Late Sunday night, for some unknown reason, I bought a crossword puzzle app for my iPad.  I’ve no idea what brought this on, because I’ve always been hopeless at doing crossword puzzles and I’ve therefore had no interest in them.

The thing is that I’m having a fresh look at crosswords now that I have an iPad and iPhone that have apps that can help solve clues – such as dictionaries that can do wild card searches, Google and Wikipedia apps.

I’m only one day into this new interest and I’m not sure how long it will last, or how long I’ll let it last.  I spent a large part of today involved doing crosswords in three trial apps, instead of spending the day as planned.   The New York Times app puzzle for yesterday is shown above.  This is a free app, but after 7 days you have to subscribe to get puzzles for the app.  This is typical of all newspaper crosswords to access them online.

In the past I’ve never been able to do crossword puzzles, probably because I’d never thought about why they are called puzzles and why the Across and Down clues are called “clues”.   I think I’d assumed the clues were just a list of general knowledge questions to which I had to provide answers, if I knew them.

No wonder I had so much trouble trying to solve them.  I could only do the entries which were fairly straight questions.

I’m now starting to get the hang of the general idea, but I have lots to learn, and I’ve fund that as with playing Hangman, I have to become more lateral in my thinking.  For example, one clue I encountered today was “Editor’s strikes (5)”.  My initial thoughts were that it might have something to do with an editors strike in the USA.  Then I decided it was more likely to be marks that an editor makes on drafts.  But I had no idea what any such marks were called.  After a time, I completed adjoining parts of the puzzle (on my iPhone) that gave me the last 3 letters of the word – ..UTS – so I did lots of wild card searches and couldn’t come up with a word that worked.  Later on I’d narrowed it to – .OUTS – but my many wild card searches still didn’t come up with a word that worked with the clue.   I should have paid more attention to the clue, and the word “strikes”.

Just imagine an editor reading a draft article and he makes a strike.  It’s not a small correction or change, but a strike with his pen.   Try it.  You are the editor and your left hand’s palm is the page, and your right hand holds the pen.  Make an editing strike to a paragraph on the page.   How would you describe it?  You crossed something out.   The plural form is cross outs.  And how do you mark a cross on a voting paper, survey etc.  With and X.   The answer:  XOUTS

As I said, I’ve got lots to learn about crossword puzzles and lateral  thinking; let alone even thinking of trying a cryptic crossword puzzle.

The purpose of my post titled Learning Italian 9 was to review my progress over the past seven months in trying to casually pick up some Italian. I was very surprised to find three effects that I didn’t expect from my decision to find out how much Italian I could pick in a year.

The 4th unexpected effect, which I didn’t mention in that post, was that trying to learn some Italian this year has created a new desire to learn more about English, and refresh my school days studies (I used to top the class with Distinctions in English studies).

The iPad has been amazing in helping me pursue my studies.  The Kindle for iPad app has enabled me to buy and download books instantly 24/7.  Anyone with an Internet connection can do the same.  There are Kindle for iPhone, PC, and Mac apps.  And of  course there is the Kindle device itself – but it doesn’t have colour.

My new English studies have only just begun, but I’ve found three interesting words already:

niche - If, like me, you pronounce it NEESH, you’re also wrong.  It’s NITCH.

Restauranteur - No, no, no.   The person who owns a restaurant is a Restaurateur.  There is no “n” in the word.  The word restaurant comes from the French for “restore”.

Nevada - this is my favourite, as I only read about it in the news today.

Lucky for me, when I was in Las Vegas for a few days in June 1999,  I didn’t mention the name of the State it’s in.  Nevada.  I would’ve called it Ne-VAH-da, which is incorrect and apparently the frequent mispronunciation irritates many Nevadans.  It’s pronounced Ne-VAD–a (rhymes with adder).

I quote:

Aug 22, 11:25 PM (ET)
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) – The misuse of one little vowel frustrates a lot of Nevadans who get irritated by the mispronunciation of the state’s name – using an “ah” instead of “a.”

It’s now more than seven months since I decided on 31 December 2009 to see how much of the Italian language I could pick up in a year without any formal training or serious study, but spending a few minutes each day with a new word from the desk calendar I bought.

So, with more than half the year gone by, I’m going to review my progress to date, and the unexpected effects of the decision I made on New Year’s Eve last year.

First and foremost, to put it into a real perspective, I forget most of the new words I “learn” each day on the desk calendar within about an hour of first reading them, and certainly by the next day.  And I’m now convinced more than ever, that I’ll never be able to converse in Italian (or any other foreign language).  I can’t understand the words at conversational speed.

However, having said that, some words on the desk calendar have stayed with me, probably in those cases where I’ve come across the words in the training books I’ve bought, and the words have therefore been revised.

Therein lies the first unexpected effect.  I soon realised that I needed more than the desk calendar which gave a new word and demonstrated it in a short sentence in Italian.  I needed a dictionary to explain the other words in the sentences, and I soon decided that I’d like to study it deeper.  So I increased my range of resources.

After 7 months, I’ve worked out that some of the desk calendar pages are wrong (it’s Venerdi, not Venderdi, for Friday), but I still can’t put a sentence together in Italian.  But I was very surprised when watching a midday movie during the week (highly recommended by the Green Guide), that when David Wenham’s PA in the movie lent across to a client and said something that ended in “prossimo sabato” I knew exactly what she’d said.  ”Next Saturday.”

The  second unexpected effect is that I’ve come to realise that I enjoy my studies of Italian just for the sheer fun of it, with no expectation of ever being able to carry on a conversation in Italian.  And it’s helped me to understand English better.

The third unexpected effect is something I alluded to in my Learning Italian 8 post on May 17 – and that was to do some basic French and German studies.  At first, when I looked at some of the books at the language bookshop in Collins Street, Melbourne, I decided that trying to learn the rules of two other foreign languages while still trying to Italian would be too much for me.

But in the past week or two, I’ve gained confidence and have now taken on some studies in French and German – on the iPad.  I’ve also put a couple of German books on my wish-list.  Once again, I don’t expect that I’ll ever be able to chat in a foreign language, but I’m thoroughly enjoying learning about these  languages, and being able to read what I’ve learned.

The following photo shows another admired Italian – the beautiful 2010 Maserati Quattroporte.  I find it more exciting than a Ferrari.

I have many reasons to want to see how much of the Italian language I can pick up this year.  But early last week it crossed my mind that as we grow closer to the half year mark, I haven’t made all that much progress.  I forget most of the words I learn about an hour after learning them (not just the Italian word, but even the English word that I’ve forgotten the Italian word for).  I can’t yet construct even a simple sentence in Italian.  And I’m still struggling with the basic pronunciation of Italian words because of the inconsistent explanations in all the sources at my disposal.

This week I went into the city CBD for the first time this year, and as fate would have it, twice.  I took this opportunity to visit the Foreign Language Bookshop in Collins Street where I became interested in two books on my first visit.  I ended up buying them on my second visit, after researching their reviews on Amazon.

It did cross my mind that I already had enough books and iPhone apps about learning Italian, and I didn’t need any more.   But these two books each had a different “teach yourself” approach that appealed to me.

As I mentioned above, my main concern has always been pronunciation, as I’ve noticed many variations in my different books when it comes to vowels.  And quite often the words spoken by supposedly native Italian speakers in my iPhone apps have confused me even more.

One of the new books explains where your tongue should be when pronouncing vowels and consonants.  That’s taken me back to primary school days when one of the subjects was English.

The other book talks about language similarities on page 1, and in doing so, it struck a chord with me for the first time, when I realised that there is often a pattern between English and Italian words that would help me understand the Italian words in print (but not in speech, as the pronunciation is greatly differently).

These patterns are helping me to remember many words, such as the Italian for “slowly” which I first learned in January.  I’ve tried to recall it many times over the past four months (to use in the phrase “please speak slowly”).  I’ve looked it up every time, but I’ve never been able to remember it afterwards, even at the beginning of last week.  But now I’ll remember it always, as I’ve known the Italian for “slow” since the age of eight in my pianoforte and music studies.  Lento.

The pattern to turn the adjective “slow” into the adverb “slowly” is to add “mente” to the end of the Italian word.  Lento becomes Lentamente.  The o changes to an a,  but that doesn’t matter as it reminds me of the actual word.

Correct pronunciation of Italian remains my greatest stumbling block, as I want to get this sorted out before I proceed further.  But in the past few days I’ve now begun to wonder if this is really as far as I want to go.  I get a great kick out of my new found ability to pronounce all Italian words reasonably well, even if I have no idea what they mean.

I’ll be very surprised if I’m ever able to speak or understand spoken Italian, but I’ve totally enjoyed my studies so far.  However, I’m currently thinking that my real interest is not in learning Italian to be able to converse in Italian, but to get an understanding of another language.  I’ve found that this fascinates me.

So, I’m now thinking of doing some basic German and French studies to get a bit of an inkling into those languages and their pronunciation.  I’d like to be able to pronounce German and French words better than I can now.

I’ve seen a book on Amazon about French pronunciation that I’ll keep a lookout for in local bookshops, as it goes very deeply into pronunciation, which I expect applies to all languages.  It explains the complexities of pronunciation whereby the mouth and tongue change shape and position for, say,  c or k, which have the same sound, in expectation of what follows in say, cool and keel.

This send me looking up barista in English dictionaries.  The big Shorter Oxford defines it as someone who serves coffee.   The big American Heritage does not list the word.  The Australian Oxford defines it as someone who makes coffee (especially espresso) professionally.

The 20 volume OED (Oxford English Dictionary) has the following entry:

barista, n.
Brit. /ba“ri;st@/, /b@“rIst@/, U.S. /bA“rist@/, /b@“rIst@/  Plural baristas, (rare) bariste, (irreg.) baristes.  [< Italian barìsta (plural barìste; 1939–40) < bar (see bar n.¹ 28a) + -ista -ist.]

A bartender in an Italian or Italian-style bar. Also spec. (orig. U.S.): a person who makes and serves coffee in a coffee bar (the more frequent sense in English).
In spec. sense, a proprietary name in the United Kingdom.

1982 P. Hofman Rome, Sweet Tempestuous Life 24 A good barista can simultaneously keep an eye on the coffee oozing from the espresso machine into a battery of cups, pour vermouth and bitters+and discuss the miserable showing of the Lazio soccer team. 1988 Boston Globe (Nexis) 13 Dec. 61 A feisty but cordial competitor to the larger caffeine chains the [Boston Coffee] Exchange has unfurled a help-wanted poster titled ‘Learn to be a coffee barista’. 1990 Atlantic Nov. 157/2 This ritual unites all the baristas in Italy. But not everyone accomplishes the layer of light-colored crema, or foam, that is the pride of an expert espresso-maker. 1999 Dominion (Wellington, N.Z.) (Nexis) 24 Feb. (Business section) 24 New bariste undertake an intensive training programme which covers the philosophy, history, and science of coffee, and the psychology of service. 2001 Times 7 Mar. ii. 5/1 The key to a good espresso lies in the barista+and whether he or she cares enough to do it right.

It wasn’t very interesting so I decided to have a look at the motoring section.  I was instantly fascinated by the content.

MILANO – L’annuncio è allettante: vendesi Jaguar Daimler Majestic V8 praticamente nuova (22.500 chilometri accertati), unico proprietario, condizioni perfette (a parte qualche pelo di corgi sui tappetini posteriori), color verde patriottico e full optional (compreso bracciolo personalizzato per la borsetta, console speciale per il controllo dei fanali, luce di emergenza blu e linea telefonica diretta con Downing Street e Ministero degli Interni, oggi non più funzionante). Certo, il prezzo di listino non è proprio abbordabilissimo: quasi 73mila euro. Ma, del resto, la macchina in questione non è una semplice berlina extralusso, bensì l’auto privata della Regina Elisabetta, usata dalla sovrana fra il 2001 e il 2004 più che altro nei dintorni del castello di Windsor e per fare la spola con Buckingham Palace. Da qui, i pochissimi chilometri percorsi e le condizioni immacolate, peli di cane a parte.

I’m sure you can work out what much of this means yourself.  One of the delights of Italian is that so many words are so close to our own.  The Italian news report lead me to the following:

and the video.  Note the selector for 360p, 480p and 720p (HD).

If you want to read more, or place a bid, go to hmthequeensdaimler.com

Sometimes, of course, the Queen travels by horse and cart (so to speak):

As usual with embedded YouTube videos, if you click on the video you can see it full size on the YouTube site.

I’ve seen this audio set at Borders for the past two months but have resisted buying it.  I finally decided that it would be helpful.  I half expected that the CD set I’ve seen at Borders for two months, would’ve been sold since my last visit.  But instead, the set was almost everywhere I looked.  Borders had a Dummies promotion going on.

What surprised me was that Italian for Dummies (a normal size Dummies book) was in stock for the first time this year.  I pounced on it.  It comes with one audio CD.

I’ve only been studying the book for three days, and only in small doses, but I’m very impressed with it’s totally different way of explaining pronunciation.

This has led me to a better and more confident way of pronouncing Italian words.

To follow up on my last post, a typical problem I’ve had is how to pronounce the word “giorno.”

The Complete Idiot’s book says that all vowels in Italian are pronounced, but are slid together in the case of dipthongs (two vowels slid together to form one sound. So technically, giorno is pronounced jee-ohr-noh.  But the jee-ohr part should slide together quickly to form johr.  Hence,  johr-noh with a rolled r.

The Dummies book explains this in a totally different way.  It states that an e or i after a g indicates the g should be pronounced the same as j in jam, instead of  the usual g as in get.  Where the Dummies book differs is that it says that to obtain the “j” sound before a,o or u you have to insert an i.  But it then goes on to say, and this is the big difference, that the i serves only to indicate the proper sound of the g, and you do not pronounce it.  Hence giorno is pronounceed johr-noh (and not jee-ohr-noh).

So in words with “ge” or “gi” the g is pronounced with the “j” sound.  To get the “g” sound (as in get) when the g is before an e or i, you insert an h.  And of course h is not pronounced in Italian.  And so we have “spaghetti.”

It’s interesting, but this totally different way of explaining the pronunciation has made it a lot clearer for me.  Instead of trying to remember lots of rules, I’ve now got a different way of looking at it and understanding it.

However, I’m still having trouble with the pronunciation of o.  The Dummies book says it’s o as in piano (which they write as oh as a guide) and leaves it at that.  An example – espresso.   But I know from listening to Italian there are two ways of pronouncing the vowel, often in the same word.  An example – giorno!

You might by now be thinking that I’ve been learning Italian for almost three months and still haven’t got past buon giorno.  That’s quite true.  But it’s just an example of the some of the confusion in my mind from the different books and sources I’ve been using.  I’d like to get it sorted out in my mind.  At this stage I’m interested to learn whether the books are either wrong in places, or different people have different ways of hearing sounds,or whether the books are dumbing it down for beginners, or even just to make it easier for the authors.

The reality is that I can say buon giorno (as no doubt can you) well enough to be understood by any Italian.  But I’ve noticed the differences between books and travel guides, and I’ve perhaps become more interested in the linguistics side of it than in actually learning Italian itself.

As an example, how would you set out how to pronounce the word “question.”

In fact, ask yourself how you pronounce it.  kwes-tee-on?  kwest-chee-on?  kwest-chon?  kwest-shun? or some other way.

I’ve looked it up in the OED and it says kwestjun.  Well sort of. The u is shown in the OED as an upside and back to front e.  That symbol sounds like a in another.