Tag: May 2016 – Italian

Allora, let’s talk about the Italian challenge

Eight weeks ago, in anticipation of my Tuscan vacation, I decided to learn Italian. I wanted to be able to carry on a simple conversation in Italian, so I took a few lessons, made flashcards, practiced with native speakers, and prepared cheat sheets. Then, I got on a plane. I am home now, and can...

Deep work: how to find focus in a distracted world

Italian is not going well. That's my challenge for the month - learning Italian before my trip to Tuscany. I'm practicing every day and I'm even taking lessons, but I'm struggling. Yes, language learning is difficult (very difficult), but the bigger problem is that I'm not giving it the...

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: 6 Months Later

6 months ago, I picked up a copy of The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and decided to declutter my home. I spent two full months in full-on KonMari mode: discarding, recycling, donating, folding and organizing. It was hard work, but I was ecstatic with the end result. I loved...

Learning Italian: From Zero to Conversational in Six Weeks

I'm going to Italy next month. Wahoo! I'm planning on eating lots of pasta, drinking lots of wine, and speaking nothing but Italian. The only problem is I don't speak a lick of Italian, which is why I've decided to dedicate the next six weeks to learning it. I've already...