Italian

Our Group has been meeting on the first Wednesday of the month from 2.00pm—4.00pm.

However we have made a start to try to encourage new members by widening the remit to include more cultural content whilst at the same time attempting to improve our language skills in different ways.

Obviously bringing in new members means a greater variation of ability which is a challenge we are all keen to meet. Some of the new ideas we have implemented are watching sub-titled films by a number of world renowned directors, the latest being Mediterraneo, Il Postino and Malena.

We are also busy translating some Italian popular songs and newspaper articles which has proved a little challenging but as British Rail used to say “We’re getting there” As a reward for our hard work ,a number of us spent an extremely enjoyable day at the Langrish House Hotel in Petersfield who run an annual Italian week which included the Italian film “L’amica di famiglia”  (very strange!!) followed by lunch with wine.

The tables were split into non speakers and speakers where we were able to exercise our language skills and proved to be very successful although a little daunting at first (Could be a possibility for a similar French event?) This was followed by an extra helping of vino for those non drivers (me included – hic!!) in the form of a wine tasting from the region of Le Marche. Future projects hopefully to include more excursions to galleries, Fishbourne encampment ruins, concerts etc and “becoming honorary Italian citizens” not forgetting of course, some more gastronomical treats.