It'sa not so bad, it'sa nice-a place, ah shaddup you face!

Kudos to anyone who knows what song the title's from!

I'm now teaching myself Italian, albeit slowly. I've covered 2 weeks of a 12 week YouTube video programme in two hours but it's basic classroom knowledge so far. Thanks to GCSE French, I was well acquainted with the common phonetics and that made it much easier. I've wanted to learn Italian for years because I'm desperate to travel the country someday, but I'll admit the reason behind me starting teaching myself last night was different.

I realised that when I return to uni, my Third Reich module will be taught by an Italian lecturer that we had for some lectures in my first year. My word, he has the thickest Italian accent and it's impossible to distinguish any English vocabulary in his speech. I have a lot of respect for the man, he deals with so much ignorance and disrespect from students because of it, but I'm determined not to be one of them. I want to learn to attune myself to the accent and hopefully see the English forest through the Cyprusses.

Well, that and I need to feel like I've accomplished something over this summer, given I've been unemployed and will remain so until I go back to uni!

So my first step is to watch the YouTube videos. My second step is to set up the Italian keyboard on my phone and copy out everything I've learnt, and also writing ridiculous pronunciation aids.

Step 3 is to eat Italian food, acclimatising my palate to Italian culture and feeling more Italian while also eating  delicious food. I see no problem in this step whatsoever.

I'm currently working on step 4, which I think will have to be painting my nails in the colours of the Italian flag, or making an EOTD with the flag colours, just to add something blog-relevant to the process.

What language have you always wanted to learn? Do you speak Italian and have any tips for me? Any ideas for step 4?