I did not speak Italian when I first came here. After a few months it became apparent that I needed to speak the language. While a lot of Romans can speak some English, to fully enjoy the city and its secrets, I needed to be fluent.
So, I took an immersion language course with Italia Idea, which incorporated an experiential method of learning. I also read Italian every day; and, of course, I conversed with my love only in Italian. My dearest friend, a journalist, corrected me all the time, which was a tremendous gift! Otherwise, I would have gone on making grammatical errors forever! Now, my son does that for me, as he is completely bilingual.
It took about five years for Italian to sink in. I’ve never lost my American accent no matter how hard I try to roll my r’s. I have since been on Italian radio and TV, spoken publicly, taught and spent 12 hour days speaking only my second language.
