Workshop
Addressees: Independent learners. Teachers feel free to use the example for teaching.
An example of how to proceed:
- Choose a text in your bridge language, here English, and familiarize yourself roughly with the topic. Now, for example, choose an Italian text (“unknown” target language), for example on the city of Rome and its rich history.
Rome is the capital city of Italy and a special commune (named Comune di Roma Capitale) (municipality). Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region. With 2,868,782 residents, it is also the country’s most populated comune. It is the fourth-most populous city in the European Union within city limits. It is the centre of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents. Rome is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio (Latium), along the shores of the Tiber. The Vatican City (the smallest country in the world) is an independent country inside the city boundaries of Rome, the only existing example of a country within a city: for this reason Rome has been often defined as capital of two states.
Roma è la città capitale d’Italia e un municipio (una comune) speciale (chiamata Comune di Roma Capitale). Roma serve anche come capitale della regione di Lazio. Con 2.868.782 residenti è anche la comune la più popolata del paese. È la quarta città la più popolata nell’Unione Europea all’interno di confini urbani. È il centro della Città Metropolitana di Roma che ha una popolazione di 4.3 millioni di residenti. Roma è situata nella parte centro-occidentale della penisola italiana con Lazio, lungo la ripa del Tevere. La Città del Vaticano (il paese più piccolo nel mondo) è un paese indipendente all’interno dei confini della città, l’unico esempio esistente di uno stato all’interno di una città. Per questo, Roma è sovente stata definita come una capitale di due stati.
- Compare the two texts and note the “equivalents”: a) vocabulary: Rome-Roma, is-è, city-città, capital-capitale, region-regione, residents-residenti, populated-popolata, European Union-Unione Europea, commune-comune, along-lungo, existing-esistente… “Differences”: also-anche, named-chiamata, country-paese, within-nell’interno, limits-confini, of-di, has-ha, the-la/il, locate-situata (local-locale), a-una/un/uno, shores-ripa (riva) (cf. river), for this-per questo, often-sovente et cetera; b) grammar: “similarities” between English and Italian: subject-predicate object (word order); in Italian, adjectives agree with the noun in terms of number and gender (like French: una città popolata; which-che: relative pronouns, conjugation patterns: serve, è,…; word formation: contraction of preposition + article nel < in+il (cf. fr. du<de+le, au<à+le). Already now you will develop questions about Italian. For example: Does Italian distinguish between the who versus which, concerning relative pronouns)?
- Do you know French? Does it help? Sovente-souvent, la più populata-la plus peuplée-the most populated, per-pour… Note: French helps you to understand Italian in many ways.
- Translate the Italian text word for word into French.
- Watch out for false friends: en. independent-it. indipendent; are en. located, fr. localisé and localizzata actually synonyms (consult dictionaries)? Create a list of false friends.
- Now open up the pronunciation of Italian. Relax. Listen to the world-famous song “Arrivederci Roma“, sung in Italian by Vittorio Grigolo. And at first only the following text section:
- Orient yourself to the pronunciation at the following points: Which syllables are stressed? Which letters and letter combinations are spoken and how? How are double consonants pronounced? Also take a look at the pronunciation rules of Italian . Pay attention to c+h, g+h as well as au ce-, ci-, ca-, co-, cu-. Find word examples. The ‘rules’ and regularities are part of the hypothesis grammar.
Tools: immortalò.The form is a passato remoto. To clear your questions and language hypotheses, you can of course use a minimal grammar.
