It’s 66 degrees on the front porch, sweats, socks, giant bowl mug of cappuccino, (gentle breezes, you know the deal), the Sicilian stylings of Carmen Consoli floating out of an open window. In putting together a grocery list for some weekend entertaining, between e-mails, I just conjugated a dessert. If anyone can conjugate a dessert it’s this girl. How? Or more importantly ... why? And who does this?
I won’t mention any names, but SOMEONE came home after a hike the other day and wrote out all the lyrics to 883’s Una Canzone D’Amore. It was rife with with modo congiuntivo, condizionale, futuro semplice & composto (bunch o’ different ways of using the same darned verb). All conditional in tense: If I knew how to say it, I would write you a love song; I would like to draw my dreams on the blackboard of your heart ... sigh ... cool lyrics (which I was SO happy to understand) but grammar geek fun to boot!
Geez – it’s taking me forever to nail down the gazillion conditional verb forms, but piano piano (slowly, slowly) it's sinking in.
!
!!
!!!
You have to understand this joy as just a few months ago I was sitting at my friend’s kitchen table in Florence thinking, “Questi verbi mi stanno uccidendo.” (These verbs are K.I.L.L.I.N.G me.) At least we know I can gerund tutto la giornata (all day long). But stubborn, passionate Capricorn presses on.
This brings to mind one of my favorite quotes from the film, GI Jane: “The more (these verbs) f*** with me, the more I want to gut it out.” [I’m sure you can guess my other favorite quote from this film.] Hey – maybe I’m GI Jane of Italian-language learning?! Laugh now, but “back in the day” if we were doing sit-ups next to each other, I assure you, you'd have stopped laughing while I was still knocking them out.
Maybe someday I’ll be able to say, “Remember back in the day, I couldn’t string three sentences of Italian together without tripping over a genderized article or verb form?” Then, and only then, as I continue to knock out more sentences, will I bring out the other favorite GI Jane quote [go figure, potty mouth CAN say THAT in Italian, as the parolaccia (cusswords) came quite easily.]
I will openanother a bottle of something fabulous, befitting the occasion, throw a big party, complete with my signature dessert: Tiramisu.
Check it: Se fossi un dolce, sarei un tiramisu. (If I were a dessert, I would be a tiramisu.) Shack, bitches!
Tira = 3rd person singular conjugation of the verb Tirare (to pull)
Mi = 1st person singular reflexive pronoun (me)
Su = “On” and also used as a directional “up” (Props to Italian Yoga classes: “Guardare su” = “look up”)
Translation: “Pick me up” (as in a lift, as in "Tirare su il morale" means "to cheer up").
There are many legends – and disputes – about the history of this dessert – and really, that’s a whole other topic. I just want to lovinglyconjugate make this for my friends and roll around in eat it.
See how sweet learning languages can be? I’ll post more later on how I lifted my Tiramisu recipe up with an Antique Reserva from the Barossa Valley.
I won’t mention any names, but SOMEONE came home after a hike the other day and wrote out all the lyrics to 883’s Una Canzone D’Amore. It was rife with with modo congiuntivo, condizionale, futuro semplice & composto (bunch o’ different ways of using the same darned verb). All conditional in tense: If I knew how to say it, I would write you a love song; I would like to draw my dreams on the blackboard of your heart ... sigh ... cool lyrics (which I was SO happy to understand) but grammar geek fun to boot!
Geez – it’s taking me forever to nail down the gazillion conditional verb forms, but piano piano (slowly, slowly) it's sinking in.
!
!!
!!!
You have to understand this joy as just a few months ago I was sitting at my friend’s kitchen table in Florence thinking, “Questi verbi mi stanno uccidendo.” (These verbs are K.I.L.L.I.N.G me.) At least we know I can gerund tutto la giornata (all day long). But stubborn, passionate Capricorn presses on.
This brings to mind one of my favorite quotes from the film, GI Jane: “The more (these verbs) f*** with me, the more I want to gut it out.” [I’m sure you can guess my other favorite quote from this film.] Hey – maybe I’m GI Jane of Italian-language learning?! Laugh now, but “back in the day” if we were doing sit-ups next to each other, I assure you, you'd have stopped laughing while I was still knocking them out.
Maybe someday I’ll be able to say, “Remember back in the day, I couldn’t string three sentences of Italian together without tripping over a genderized article or verb form?” Then, and only then, as I continue to knock out more sentences, will I bring out the other favorite GI Jane quote [go figure, potty mouth CAN say THAT in Italian, as the parolaccia (cusswords) came quite easily.]
I will open
Check it: Se fossi un dolce, sarei un tiramisu. (If I were a dessert, I would be a tiramisu.) Shack, bitches!
Tira = 3rd person singular conjugation of the verb Tirare (to pull)
Mi = 1st person singular reflexive pronoun (me)
Su = “On” and also used as a directional “up” (Props to Italian Yoga classes: “Guardare su” = “look up”)
Translation: “Pick me up” (as in a lift, as in "Tirare su il morale" means "to cheer up").
There are many legends – and disputes – about the history of this dessert – and really, that’s a whole other topic. I just want to lovingly
See how sweet learning languages can be? I’ll post more later on how I lifted my Tiramisu recipe up with an Antique Reserva from the Barossa Valley.
your post reminded me of my 4th grade in Italy.
ReplyDeleteMy teacher was vaguely insane and over Christmas she gave us to "coniugare tutti i tempi, persone e modi: attivo passivo e riflessivo" of 9 verbs.
It ended up with the whole family madly scribbling verbs on the last day of vacation.
It also remained as a family joke as one of the verb was "risurreggere" which I have only encountered in all my life in the phrase "Cristo e` risorto".
Well I must say that "coniugare tiramisu" would have been a lot easier and meaningful!
Funny you mentioned 4th grade - I was chatting with my friend tonight thinking I am probably somewhere around the equivalent of a 3rd grader (a slow one at that) in my language skill development. Conjugation - "fun for the whole family" - love it!
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