I made a video saying "I've decided to learn a new language!"

That I was participating in iTalki.com's October Language Challenge.

Which means, I had 2 weeks to partner with a native speaker

and learn as much as I can of a new language.

And if you guys remember, i chose Italiano!

I'm a native English speaker

I grew up speaking a little bit of Spanish

but kind of forgot everything

and I also took a semester of Latin maybe 6 years ago...

But I haven't actually formally learned'

or dedicated myself to formally learning a Western language ever

(Falling!!)

The English speaking world and Japanese speakers

are the majority of my viewers

but so many people wrote comments saying like

"Oh I've actually studied Italian..."

or "Oh I actually am Italian" or "I'm 1/2 Italian!"

I got emails like, everyone saying that

they're so excited to see me speak Italian

And now I'm like...*SWEAT*...

So! Let's just get on with it.

Remember I said I wanted to do 3 things for you guys!

First thing is, to be able to introduce myself

The second is to know how to have a phone conversation.

and the 3rd is to be able to make commentary.

to use adjectives to tack on to everyone else's conversation

without actually having to say much.

and to help me do this

I'm bringing in my special language partner...

...Lily!!!!

Ok then!

Let's speak some Italian!

Hey guys, my name is Loretta!

I'm from the U.S.

(L: and how old are you???)

Ah, that reminds me!

This is my dog!

her name is Lily.

Where are you going???

I'm listening.

Lily, it's me, Loretta. Get back here!

NO.

(NOoo.)

Lily, oh, where's your rope???

You're so good!!!

You're so cute!!!

(*LICK* and you're delicious!)

OK, so that's it! Short and sweet!

It doen't feel like a lot but I worked really hard on that!

I feel like I really learned a lot in these 2 weeks.

My teacher, Federica, she's Italian, she lives in Italy

we would Skype in the mornings

we'd go over everything and

Honestly, it was really fun but it was kinda frustrating!

I came in strong like: "I can speak Japanese!

"...so I can learn anything!"

But when she started talking I was like

"WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?!"

There's like this wall of language

to this whole 'nother world and Im like

Ughh, I see you guys in there!!!

and I can't quite do it.

I feel like I'm literally running up against a wall

and there's like a tiny peephole into this other world.

and I can kind of pry it open but it's taking forever.

Meanwhile, everyone else is having fun in there.

But with Japanese at least I managed to like smash open a window.

for the last like...13 years

so maybe I can actually see what's going on there

but UGHHH Italian is kicking my BUTT.

The thing that really helped

is kind of like, these little milestones.

I watched the new James Bond (007) movie

and there's a lot of Italian scenes

and it was funny, I was watching it and like

"Oh! They're speaking Italian!'

where as like, three weeks ago

I would've had no idea what language they are speaking.

for some reason, because I knew a little bit of Italian

I recognized some of the intonation and some of the words

and I was in the movie theater like:

"Heyyy! They're speaking Italiannn"

Let's speakkk Italiannnn

But when I learned Japanese it was the same way

The first time I heard someone speaking it

"Oh! they're speaking Japanese!"

I know enough to know that they're speaking Japanese!

and that was like the first milestone.

being able to recognize the sound.

The 2nd thing with Japanese,

I was flipping through a manga, Cardcaptor Sakura

and as I was flipping through a word popped out

as I was going it was like: "SAKURA" or something

it just POPPED OUT because I actually

recognized the word as a whole

I was actually reading for the first time,

not just sounding it out.

The first time that happened in Japanese I freaked out!!

But these little milestones of progress that I'm feeling

are like the amazing part of learning language

and that's something I've really missed

so THANKYOU to Italki and my teacher Federica

for letting me participate in the October language challenge

and challenging me to learn something new.

That was exciting - VERYFRUSTRATING - but very exciting

and also thank you to you guys

apparentlly a lot of you Italian speakers

thanks for listening to me struggle in italian

and if you want to comment on my Italian

please go easy on me!!PLEASEEE.

But, that's all for today!

Thanks so much for watching, you guys!

And guess what! I can actually say goodbye now! :)

Unlike last time. That was embarassing.

I'll see you guys next time!