Keep Calm and Learn Italian

As you might have guessed, Mr. Brit reads my blog. Yep, he’s one of the five of you that are becoming aficionados! He enjoys it (of course, the blog is about him mainly, so how can he not enjoy it!) he comments on some articles (via text or phone) and he generally likes it.

Therefore, since he actually IS reading the blog and since what I say on the blog usually sticks with him…well I found a way to teach him some Italian! I’ve decided to open a brand new category and regularly post a tidbit on the Italian language. Hopefully he’ll learn something that way — and this new category can actually be useful for any of you five readers that are looking to improve their Italian language skills.

Plus, I’ve been talking about opening a blog to teach Italian, one word at the time, for ages — and this seems to be the perfect compromise!

Basically, ho unito l’utile al dilettevole, as we say — i.e. I’ve combined something that I enjoy doing (writing about my language) with something that is useful (sneakily teaching Mr. Brit some Italian.)

Unire l’utile al dilettevole literally means “combine the useful (utile) with the pleasurable (dilettevole)” and can be used anytime you kill two birds with one stone, anytime you find a way to turn something pleasurable in useful or viceversa.

For instance, maybe you guys like playing volleyball and you also need to lose a couple of pounds: unite l’utile al dilettevole when you go and play volleyball which is a very intense physical activity and will help you lose weight as well. Or maybe you love cats and your neighbor needs somebody to take care of his cat when he’s away: unite l’utile al dilettevole by spending time with the cat, which is something you like, and also helping out your neighbor, who otherwise would have been stuck with a very hungry and lonely cat.

The verb unire is an irregular verb (meaning it doesn’t follow all the other verbs when conjugated) and goes like this: io (I) unisco, tu (you) unisci, lui/lei (he/she) unisce, noi (we) uniamo, voi (you) unite, loro (they) uniscono.

All clear?!

When’s the last time you avete unito l’utile al dilettevole?