My Journey Learning Italian in Perugia
An opinion piece by Hayden Bernhardt
Ciao a tutti!
I’m Hayden Bernhardt, a Fall 2024 Umbra Institute Student. For the past 4 months, I have been away from my home University, Bates College, while studying abroad in Perugia, Italy. This experience has been the most amazing time I could have ever imagined—full of growth, traveling, meeting fantastic people, and being absorbed into an incredible culture. Not only was I able to continue working on my two majors, Philosophy and Politics, but I was given the opportunity to study Italian at Umbra.
Highlight of my Semester Abroad: Learning italian
Although Umbra is filled to the brim with incredible classes and professors, I have concluded that my Italian course was the highlight of my academic experience here in Italy. To start off, my professor, Luca Gatti, was one of the most caring and engaging teachers I have ever had. We had class Monday through Thursday for 75 minutes. As someone who arrived in Italy having spoken no Italian at all, every class helped me improve tremendously.
Learning Beyond the Classroom
The classroom was not the only place I learned Italian. In fact, the majority of my practice was done at stores, the gym, and basketball courts. With Perugia being a smaller city in Italy, English is not as prevalent as it is in other locations. In these environments, I was able to practice my Italian vocabulary, pronunciation, and listening skills with locals. I’ve made a number of Italian friends here, and I always insisted that they spoke to me in Italian. This was without a doubt the most helpful method of learning.
Benefits of learning Italian
As someone who now considers themself to be an intermediate speaker (may be a little generous), I can’t say enough how thankful I’ve been for the chance to learn Italian. Although I have lots more to learn and practice, the experience has been amazing thus far. When learning a second language, it comes with so many new opportunities. First of all, I can now make deeper connections with millions of people around the world. Even in my own household, I can now speak some Italian with my parents and grandmother. Also, with Spanish and Italian being similar languages, I can (somewhat) communicate with a Spanish speaker—which I have had to do abroad! Not to mention, learning new languages has been proven to be healthy for your brain.
Challenges Along the Way
There were a couple especially challenging aspects to learning Italian. On the technical side of things, the conjugations were, and still are, very hard to get down. But with time and practice, they just get easier and easier. The other tough part is to speak English as little as possible with Italian speakers. As I mentioned before, this is the best way to practice—and by not falling back on your English, you will learn to think quicker and speak without having to translate beforehand.
Advice for Future Students
If I could give any advice to incoming students and new Italian speakers, I would tell them to have fun with it and motivate yourself to speak as much Italian as you can! It’s truly a beautiful language and will help you connect with both people, and the culture here in Perugia. Also, Umbra makes it an incredibly fun experience!
Grazie mille e buona fortuna!
Hayden