After being in the city for a couple of tourist-frenzy days, we began our two week Italian seminar. 12 of my peers and myself are in the beginners italian class - since we will not be continuing our italian studies after these two weeks. The other classes are broken up into their respective levels of speaking and we meet for about 6 hours a day. We begin with simple phrases, numbers and vocabulary. What I thought would be a rather bland class ended up being very entertaining. We have two teachers - one in the morning and on in the afternoon - and they are simultaneously instructive and extremely entertaining. We create conversations, play simple language games and review exercises and recordings. We have even walked around Rome from time to time to use our new-found italian speaking skills. Overall it has been a great experience and I feel that I am learning a lot - even for a two week seminar.
We have also been introduced to our language companions who are college students from Rome that take us around the city and show us great things to do. We go drinking with them, visit sites and gardens and in general get a better understanding of our roman surroundings. It has been a nice surprise to have locals here helping us get our bearings in a brand new (although quite historic) locale.
