october 2025 check-in
Italian
Reading. As of October 31st I am on day 39 of my 100 days of reading challenge. In terms of the number of books finished, it’s been going quite slow — despite reading every single day, I’m only halfway through my third book. That said, everything I’ve read so far has made quite an impression on me:
Dacia Maraini - Dolce per sé. My first Maraini book! Apparently, it’s not her best (if we are to believe the ratings on Goodreads), but I thoroughly enjoyed it and highlighted soooo many paragraphs with her (or the main characters?) ideas on what it means and how it feels to be a woman) that are now waiting to be transferred into my commonplace book. And if you want another proof of how much I enjoyed the book — I picked another Maraini book right after.
Dacia Maraini - La lunga vita di Marianna Ucrìa. I cheated a little bit and, despite promising myself to only read books I own, bought this one as a birthday gift for myself. Like it often happens with impulse purchases, I regretted it almost immediately. I guess I was expecting the book to be about the same level of difficulty as Dolce per sé, but boy was I wrong. La lunga vita… is set in the 18th century Sicily (so we are getting both somewhat archaic vocabulary and occasional sicilian dialectisms). Add little to no conversations in the book and A LOT of descriptions of architecture, furniture, clothes and other very niche things. That said, I’m really happy I persisted (please check the trigger warnings if you are interested in reading the book!).
Giorgio Bassani - Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini. I have a 1974 copy of this book that I bought for $1, and whoever read this before me left dozens of word translations on almost every single page. This honestly has made the reading process so much easier, especially given that Bassani’s syntax is quite a challenge.
By the way, I finally did an inventory of my Italian bookshelf and I’m embarrassed to report that finishing 3 books will bring the number of unread books I own down to 39. Crazy, I know, and I’m not even going to try and defend myself by saying that most of them were purchased second hand and cost me $1-4.
Writing. Not much to report here, I somehow lost the discipline I had in September and only wrote a couple of entries 🤷♀️
Speaking. Never thought I’d say it, but speaking has been one of the most rewarding activities in the last couple of months. And just to think that I was dreading my italki classes as recently as this past June. Despite also attending group classes offline (more on that later), I am still taking classes with two italki teachers and I’m planning to continue doing it for as long as I can afford it. One thing I’ve noticed is that I now feel a bit more confident using il congiuntivo and even (on a very good day) il congiuntivo imperfetto. Also, there’s something so satisfying about learning a new word or expression and having an opportunity to use it (almost) right away!
Shows. I recently decided to pay for a month of Netflix and I’m trying to see if I can finish 4-5 mini-series during this month (I’ve come a long way since my excessive Netflix-watching days back in 2015-2019, so that's why I am not keeping it full time).
What I have watched so far: Adorazione (really nothing to write home about) and Maschi veri (this one I actually enjoyed). Right now I’m on episode 2 of Tutto chiede salvezza, but I'm not sure yet if I’ll continue to watch it.
Language courses. In my September recap I mentioned starting a B2.2 course at the Italian Language Center here in NYC. I initially paid for a spot in the B2.1 class, but they didn’t get enough people for that level, so the school offered me to go level down or level up. The courses are not cheap, so I thought I’d rather be placed in a class that’s above my level than waste my money in one below and decided to attend B2.2. I was a little nervous before the first class (what if the level isn't right for me?) and I was in for quite a surprise when the teacher emailed me after class saying she thought I’d be more suited for a C1 course. So here I am 5 weeks later, attending a C1.2 course! I was a little anxious at first (when I am not?), but the level ended up being just right for me.
This whole situation ended up teaching me something important: it is very hard to know your own level, especially if you don’t usually use level-marked materials (or use them very chaotically like I did). Here I was complaining to anyone who would listen about my lack of speaking skills and grammar knowledge, questioning whether I even have a “good B1”, when all it took is getting out of my self-study bubble to realize I’m not nearly as bad as I think!
German
My attitude towards learning German has been all over the place recently. I started the month not feeling very enthusiastic about it. Finding interesting materials that suit my level has been the biggest challenge in the last few months, because I’ve gotten to the point where I absolutely can not tolerate graded readers anymore but I (at least at the beginning of October) I was also nowhere near being able to read the stuff I want (so, literary or maybe even crime fiction).
I did finish a crime story for intermediate learners, and while the story was challenging language-wise, finishing it didn’t feel like an accomplishment because plot-wise it was pretty meh. This is when I had a “crazy” idea to try and read Antonio Tabucchi’s Sostiene Pereira, this time in German. For context, I first read it last October during my last year’s 100 days of reading and loved it so much that I also listened the audiobook a couple of months ago. Me rereading a book for the third time within a year? Unheard of! And yet I did! Knowing the story definitely made it easier, although at times it still felt like my head was going to explode from trying to process Tabucchi extra long sentences. Of course, I ended up having a good crying session after finishing the book (this is now a tradition).
Reading a book I actually cared about made me a lot more enthusiastic and (maybe even too) optimistic when it comes to tackling more difficult books in German. I am now struggling through Jenny Erpenbeck’s Wörterbuch and even I can’t believe my own audacity because every single sentence makes me go “wow, I understood literally nothing" (but using LingQ helps, of course).
As for other German-related activities, I basically gave up on them for the time being. I always find that not having something interesting to read or watch makes it very hard for me to find motivation for active studying, so I’m trying to find my groove with reading for the time being. We’ll see what happens next.