Ignorance Is Bliss, Not!

I love the Italian language. Really I do, it is just that it is so time consuming to learn! Italian is rich with words, often there are at least 5 different words with the same meanings. And don’t let me get started on the verb conjugation issue! Just thinking of it exhausts me. But when you listen to Italians speak... it is always a pleasure. The way the words are pronounced, it is like poetry, fluid and moving.
So... as a very naughty student should do after an extended time of laziness, I am properly penitent and am going to commit to studying more. I have decided (after first gauging my ability by reading a few pages) to read this book.

It seems interesting. I plan to read at least three pages a day, and believe me, that is plenty! It will take me a while to look up the words in the dictionary that I can’t figure out by sentence context. And that brings me to this next photo:

This Italian/English dictionary is "the weight of my ignorance." I weighed it folks. This is 2.5 kilos of ignorance! It equals many many long hours of studying. I will need to keep it near me while I read the other book. The only danger is getting sidetracked. I know from experience I will look up a word, and then out of curiosity look at the next... and soon I am in my own little wordy world. I probably shouldn’t admit to occasionally reading the dictionary... I am afraid I sound like a vocabulary geek, but ... Italian is so interesting!!! Here are some eloquent words as an example: sospiro - sigh, amore - love, sussurro - whisper, baci - kisses, piangere - cry. Don’t they just sound poetic? But Italian can be tricky... even if it sounds beautiful to your English speaking self. Doesn’t Ascella sound like an elegant or exotic name for a woman? It’s not. It means armpit.