# Care to help me practice my Italian? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 19, 2011, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/care-to-help-me-practice-my-italian/589591 "2011-07-19T15:56:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bibliovore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bibliovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bibliovore)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/care-to-help-me-practice-my-italian/589591/1 "2011-07-19T15:56:09Z")
Apologies in advance to the mods if this is in the wrong forum, but are there any Dopers out there who are fluent in Italian and who’d be interested in a bit of email back-and-forth to help me practice? I totally love the food, the culture and of course the language and have just finished a basic course, but I need to keep practising it otherwise I’ll forget everything! Aiutatemi mi amici Italiani! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/care-to-help-me-practice-my-italian/589591/2 "2011-07-19T15:59:12Z")
Too bad my niece isn’t on this board, as she’s been taking Italian lessons for about a year. It’s a great language and a great country. ---
**Author:** ![Bibliovore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bibliovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bibliovore)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/care-to-help-me-practice-my-italian/589591/3 "2011-07-19T16:13:13Z")
I actually want to start a different thread just to talk about Italy in general - culture, economy, perceptions, problems, food, etc, but didn’t want to derail this one. And yes, it’s a spectacular, musical language that can turn words for even the most mundane things into melifluous poems that sounds as though they belove in a love sonnet. Like “Tovagliolo”. TOH-VAHL-YO-LOH! Bellissimo! ---
**Author:** ![Nathan\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/47e85d/32.png) [@Nathan\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nathan_S)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/care-to-help-me-practice-my-italian/589591/4 "2011-07-19T17:21:41Z")
> [@Bibliovore](#): > > Aiutatemi mi amici Italiani! 🙂 Well, first off, you would say “Aiutatemi, _miei_ amici Italiani.” 🙂 “Mi” is an object pronoun, and isn’t used for the possessive case. I’ve been living, and working, in Italy for 25 years. Shoot me an email if you need some language pointers. Ciao. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/care-to-help-me-practice-my-italian/589591/5 "2011-07-19T21:06:37Z")
> [@Bibliovore](#): > > I actually want to start a different thread just to talk about Italy in general - culture, economy, perceptions, problems, food, etc, but didn’t want to derail this one. > > And yes, it’s a spectacular, musical language that can turn words for even the most mundane things into melifluous poems that sounds as though they belove in a love sonnet. > > Like “Tovagliolo”. TOH-VAHL-YO-LOH! > > Bellissimo! Ciao, francoboli! Yes, I know what it means. ---
**Author:** ![Nathan\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/47e85d/32.png) [@Nathan\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nathan_S)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/care-to-help-me-practice-my-italian/589591/6 "2011-07-20T14:45:47Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Ciao, francoboli! Yes, I know what it means. Dunno what stamps have to do with anything, but bear in mind that there’s a double L in the word “francobolli.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bibliovore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bibliovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bibliovore)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/care-to-help-me-practice-my-italian/589591/7 "2011-07-20T14:47:40Z")
Perfetto! Grazie mille, Nathan - I’ll send you an email!