Speak Italian Magically by Antonio Libertino

4 CommentsTuesday • May 10, 2011 • by michelle

Through the use of both a book and audio files, Speak Italian Magically by Antonio Libertino offers an innovative way to learn Italian — during a “state of relaxed alertness.”

If you’ve ever listened to meditation or yoga music — or type away on OMMwriter as I do — the basic theory behind the audio files will sound familiar to you. Essentially, by putting your brain in a relaxed state, it becomes more open to accepting the new words you are about to absorb.

The listener is instructed to get comfortable and imagine a time when you have learned something important to you — note that these are *not* lessons that you should listen to in your car on the way to work.

The lesson continues with the speaker alternating between Italian and English, side by side, and as the lessons progress, you will hear more and more Italian. I love this concept since we all know, especially those of us who have lived through it, how well the “sink or swim” or more properly called “full immersion” method of language learning works.

You can also follow all of the audio files with the book, which would be extra helpful for someone like me who is a visual learner — I need to see words to remember them, and not just in my mind. I especially love the intermingling of Italian phrases right next to their English counterparts throughout; it does seems that this would help your brain equate the two, especially with the repetition that is built into the lessons and also which you can do on your own.

As someone who already understands and speaks Italian daily, I can’t definitively say whether Speak Italian Magically is an effective way to learn the language. That said, I will say with absolute certainty that I would love to see Antonio also release intermediate and advanced level books and audio files; I truly believe this methodology is something that would work for me to absorb more advanced grammar rules and vocabulary, so I hope future volumes are in the works.

Find more information online: SpeakItalianMagically.com.

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Pieces of Someday by Jan Vallone

0 CommentsThursday • May 5, 2011 • by michelle

Pieces of Someday, the memoir of Jan Vallone, tells the story of an Italian-American woman who, after decades of striving to fulfill the wishes of her parents, comes to realize that she hasn’t yet discovered her true self.

So, at age 44, Jan leaves her law practice to teach English in a yeshiva high school — perhaps a curious career move for a Catholic lawyer, but there’s no doubt that for Jan, a whole new journey had begun. Jan’s search to balance her career and family with her own individual pursuit of happiness had been a lifelong struggle, but once she began following her heart, good things followed.

The book takes us through Jan’s life in New York, Seattle, and various trips to Italy — and she never skims over the difficult parts, namely a strained relationship with her father, marital problems, infertility, and struggles with her own faith. Instead, Jan carries us with her through her conflicting emotions and values, often with a sense of dry humor that I found entirely relatable.

Jan’s word selection is superb and her rich descriptions pick up the reader and gently drop her into each scene. One of my favorites is toward the end of the book when Jan and her family go to Sicily to see the remembrance of her grandmother that, as family legend had it, her grandfather had erected back in their small village of Castelvetrano:

We walked silent, filed around it, skirting a rusty railing collapsed at its feet. The grotto — ivy shrouded, suckers crumbling its surface, shoot tips tasseling its mouth. Inside, bird-soiled Mary prayed with fingerless rosary-strung hands, and the altar, sooty, fractured, was ankle-deep in trash. Outside in the porcelain photo, my grandmother, half my age, smiled above the tarnished plaque….

I give Pieces of Someday four espresso cups out of five and recommend it to anyone who has struggled with balancing what is expected of you with what you truly want — and also to those who simply enjoy good, descriptive writing.

More about the book:

Pieces of Someday has won two Reader Views Reviewers Choice Awards, placing first nationally in the memoir category and first across genres in the Pacific region. It is also now available on Kindle ($5.99 as of this writing).

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