I can't explain why I want to go to Italy, but I figure if I do my part now, perhaps the Lord can open some doors for me when the time is right.
A door has opened.
Henry was not loving junior high and I couldn't see the benefit of pushing through it. He's been taking just 3 classes and homeschooling the rest. With his school schedule flexible, I thought perhaps we should take his education to the next level and study abroad! Perhaps if I spend a few weeks in Italy, not just popping in to see all the tourist sites, I can get past the mental block on speaking and hearing the language. Realizing the Olympics would be there during our stay was the last push we needed to just DO IT.
Henry is very invested in competitive mountain biking now and refuses to miss any of the outdoor training season. I also want to be available to start my garden on time, so we decided to brave the colder weather and go to Italy mid-January to March. Our last life abroad was Seven on Sabbatical, but this experience amplifies the challenge with a foreign language, and we'll be there seven weeks, so I'm calling this blog 7x7. (How meaningful that my last post on that blog is "Ancora Imparo" which means "I am still learning" in Latin/Italian. I am doing more of it now!)
I dabbled in learning some Italian during the pandemic, but it wasn't much. I found a new Pimsleur* program this spring that has really launched my speaking and comprehension forward. I can do the lessons while I wash dishes, work in the yard, or drive. Even if I don't master the language, I've already deepened my understanding of many English words by learning more about their latin origins, especially pertaining to spiritual usage in the scriptures.
I grappled with this a long time. I bought the tickets and then canceled them twice. I have to give up teaching my classes at BYU and all of those students enrolled had to make other plans. It's expensive! But in the end, I decided this is an incredible opportunity for both Henry and I. It is mission preparation for me, and who knows what else. It's memory making for us to do together. And it's mission and life preparation for Henry. We will encounter a lot of anxiety producing moments navigating a foreign country, but we'll figure it out together. I hope that having his mom by his side while we handle those situations can somehow transfer to when he branches out on his own and I can't be with him. And if you decide to follow along with us, I hope it's enriching for you! Whenever I wrote travel blog posts before, I always tried bring it to life in a real way for anyone reading so they could feel like they were with us.
In preparation. as I continue the lessons I started, I have daily conversations with a native speaker who is in the U.S. for the purpose of learning English. We are helping each other, but she is mostly helping me because she is very good at English. She also speaks Spanish and Portuguese! She is very kind and patient. She speaks very fast and I try to catch the gist of it. But then she ends her sentence and looks at me and I think maybe she asked me a question that I'm supposed to answer and I'm terrified. "Mi dispiace. Non lo capisco. Ripeti, per favore. Puì lento."
Henry has also been using the same program to learn Italian. He has been studying Italian history and art, as well as the same Latin/Greek root words program I used for my older children. All of them have come back and told me how valuable that basic information has been to them.
We leave in 7 weeks! Partiamo sette settimane!
*I paid for the premium annual subscription. Cheaper than movie subscriptions, and I can share it with family. Henry is also learning with it, and my daughter can use it for her Korean studies.
Comments
Post a Comment