above: “What were they thinking?” department: This monument to those fallen in WWI in the Lake Como town of Gravedona shows someone whose parents named him “Troppotardi” – “too late”. An article in Il Corriere della Sera points out that Italian law aims to prevent children being given “ridiculous, shameful, or embarrassing” names by their… Continue reading Italian Law and Naming Your Baby
Category: Italian language
Learning Italian
When I first met Enrico, I spoke no Italian, and at some point early in the relationship I decided to learn it. I already had one language under my belt: I had studied Hindi in high school and college, and spoke it fluently. Italian is a lot easier. In terms of pronunciation, it’s one of the simplest languages… Continue reading Learning Italian
Naming a Multicultural Baby
Having been saddled all my life with a name that no one can spell or pronounce, I am always curious about how people get their names – especially, of course, the unusual ones. In July, 2003, the New York Times ran an article about what people are naming their kids, based on the Social Security… Continue reading Naming a Multicultural Baby
Fess Up: What Happens when a Name Can’t Be Translated into Italian?
During our US trip last year, Ross and I visited the Texas History Museum in Austin (new since I graduated from the University of Texas in 1986). They had a temporary exhibit on Davy Crockett, the near-mythical frontiersman who was a Senator from Tennessee before moving on to Texas, where he died at the Alamo. The exhibit included a… Continue reading Fess Up: What Happens when a Name Can’t Be Translated into Italian?
Raising a Bilingual Child
Our daughter is bilingual in English and Italian, and some people have asked “how we did it.” There really wasn’t much to it. While I was pregnant, I read the only book I could find on the subject (The Sun is Feminine Amazon UK | US), which happened to be written (in English) by a… Continue reading Raising a Bilingual Child