16. Conversation: Self Discipline

Classroom conversation is only one contributing tributary to the ability to converse in Italian. Speaking to one’s fellow students outside the classroom is also very important. In my opinion, too many students switch back to their native tongue as soon as they vacate the classroom. Ways to avoid this is to NOT mix with your fellow countrymen or with others who speak English. It’s not just other native English speakers who pose a threat but also polyglot Europeans like the Dutch, Swiss, and many Germans. However, in my experience, these students are much better disciplined than North Americans or Australians.

For the first week at the University of Perugia my fellow students and I spoke English because the Europeans could speak English and Italian, and easily slipped into one or the other. I asked that the law be laid down, and from the second week everyone spoke Italian [with occasional lapses]. So discipline and will power are very important. If you lack these, another good way is to befriend South American or Japanese students. If I could speak Italian as well as the Argentineans I met, I would be very satisfied. In Siena, I spoke Italian constantly because my friends were Japanese and Swiss Romanisch, so English was not an option. The maxim, choose your friends carefully rings true when you are trying to speak another language!