Ciao a tutti!

Welcome Melinda!

Thanks a lot for your support

Why did you move to Italy? Our favourite poll is here: Why did you move to a foreign country?

Is Italian complicated to learn?

Take care,

Julien

Thanks, Julien!

I moved to Italy with my husband because we are both independent programmers (I do web and database work and my husband does database work). We work on many projects in the US and we decided to come to Italy for awhile because we work from home (you have to love the Internet!). I had lived in Florence previously by myself from 1997-1999. My husband had never lived outside the US, so it's a great experience for him too!

Italian is fairly complicated because of the verb conjugations, the different expressions that vary depending on the region, as well as the accents and dialects too. I already speak French, but I don't think it helped me too much (except maybe for some of the grammatical rules and some words "look" similar) and certainly it hindered me from pronouncing the Italian words properly. Initially some people believed that I might be French because they said I had a slight French accent, but I think that finally wore off. :-)

The verb conjugations are a real killer because in French you can get away with saying, "Je voulais que qu'il aille...", but in Italian, you have to say "Volevo che lui andasse...". (How many people in France have you heard say, "Je voulais qu'il allât...?") So the second subjunctive verb is in the past as well. It must agree with the time of the first. So, it's like learning double verbs!

I sound like a total nerd...but I love grammar and am a major perfectionist...so I am still learning more each day!

Thanks again, Julien!

Take care,
Melinda.

You're very welcome Melinda

Another IT specialist on board I worked as freelance web programer/SEO in Spain last year

Are you working with American companies? Has it been complicated to set up your activity in Italy?

I know what you mean with french grammar, it is very complicated!

I try to learn everyday too! And that's what I do with this website

I know that I'm very fortunate. I've been working freelance for about 4 years, so I didn't "see" my clients much. Moving "across the pond" wasn't too big in the end. :-)

I keep in contact via Internet and iChat (instant messenger).

French grammar is complicated, but Italian goes a little beyond that. In my opinion, Italian makes French seem easy! They have so many expressions and local variations of words that you just can't stop learning.

It doesn't seem like you have much to learn for the website...it's really fantastic! I love the map, by the way. :-)

Take care,
Melinda.

Italian, French, Spanish ... have the same Latin origins, so once you know one language, you can more or less understand the others

At the moment I am working on a new design for the website, I'd like to make it CSS and XHTML compliant ... you'll see the results very soon! Next step will be to administrate a customize a Linux server and secure it, in order to launch the blog platform

All the best,

Julien

I don't know Spanish, but I think you might be able to understand a little bit, but to really be fluent, I think that relying on Latin origins will not help much. But, I must admit that a few Spanish tourists walked by me the other day and I could make out a tiny bit, but I certainly wouldn't say I could fully understand them.

Good luck...sounds great! Have a look at CSS Zen Garden, if you don't already know it. It's pretty awesome!

http://www.csszengarden.com/

Take care,
Melinda.

Melinda wrote:

I think that relying on Latin origins will not help much.

That's true, it doesn't help much!

I studied Latin three years a long time ago, it helped me a little bit to understand Spanish, Catalan, and my mother tongue! I think I could understand a few word in Italian but I am not sure ...

I had a quick look to CSS Zen Garden a while ago, yes it's awesome, I should spend more time on this website

Julien wrote:

That's true, it doesn't help much!

I studied Latin three years a long time ago, it helped me a little bit to understand Spanish, Catalan, and my mother tongue! I think I could understand a few word in Italian but I am not sure ...

Helping to understand a language and becoming fluent are two different things. As I said, I could make out a little of what the Spanish tourists said, but I wouldn't bet my life that I fully understood them. Sure some words sound similar, but there are still nuances.

I speak French and I think it helped me understand a little, but now that my Italian is much better, I don't think it helps me at all. Possibly Spanish is closer to Italian, but I don't know Spanish at all.