Julian's Humble Hubris

It was a magical time for me, when I was 16 and 1/2, to go on a 3-week summer study program on the island of Malta - a pivotal moment towards my eventual bilingualism .    My first time abroad on my own! To the astonishment of friends who have grown up in a world of digital cameras, I didn't take a single picture at that time, alas... Ah, the days before handy digital cameras!  Hard to explain to anyone who hasn't lived thru them!  Teenage me didn't feel like lugging around a relatively heavy, pricey camera that needed expensive film - film to carry, safeguard and later spend more money that I didn't have, on developing...  Assuming that my dad would have loaned his camera to me in the first place! So, how to illustrate this grand adventure?  Well, I managed to pull off the Internet a number of images that adequately match my memory of the place.  Theses are NOT generic images - they are images that best approximate Malta, as close as possible to...

I put “loco” (“crazy”) in the headline, because many English speakers – at least in California! – understand it...  but I don’t personally speak much Spanish.  My Big Jump with language was Italian -> English. Gifting oneself a new language – well, how’s that for this blog’s theme, hubris ?  But with a hefty side-dish of humbleness because it was a long journey that required lots of patience and dedication! Jumping from one’s own native tongue to a different language – as a personal choice, not as a child – is definitely not “a walk in the park”…  Far from that, it’s an immense undertaking! But for me it was a fascinating journey, and in fact a Grand Adventure! Do I dream in English, my adoptive language, or in my native Italian? Mostly in English, but it didn’t just happen overnight – no pun intended!  The language of my dreams gradually shifted over the years of entirely using English in daily life. Well, “entirely” except for swearing! Sw...