in Italian ‘Che pizza!‘ can be be synonymous for ‘what a bore’  • ‘Che barba!‘ can also indicate the same meaning , ‘what a bore!’.

“Che pizza!” / “Che barba!” > this conversation is taking so long and is so boring I am literally growing a beard right now (*make sure to include a hand gesture stroking your beard).

…

¡Ciao!

Intensive Italian for Gamers – giorni 9, 10 e 11

¡ciao!

Otto giorni since I have written about Italian 1200. Perché so many giorni have passed, and why have they passed so quickly? Perché that is what time does. It moves forward at its own pace. It is a constant pace, that oh 👆, human beings have set forth for us to keep our lives organized. Which I am totally fine with, of course. Being a mixture of mostly Welsh, German, and a wee bit o’ Swedish, I definitely love a good ol’ prompt time schedule. But the thing about time is that it keeps going, and if you are not on the time train, and swaddled in for the ride, then you may just get left behind. Perhaps you’ll catch ahold of the caboose with one hand, or even trot along the tracks with a satchel slung over your shoulder. Either way, the point is – to stay productive, successful, and ahead of the game, or at least on par with the pace, and remember that sometimes the non-essential things have to take a backseat.

Should I quit it with the transportation metaphors?

I think so.

🇮🇹 cultura:
Speaking of le metafore, last Thursday was Italian Movie night. The SLU Italian Club hosted a viewing of Il Postino (The Postman). What an utterly romantic movie full of metaphors, accidental and di proposito. The film is romantic in the beauty of its geographical location and because of the people; of course, the euphonic nature of the Italian language makes the script swirl, drip, and flow like melted cheese and chocolate. The film is also quite comedic. Comedic in language and in the lives of the personaggi. Although all of this beauty, language, and life is somewhat triste 😢 at the same time. I suppose it is because when we really take a moment to breathe in and gaze at the mare 🌊 🏝, life is bella e triste, as it ebbs and flows, just like the mare. 

‘Mario Ruoppolo: Beatrice, il tuo sorriso si allarga come una farfalla. 🦋
[Your smile spreads across your face like a butterfly.]
…..
Donna Rosa: L’ha scaldata come un forno con le sue metafore.
[He’s heated her up like an oven with his metaphors.]

👨‍🏫 simone: + 👁 osservare:

Our lab activity on mercoledì 6 febbraio was quite enjoyable, helpful, fun, motivational, and challenging. The activity involved reading comprehension, pronunciation practice, group work, critical thinking & problem solving as we worked out linguistic ‘riddles’, drawing from our knowledge base of cognates (English<>Italian), words we may already know, and context.

Allora, I’ll tell you –

• Che cosa?
  The task was to 1), leggere 📖 📘  by yourself the text below (which was a recensione (review) of  ‘Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap’, 2) leegere the text with a partner out loud. I took turns reading the text with a studente chiamato, Antonio. 3) Then, together, we passed through the text once more deciphering meaning and figuring out what we understood. We were not to use any translation devices, but rather try to understand as much of the text as we could based on using cognates, our previous knowledge, and contextualization. “Use what you know, and your intuition.” It was a really good exercise, which allowed us to practice reading comprehension, as well as vocabulary and pronunciation practice. To finish up, we were asked to answer if the review is positive, negative or in between, as well as provide a general meaning.

The last step was to test our pronunciation with Automatic Speech Recognition software. Individually we recorded the review into a program called iSpraak, which immediately gives you a % score based on your speaking (native-like pronunciation, intelligibility, etc.). The software also provides concrete examples of words from the text that need pronunciation improvement. You can click on the word, which provides a recording of a native speaker saying the specific word, so you have an opportunity to improve right in the moment. It is quite helpful. I achieved a 91%.

It was fun, challenging, relevant in content to the class’s theme, and a good way to connect with compagni di classe 👨‍💻 👩‍💻 🙋‍♂️ 🙋‍♀️. Additionally, while some skills were more prominent the exercise involved every aspect of language learning: reading, listening, writing, speaking, and culture.

On venerdì we took a quiz 1°. It was exactly as Simone said it would be- language concepts discussed in class and studied at home. There was also an extra credit section based off of the gaming vocabulary, grammar, phrases, and commands we have learned so far.

Per esempio,

On lunedì, il 11 febbraio, we got our quizzes back. I was definitely pleased, and I also chuckled, with the myriad of smiley faces present. Of course it wasn’t perfect, but with the extra credit opportunities, and my chicken scratch verb conjugation paradigms scrawled in the margins of the quiz, I did not do so bad.

Remember those teachers who measured and assessed your competence based on what you do know, and not what you don’t know? Do you remember how that made you feel motivated and accomplished and not dragged down and bummed out? Well, Simone is a teacher of the former, looking for what you do know. #motivation

Of course, to do well on the quiz it was necessary to study and show competence in what we have been studying, but we had many opportunities to show what we know, and that is always preferred. Every human is different and assessment can be a tricky thing. Two things I enjoyed as a student, and observed as a language teacher:

1. Test on what and how you are taught
   Were you taught something by hearing it? Test it aurally.
   Were you taught something by writing it down? Test it by writing.
   Of course we need to be flexible and remember that mirroring teaching and assessing 100% cannot always be performed due to logistics, time constraints, etc. but the variety of types of exercises in the quiz, showed appreciation of that. ✅
2. Observe what students know and set them up for success
   Without giving away Simone’s tricks of the trade, although I am sure he will Tweet them later (🐦 @bregni1), any effort you make on a quiz, whether it be a side note to yourself in the margin, and as long as you know the basic concepts of the unit themes, using code-switching (native language <> Italian) when completing full sentences in Italian (because let’s face it, this is Italian 1), it is worth attempting! #showhatyouknownotwhatyoudontknow

Oggi è mercoledì 13 febbraio,
and we were introduced to -ARE, -IRE, -ERE verbs.

“Wait, introduction? Simone, we have seen these before and actually know how to use a few of them. ”

👨‍🏫 Simone: (with un occhiolino 😉) “this isn’t my first rodeo”.

Okay, our Native Italian professor did not use a phrase I picked up when I moved to Texas, but you get the idea.

We are in settimana quattro, and have already been tested on basic greetings and conversation points, present tense conjugation of a few very pertinent verbs, subject pronouns,  days of the week, months of the year, numbers, indefinite and definite articles, and subject-noun-adjective agreement. #i+1 💣 Boom.

Today’s Lab activity was educational, fun, motivational, interactive, and of course sparked a ton of ideas for my own teaching.

Kahoot!

I have used Kahoot! as a Spanish teacher, but have yet to use it as an official student. In lab today we started off with a little friendly competition by engaging in a class wide Kahoot! quiz, which is always fun. This allowed us to practice and review concepts, as well as familiarize ourself with this digital platform.

Then we grouped up and created our own 5 question quiz based on content from the class.

As a learner, (io) dico “eccellente!”
As una professoressa, (io) dico 👩‍🏫 “note to future teaching self aka “Almost-Dr. Jones”: remember to engage the students more in teaching each other what they are currently learning. Teaching is the best way to learn!

Ultima cosa,
We have had this worksheet that we have been working on over the course of the past week: “Lingua e cultura: Firenze nel Rinascimento con Assassin’s Creed II“. Each day in class there is time dedicated to working on it. There are opportunities to engage in reading & listening comprehension, writing, vocabulary, and Italian slang. While we are expected to complete it on our own and turn it in this coming Friday, each day in lecture we go over certain sections as a class, and Simone provides the tools to set us up for success. I think the integration of this worksheet works well. It does not drag on or take up too much time in class, but complements other activities. We also work on it together as a team and profe makes sure we have the tools and resources necessary to understand the plot line of the story, in order to complete the worksheet. So far the pacing and expectations of this class are definitely manageable, yet I still feel challenged with quality content.

¡ciao!

Ma, aspetta, un’altra cosa:

I am also a huge fan of incorporating music and digital realia in my own language classroom, which we also get every day in Simone’s class. As I’ve mentioned before in my Spanish classes part of the Rutina diaria includes a song in Spanish.

Our Italian song today is a great one!
Check out the song  $ ‘Soldi‘ 💶 by Italian musical artist, Mahmood. He’s egiziano-italiano, quite talented, and this song is super catchy!

Plus, there is a bilingual italiano-inglese lyric version which will help us catch on even more.

P.S.
Anche, I have to sneak this in, because it’s just so fun-
‘Pablo Neruda: You’ve invented a metaphor! Yes, you have.
Mario Ruoppolo: Really? But it doesn’t count because I didn’t mean to.
Pablo Neruda: Meaning is not important. Images arise simultaneously.’

P.P.S.
Over the course of these 4 weeks, an idea has been brewing in my mind into what my final project may evolve. Hints: Polly Glot + Mono. That’s all I will say for today.

(If any of the Italian is wrong. Please remember I am a beginner. Grazie!)

Intensive Italian for Gamers – Giorno 8

lunedì, 4 di febbraio

¡Ciao!

🇮🇹 cultura: “Let’s play a game, it’s called ‘how Italian are you?'”

My dear readers,
all _#insert very large number here#_ of you, why don’t we play a game together?
Hold up your hand in front of you. You don’t need to cover your face with, just hold it out there. Then on the count of tre, actually count to 3 using your fingers.
Pronto?…set?…andare?…
uno…due…tre!

uno 👆
due ✌️
tre 🤟

Now, look down at your hand, which three fingers are you holding up?

Do you have your index, middle, and ring finger raised?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or, did you use your thumb, index, and middle finger?

Well, if you are a native Italian, or European, or perhaps you possess any type of European heritage, or are even a budding Europhile (such as myself), you may have proceeded using the second example.

It is after all, what blew their cover in the sparatutto scene in Inglourious Basterds….So, if you are going to pose as a highly-ranked officer in the German army, you might want to make sure you can count to three. Well, really that you know how to properly count to three…

Okay, back to Italian. And enough with the math, numbers, and counting…

👄 lingua:
Today I felt slightly slighted by Spanish. Spanish has been my dear friend for so long and has really only helped me out. Hah, it is definitely continuing to do so, but today I noticed I was on the struggle bus with a few words that are not cognates in Italian, but really false friends, or, just, well, hard to remember (as of now):

• più > más > more
• ma > pero > but
• hai > (tu) form of avere in the present (tener > to have)
• c’è? > hay > there is / there are (< Pronunciation as in Che Guevara)

Additionally, when Simone was asking un altro studente “hai una console?“, my brain was slightly stuck in this Spantalian limbo and I was registering the Spanish phrase “¿hay una consola?”, which would be “is there a console?”. And of course, I was trying to rationalize why this could be with thoughts like… maybe there was a change in context that I didn’t register, and why is he asking him if there is one when he’s looking right at him, and we can all see there is a console in the room…Inside my brain was screaming: “I DON’T UNDERSTAND!”…this whole thought process actually happened in about .5 seconds, until I realized il nostro professore was asking my classmate, “hai una console?” (¿tienes una console? > do you have a console?).

To begin class, as a warm up, in our small groups we took turns asking and and answering the following phrases:

• Quale giorno ti piace? Mi piace… > ¿Cuál día te gusta? Me gusta…
• Quale giorno non ti piace? Non mi piace… > ¿Cuál día no te gusta? No me gusta…
• E quali mesi? > y ¿cuál mes?
• Hai giocato nel fine settimana? A cosa? > ¿Jugaste algo este fin de semana? ¿Qué?
• Si, ho giocato...> Sí, jugué…
• No, non ho giocato. > No, no jugué.

That which I did do though?
Ho giocato correre e ho esercitato…Although I have no idea if that was the correct grammatical structure, that is what I said in class, and of course Simone responded with some pumping of his arms, and what appeared to be “jogging” (?) in place…so, even if the grammar was not correct my message had come across, based on my interlocutor’s reaction, and that is all we can really hope for in learning a second language, no?

👁 osservare: conducting an Italian class is a lot like working out, what with all the gesturing and running in place.

👩‍🏫 *Note to future teaching self aka “Almost-Dr. Jones”: If you are not a tad winded and a little bit glistening when finishing up teaching your Spanish class, you may need to up your movement and gesture game.  #totalphysicalresponse

Today’s post is a bit shorter than I would like because I am off to finish up our first worksheet on gaming…vocabulary, phrases, etc.

il gioco/i giochi = the game / the games
I giochi su console/i giochi su PC = Games on console/games on PC
I giochi di azione; di avventura; di piattaforma; di guida (driving)
Il livello = The level

I have only finished the first section of vocabulary, thus I am off to…
Completa i nomi con gli articoli indefiniti (un, uno, una, un’) corretti:
___ videogioco; ___ avventura; ___ storia; ___ personaggio; ___ parte.

¡Ciao!