Italian Class Today

For some strange reason, I got to class this morning quite convinced that I had turned in my grammar work early last Thursday! Now, where this idea came from I don’t know but I was so convinced that I wasn’t even the slightest bit perturbed that it wasn’t in my assignments folder. But, apparently according to la prof, I hadn’t! She told me I could turn it is with no penalty on Thursday. I KNOW I have done it! I just hope I can find it but if I have to do it all over again, I will. But, on a happier note, I got 98 for my last oral report– the one  on what I am going to do for my project…

Today’s class was mostly about the use of the possessive pronouns. In Italian, when you want to write or say "my family" it is "la mia famiglia." This literally is "the my family." Apparently the articles are always used with the nouns {and the pronouns.} However, there is an exception. {You knew that, didn’t you! } If you are referring to one member of your immediate family, say, your mother, you would say "mia madre" rather than "la mia madre." This is true for father, mother, son, daughter…all the close relatives. Incidentally, the pronoun takes the gender of the noun. So, my father is "mio padre" and my mother is "mia madre" regardless of the gender of the person referred to by the pronoun. I mean, wouldn’t  you think that if the "my" was a female, the pronoun referring to her would be feminine? But, noooooo! It is a grammar rule rather than common sense!. Of course, this problem is avoided in English because "my" is not gender specific! Another interesting fact about Italian. Like English, the separate names for male and female occupations are on their way out. Most Italian actors, for example, are referred to by the masculine noun which I cannot now remember and which I am too lazy to get up and find! A notable exception to this, la prof said, is that a guide, whether male or female is "la guida." It was a good and interesting lesson. We did a bit of asking each other questions about our family and reporting to the class two sentences about the people we interviewed. About Michaela I said that she had one brother named Michael {Michaela ha uno fratello si chiama Michael} and her mother worked in a bank. {La madre di Michaela lovora della banco. "} The person who interviewed me was told {in Italian, no less albeit halting Italian } I have two sons and what their names are!  I came home and slept for two hours! I actually didn’t mean to sleep that long but I obviously needed it.

Tonight is the book club meeting. The book is Guns over the Champlain Valley which I approached with a lot of trepidition but as I skimmed through it, I discovered was not actually a dull and boring book about local battles but more along the lines of a local guide book. It is still not a book I would have chosen to read but it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was interested to read about Battery Park in Burlington because I have been there and about the various places in Bennington where I have also been. So, not my choice of book, but not anywhere near as dry and dull as I thought it was going to be. I don’t dislike history per se but if I have to read it, I prefer it to be about people rather than battle sites.

Until later….