Virtual cruise from Venice along the river Po with the option to learn some Italian

Geniale, eccellente!

Isn’t it !

Would it be easier if we just listed the Italian words we know, first? Then our starting level for DuoLingo can be ascertained.
I'll start -
Por favore,
Gelateria
Puttanesca. Mind you, I got that off the label of my Loyd Grosman puttanesca pizza sauce.
- Then I looked up the spelling, saw the translation and wished I hadn't?

Non so nulla. As you can see.

Shirley48

^Participants wishing to participate in the learning of some Italian may like to consider obtaining a notebook (A5 size is suggested) and a pen, though that is an option and not compulsary^.

Why A5?

I have been, and I am continuing, to learn Welsh using Duolingo.

I am using an A5 notebook and I am finding it very convenient as it needs a smaller area to have the notebook open next to my computer than would an A4 notebook.

Also I find it easier to sit and read through what I have written using an A5 notebook.

Yet I recognise that some peole might prefer a different size.

I am trying to balance an effort to be helpful to people with not being prescriptive.

I appreciate that I might not be successful in achieving that but from my own experience of trying to learn things that sometimes the learning can seem like an unscalable cliff yet often what might seem to some like a trivial suggestion can be of enormous help to someone who is stuck.

Can we make a stop at La Calcina first?
Mi piace la Calcina

StarDreamer is there any chance of us having a wander around Venice before getting on board the ship? It's been a long time since I was there and it would be lovely to see it again before setting off. We could swap places we've discovered like we did on the last cruise? Grazie mille.

MrsPickle

Can we make a stop at La Calcina first?
Mi piace la Calcina

negozi molto buoni

ixion wrote Would it be easier if we just listed the Italian words we know, first? Then our starting level for DuoLingo can be ascertained.

Well, I went to Italian evening classes in the early 1970s, so I tried a Duolingo placement just to find out how far I would get.

I got some credit.

However, I could not access the learning levels for which I had been credited. However, today I found that I could remove that credit and begin at the beginning.

I have studied the first lesson and I am impressed with the teaching method.

I am intending to remove that progress and go back to be beginning once learning begins as a group acivity on this virtual cruise.

People are free to go on ahead if they wish, but I am hoping that the ambience of the virtual cruise will be to chat about the course and to go at a gentle pace so that everybody who wants to participate is at the same lesson at the same time. So we would be proceeding at the pace of the slowest.

I struggled with languages, some other people were far better at languages than was I.

Please bear in mind that the virtual cruise will also be visiting places and finding out things about the places, so people who are quicker at learning languages and/or can spend more time doing so, need not be twiddling their thumbs.

MissAdventure

I can barely manage english these days, but I shall be watching.

Learning some Italian is an option, so fine if that is your choice.

However, if you try the first lesson of the Duolingo Italian course, hopefully you will find it straightforward and good.

Also, the idea is that the learning is a group activity, so if you do get stuck, at any stage, even on the first lesson, then I, and perhaps others, will try to help you. Very much from each according to their ability, to each according to their need. Non-judgemental.

Joseanne wrote Help, is there a teacher accompanying us?

The teacher is the Duolingo Italian course.

However, hopefully those participants who choose to try to learn some Italian will try to help each other so that everybody can learn.

Hopefully we will be able to hold simple conversations with each other, using at any time just things learned on the course.

When starting to learn a language on Duolingo, there is a section labelled TIPS.

This has notes about the lessons in that "circle" (I don't know the official term for what I term a "circle").

It is not, in my opinion, obvious for someone to read what are called TIPS, as the button to view them does not stand out, but they are not what I would think of as TIPS, they are more like an extract from a text book.

It is a matter of choice. One could read them first, or one could read them afterwards as a more detailed explanation of what one has learned in the lesson.

I have tried the lessons of the first circle - I can reset to start again when the cruise starts - and I am very impressed.

I like the way that Duolingo gets the learner started. I find it very effective.

I have realised what, after the first lesson, I can say in Italian to other participants, and what they can say too, but what some say is different from what others say.

I am sorry but I do not have the time for the dualingo course
but will read with interest comments and words in Italian.
I have always wanted to see Venice so a look around via a link would be lovely.

StarDreamer

Joseanne wrote Help, is there a teacher accompanying us?

The teacher is the Duolingo Italian course.

However, hopefully those participants who choose to try to learn some Italian will try to help each other so that everybody can learn.

Hopefully we will be able to hold simple conversations with each other, using at any time just things learned on the course.

I’m pretty certain that Lucca is something of an expert; and Maw is not too shabby either!

Is it okay if I just pop in occasionally for a drink and nibbles.
I’ve got no interest in learning Italian.
Perhaps MissA and I could keep each other company…

Certainly, Fanny. You are very welcome.

Hello, Prentice. You are welcome.

I spent quite a long time on various winter days looking around Venice on Google street view.

Have you used Google street view?

If not I will happliy show you how to get Google street view of Venice, which includes not only on land but also on board a barge around various canals.

If not I will happliy show you how to get Google street view of Venice, which includes not only on land but also on board a barge around various canals.

Please could you show me StarDreamer?

Well I learnt "Lo sono una donna" today in the first lesson, which could be useful!?
Got horribly mixed up with lui, lei and il. Kept thinking in French.
??

I also checked out the webcam in Venice to see what kind of attire might be best to swan around in. Flat shoes in order.

Sorted.
Available in lots of colours.

Scarpe molto belle. Quanto?

I think I've got this right ...... shoes, not scarves
www.lunarshoesonline.co.uk/ladies-shoes-c6/st-ives-leather-plimsoll-p3419

I'd like to see Venice, too, please

Joseanne

Well I learnt "Lo sono una donna" today in the first lesson, which could be useful!?
Got horribly mixed up with lui, lei and il. Kept thinking in French.
??

Actually it is

Io sono

I was going to write

Io sono un uomo.

which in English is

I am a man.

And thinking that each of the ladies would write

Io sono una donna.

I am a woman.

The thing is that Italian, like French, has masculine nouns and feminine nouns.

However, when it comes to using "the", whereas in French the same word ("les") is used for both masculine plural and feminine plural, in Italian the same word is not used for both genders.

I am hoping that each person participating will write something, even if it is the same as what someone else has written.

I like the way that Duolingo uses the pictures to get people started.

I feel that that is very effective and confidence building.

Oh yes, Io. Spiacente.