[sonia]

Hi @Kerin,

thanks a lot for your comments and notes. I enjoyed this task!

Here the 2 corrections (hope so!):

> I’m used to runNING all the time

> Finally, I don’t know any other artist that communicateS

[sonia]

[sonia]

Hi Kerin!

Thanks for your notes! Nice to share our thoughts!

Here one of my favourite painting from Chagall:

[sonia]

Q1: Do you like art? If yes, what kind of art do you like? How often do you go to art museums? If no, do you know why you don’t like it?

I do love art! Specially that one of the XIX th / beginning of XX th century: the Illumists, Expressionists, Avangards. I often enjoy going to art museums when I visit a new country or city (less in my town, I don’t know why) and I’m curious about artists’ life, I always thought that behind a set of masterpieces (not only paintings) a very interesting and turbulent life hides…

Q3: Who is your favourite artist? Why do you like them so much?

If we talk about painters, Marc Chagall is absolutely my favourite one! He has this magic capacity to get elements from the daily life and raise them to the dimension of the dream; the story telling is there on the paint and in the meantime you feel something moving inside. I love his colours too and this Russian atmosphere that transpires.

Q4: Do you think that art is important to society? Why?

Art is extremely important to society! Not only as an evidence of the historical period when the artist lived, but as a way to see it from a different perspective… Furthermore, art is a powerful and in the meantime delicate way to communicate realities, intimate realities, that, without art, wouldn’t easily reach our hearts and give us the chance to evolve. That’s my opinion!

[sonia]

Thanks Kerin for your comments!

I might have overused the present perfect. So:

…I realized not only that… (the when is known)

…I grew up… (it is past, with no effect now)

(not sure) I followed elocution lessons and so I made my accent situation even more confused…

[sonia]

About UK, I wasn’t aware of a snobbery issue around accents until I’ve lived in Scotland for some months when I was 25: there, I’ve realized not only that Scottish accent is actually quite different from “Oxford” English, the “cut-glass” accent (but I’ve soon got attached to it!), but also that people from other parts of UK were mocking Scottish people and in meantime Scottish people were used to make fun of Asian people living there…

In my country, Italy, I think it is no so different: snobbery around accents exist among different parts of the country, among different Regions (20) and even among different areas of the same Region (eg Bergamo vs Varese, Firenze vs Pisa, Palermo vs Messina and so on).

And what I believe is that dwelling on accents is always a way to spot cultural differences: for example people with accent of Rome are associated with laziness, those with accent of Naples with cunning; and the other way around, people from Genova are stingy, the Piemonteses “falsi e cortesi” (that means incinsere and kind) and so on…

Me too, I have experienced some kind of discrimination because of my strange accent: I have grown up in a village near Milan but with parents from the South (mam from Sicily and dad from Campania) and so my accent wasn’t so aligned with that one of the children born there from native parents… Once, I opened my school diary and I found the word “terrona” written in big and red letters, I was completely shocked!

And the funny thing was that when I was in the South to visit my relatives, they called me “polentona” for joke! It was like not to have an identity, just because I had not a precise accent… what a silly thing!

Now, my accent doesn’t bother me at all… Another little personal story: while I was studying theatre, I’ve followed elocution lessons and so I’ve made my accent situation even more confused. I started answering the common question “How are you” with “bène” in place of “béne” as people in Milan wrongly pronounce this term, or saying “bigliétto del trèno” in place of “bigliètto del tréno” (train ticket)… “Parla come mangi!” (that means “Speak like you eat!”) was the reaction of people talking with me… What a laugh!

In English too, my worry is not about accent, that obviously everyone recognizes as Italian, but I would certainly like to improve the pronunciation of some words or expressions just with the purpose to be well understood and communicate better and better!

[sonia]

Thanks for your precious corrections, Kerin… I think my English will improve a lot with this course. What a pity that lately I’ve not been practicing in real life…

[sonia]

10 years ago I was 35 years old and, if I think at that time, I can see myself like a young lady in her 20ies! My life wasn’t so changed compared to the previous 10 years: I used to play volleyball, going out with friends practically every night, changing boyfriend every third month, travelling a lot… Of course, I was working, as a sales specialist at that time, but at the beginning of any meeting with clients I had to introduce myself and clarify that I had finished my studies a long time earlier and I was experienced enough to be there!

Well, what happened later? It was exactly during my 37th summer that I decided to have become old! I was in Sardegna with my friends and, simply, I started to go to bed “early”, while my friends were going to disco and hanging out until the wee hours of the morning… they started calling me “la nonna” (translation in English: “their grandma”!). I don’t really know why I behaved in that way, but it was like I suddenly realized that I should be more “mature” at my age, change interests (for example reading in place of having a drink), in other words outgrow!

After that summer, I don’t think I really grew up…To be honest I spent most of my time working very hardly (until a burn-out some years later!). Ok, I stopped changing boyfriend every quarter, that’s true, I met a nice guy and we went living together, but we were/are not that kind of couple with specific projects to realize, like children (that at the end we couldn’t have), and so we live from day to day, just enjoying the time together … more or less like an old couple (note: he’s 10 years younger than me!).

So, what really changed in my last 10 years? Probably I lost the need to do always something. Now I can appreciate a night at home, talking with one dear friend instead of a bunch of people, just thinking in place of attending any course available in my town! I don’t know if this means to have grown up, but I’m curious… What’s next? We’ll see!

[sonia]

Scenario 1
I’m sorry, I don’t know this expression. Could you explain it please?

Scenario 2
I’m sorry, I’m having trouble following. Would you mind speaking more slowly please?

Scenario 3
Sorry, I didn’t catch that, could you say that again?

Scenario 4
I’m confused. Can you explain that in a different / more specific way?

Scenario 5
I can’t make out the word you are using. Can you spell it please?

Scenario 6
So, you’re saying that Mark acted very badly towards Jemma and that at her place you would dump him right away!

Scenario 7
Sorry, how much did you say?

Scenario 8
So, just to recap, you will pick Jenny first and then me around 9, is that correct?