My heritage is Italian, but the language was not spoken at home growing up. However, I was enrolled in a basic Italian language course as a child. A few years ago, I spent a semester in Florence and barely learned any Italian, besides how to order food at a cafe. As you mentioned, this is because Florence is a city full of tourists, and I was studying with fellow American students with whom I spent most of my time.

However, I truly believe that I am now taking the best approach possible. I am working as an au pair with a family, and their two young children do not speak a word of English. This has truly been forcing me to exercise my minimal knowledge of Italian, otherwise communication would be impossible. I am also learning new words from them all the time. The parents do speak English, though only to me at times of important instruction for clear communication.

I have also been figuring out a lot on my own. When go out into the city, I will read words that I see and associate them with their meaning (for example, from taking the bus I associated “fermata” as the word for “bus stop”). Unlike Florence, I am living in a city where there are barely any English speakers, so I am completely immersed and surrounded by Italian. Sometimes I repeat words out loud to myself that I here people say on the street, just to practice the sound. I also find that people do appreciate the effort when I speak their language. Approaching conversation fearlessly is the way to go.

I have only been here for four days out of 243, and though they have been challenging, the rewards of this experience are already tremendous.