CBI 1-07 | Asking for directions in Italian

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Coffee Brick Italian, Season 1, Episode 7. Good morning everyone, I'm Mark. Good morning, I'm Francesca. Hi, I'm Katie. And we're back with another episode of Coffee Brick Italian. We hope that you're enjoying the series and if this is the first episode you're joining us for, then do know that you can go back to the beginning and learn from the very beginning of Italian with us. So Francesca, how are you today? It's okay, it's you, Mark, how are you? Oh no, why? Oh, too much work. Too much work. Too much work. And what do you do today? Don't be bad, thanks. Perfect. So we're back today with another episode, the last time we were looking at numbers, and this time we're going to change things and learn how to talk about places in the town. Allora, siamo pronti. We're going to begin today's lesson with a little bit of recap. Last time we were looking at numbers, so let's go through the numbers again from 1 to 10. I'll say the English, Francesca, you can say the Italian, and of course we can have everyone repeating after Francesca and then finally we'll return to Katie. Va bene? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. I wonder if you remember the word for zero. Katie, what was the word for zero? Sero? Si brava Katie. Excellent. Okay, last time we also looked at talking about family members and seeing how many brothers or sisters or sons and daughters you had and so on. So can you remember the word for a sister, Katie? Una sorella. Good. And what about a brother? Un fratello. Good, so you remember that it's una for feminine words and un for masculine words, masculine members of the family, feminine members of the family. Now we also learned how to say you have more than one brother and that word changes in that situation so it's not una sorella, but for example two sisters would be? Two sorelle. And what about four brothers? Quatro fratelli. Excellent. Let's put this to the test now. Katie, can you tell us how you would say I have three sisters and remember the word for I have, it's a small word. Do you remember that one? Oh. Okay, so I have three sisters, let's give her a listener some time. Oh, tres sorelle. Perfecto. Oh, tres sorelle. What about I have two sons and one daughter? Oh, two children and one daughter. There's that difficult ilje sound in there, the word for a son. Filje. And daughter. Filje. Sons. Filje. And daughters. Filje. It's tricky stuff. It is. I think it's time now to move on to our new topic for today. And in this topic, we're going to be looking at places in the town. If you're on holiday in Italy or another Italian speaking area, then it's very useful to be able to ask, for example, where is the square? Where is the restaurant? Where is the beach? Perhaps. And that's exactly what we're going to do today. However, before we get into that, perhaps we need to know how to stop someone in a street and ask for help. Jessica, how would you say "excuse me"? Well, very easy. You would say "scusey". Let's try saying that. Scusey. Scusey. Now, you can use that word "scusey" with a person that you don't know. So, if you're stopping someone in the street, it's perfectly okay to say "scusey". Francesca, if you said that to someone, what's the most likely response? Because sometimes, as a learner, it's scary talking to someone. You don't know what they're going to say back to you, especially if your accent is so good because you've been listening to Coffee Break Italian that they think you're a native. Of course. Well, you can hear people saying simply "see", and they might add "dika" afterwards, meaning "tell me" in a formal way. Okay, so if I said to use "scusey", "see", "dika". And then I can go on and ask my question. My question is going to be where is. And let's ask a really important one first. We're going to enjoy some wonderfully Italian food. And I want to ask where is the restaurant. Now, the word for the restaurant is a word that I'm sure you're familiar with. You've probably seen it on many, many Italian restaurants. It's il ristorante. Si, il ristorante. Now, we already know the word for "where", and that is. Dove. And the word for "is" is "eh". Eh. Now, you might be thinking that you recognize this word, and you're quite right. We'll come back to that in a moment, though. So we can see where is, and dove, and eh join up to become dove. Dove. So let's try and put together where is the restaurant? Dove il ristorante. Dove il ristorante. Dove il ristorante? Mark, I recognize dove. We learned that when we were saying di dove. Di dove. Literally from where are you, di dove. And that's the formal form of are you, dove. But it's also used as is it, where is it? Dove. Dove il ristorante. Don't worry too much about this just now. Dove il ristorante. Dove il ristorante. Dove il ristorante. Oh, timo. Let's learn some other places in the town that you might want to ask for. Let's learn the park. The park is. Il parco. Il parco. Nice and easy. What about the city center? Sometimes you need to get to the city center. And again, that's quite straightforward. The city center. Il centro. Listen again. Il centro. Il centro. Okay, so il centro, the city center. How would you say, where is the city center? Kitty. Dove il centro. Bravo, Kitty. Dove il centro. Tracing, where is the park? Kitty. Dove il parco. It's good, Kitty, but just watch. It's dove, dove, and not dove. It's actually two separate words, dove, and e. So to avoid the two e, dove, e. It's easier to say dove. Dove. Dove. Okay, much better, Kitty. So where is the park? Dove il parco. Exactly, just think about the stress coming on that e. Dove il parco. Dove il parco. Dove il ristorante. Dove il centro? Dove il centro? Can you repeat it for me, Katie? Dove il centro? Ok, molto bene. Let's learn one more word, and that word would be something that many, many Italian towns would have, and it's il Duomo. Il Duomo. Katie, do you know what il Duomo is? I have been to Milan, so I think it's the cathedral. It is indeed the cathedral. Il Duomo. Il Duomo. One interesting thing to remember is that very often even small towns in Italy have a main church, il Duomo. So the Duomo could just really be the main church in a town? Yeah, very often, yes. OK, in the local village that my family's from in Tuscany and Barga, this is certainly not a major city with a cathedral, but there is definitely a Duomo. OK, so far we've been looking at four different places in the town, and all of these have used the word il for il Duomo, il centro, il parco, and il ristorante. We've already come across other words, for example the word for brother, fratello. The brother is il fratello. Il fratello. The father would be? Il padre. OK, so the is il. However, it's il for masculine words. So fratello and padre makes sense. These are masculine words they refer to male members of the family. But in Italian, even other words have gender. Indeed all nouns have gender. There are either masculine or feminine. So in Italian, the Duomo, the ristorante, the centro, the parco, these are all masculine words. Il Duomo, il centro, il parco, il ristorante. We also, however, have feminine words. We already know the word for a sister. Sorella. Mother. Madre. And we did another word in our bonus episode where we always take a look at some extra vocabulary. The word for a grandmother was? Nonna. OK, and all of these use the word la for the definite article, the word for the. So we would say la nonna. La nonna. The grandmother. La sorella. La sorella. And equally in Italian we can talk about, for example, la stazione. La stazione. Can you guess what the stazione would be in the town? In the station? Correct. So la stazione. La stazione. How do we see? Where is the station? Dove la stazione? Si, benissimo. Dove la stazione? So la stazione is the station. Let's learn. Oh, there's another word, another la word that we know already. And that is the word for the square. We've heard this in Francesca's Café Cultural already. What's the word for the square? La piazza. Perfecto. So how would we say where is the square? Dove la piazza. Excellent. Dove la piazza. Dove la piazza. Ottimo. So we have la stazione. La piazza. Another feminine word, another la word could be. La spiaggia. Ah, molti portante. Ah, sì. A very important word indeed is la spiaggia. La spiaggia. La spiaggia. It's a little tricky to say. Let's hear it again. La spiaggia. La spiaggia. So how would you say where is the beach? Dove la spiaggia. Perfecto. Dove la spiaggia. And one final la word that we hope you don't have to visit while you're in Italy is the chemist or the pharmacy. Listen to this one. La farmaccia. La farmaccia. Now, a little note for anyone who speaks Spanish. This is something I always get mixed up with. Personally, it's la farmaccia in Italian, but la farmaccia in Spanish. So if you're a Spanish speaker, remember that the stress is different in Italian. La farmaccia. La farmaccia. La farmaccia. So how would we say where is the chemist or the pharmacy? Dove la farmaccia. Benissimo, molto bene. Now, it's all very well knowing the question here. Dove la stazione. Dove la spiaggia. Dove il centro. But it's also important to understand the possible answers. However, it's sometimes difficult to know what is coming as your answer and, indeed, in future lessons, we'll be looking at lots of complex responses to this question like take the fourth street on the right and go over the bridge or other responses like that. For now, I'd like you to imagine this scenario where you're standing with your map and you're asking someone and asking a passerby where is the centro. Dove il centro. So that passerby could point to your map and say it's here. Francesca, how would you say it's here? This is an easy one. É qui. Qu'è ti ripedia? É qui. É qui. Qui is the word for here. So it is here. É qui. É qui. Or you might hear the cathedral or the main church is here. Il doamo è qui. Il doamo è qui. To be honest, I think that any Italian asked that question is very likely to answer by saying, "Look, the main church is here. Listen to this." Guardi il doamo è qui. That word guardi means look. Guardi il doamo è qui pointing to the map. Can you try saying that? Let's imagine you're giving directions to someone. Guardi il doamo è qui. Perfetto. Acelente. Ok, we're going to take a short break there and we'll be back in just a moment. Stai imparando l'italiano, certo? Ma vuoi imparare anche un'altra lingua? Did you know that you can also learn French, Spanish, German and Chinese with coffee break? Or if you'd like a quick espresso shot of another language, you can try one of our 26 and 1 minute language courses from Arabic to Zulu. For all your language learning needs, go to coffeebreaklanguages.com. During Lowe's pro savings days, my Lowe's pro rewards members can save up to 20% when they buy more job-side materials. If you save 20%, when you buy 30 or more select bats and rolls of fiberglass insulation, 24 more cartons or pales of joint compound, tape and bead, or when you spend $200 or more on free and painting and job-side essentials, members give more, it loads. Val of the 195, while supplies last, selection varies by location. Program subject to terms and conditions, silos.com/terms for details, subject to change. Now is the time to make a real change, in your life, career and community. Visit WaldenU.edu. Walden University, set a course for change, certified to operate by chef. Listen to this ACAST show, add free on Amazon Music with your Prime Membership, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, let's get on with the lesson. In this episode, we've already had some interesting cultural information from Francesca about the fact that many, even small Italian towns, have Il Dhuomo, the main church. But it's time now to turn to Francesca for a little more culture. As you're learning a language, it's important to learn a little about the culture along the way. So let's go to Francesca for our latest installment of the Café Culturale. Today, I'm going to tell you a little about an important event in the Italian calendar. You probably know about Rio Carnivore, but did you know that Venice, Venezia, also celebrates Carnivore, Il Carnivale? The city comes to life from the end of January until the events and the festivities draw to a close on the show of Tuesday, Martedì Grasso, literally Fat Tuesday. The most iconic symbol of Italian. Carnival has to be the elaborate masks, le masqueré, that are worn by thousands of participants, tourists can buy or hire masks and costumes in the city centre of Venetia, where there are apparently more mask makers, masquereri than butchers. There are even contests to judge which is the best costume in the city. Carnival has been around for centuries but over the years there have been many laws banning the wearing of masks. Traditionally, the masks and the costumes offer the freedom to the lower classes as they could disguise themselves throughout the festival and attend bowls, parties and feast with the richer members of the society. The traditions of Carnival are popular throughout Italy and attract thousands of tourists each year and maybe you will be the next. And if you do head to Carnival in Venetia or indeed anywhere else and you have some photos, then do feel free to post those photos on our facebook page. Okay, it's time now to put some of this language into a conversation. Katie, I want you to listen to this conversation and indeed all our listeners should be listening to this conversation and trying to work out what's happening here. The idea is that we are in my little home from home, my Italian town in Barca in Tuscany and Francesca is a tourist wandering around the streets. I've been living there for many, many years so I'm going to be able to give Francesca directions. Va bene Francesca? Benissimo. All right, good morning. Excuse me. Can I help you? Yes, tell me. Where is the park? The park is here. Perfect, thank you. Where is the farm? Oh, the farm. Look, the farm is here. Oh, perfect. Thank you for coming. Now, there were a couple of words in this conversation, which you're perhaps not familiar with. We had "Lontano", which is far away, and "Vicino" close by. Listen to the conversation again and this time see how much you can understand. Buongiorno, excuse me, Ok, Katie. So obviously we were pointing at the map and so on saying, where the first place was, what was the first place that we were looking for? The park. The park. And the park is here. Yes, indeed, pointing to the map. And then the second place that Francesca was looking for was? La farmacia. La farmacia. And when I pointed to the map and said "La farmacia é qui", Francesca asked a question, she said, "É lontano". Try repeating that. É lontano. And that means "Is it far?" É lontano. And my answer was, "No, no, no, no, it's not far." É vicino. It's near, it's close by. Try saying "É vicino". É vicino. And then I finally said, "É a cinque minuti". What do you think that means? It's five minutes from here. It's at a distance of five minutes. É a cinque minuti. Perfecto. So, hopefully now you know some places in the town. And if you'd like to learn a few more places in the town, then you can use our bonus episode. And the bonus episode is part of our premium materials. Head over to coffeebreakitalianplus.com to find out more about how you can access these materials. The bonus materials include the bonus audio. They also include a set of notes explaining some of the language and indeed a transcript of our conversations. And of course the video version of this main lesson. And as always, head over to our Facebook page at www.facebook.com forward slash coffeebreakitalian, where you can practice the language you've learned today. And if you are on Twitter, we are at LearnItalian. This is a production of the RadioLinua Network. Find out more at www.radioLinua.com. During Lowes Pro Savings days, my Lowes Pro rewards members can save up to 20% when they buy more job-site materials. Or when you spend $200 and more on free and painting and job-site essentials, members give more at Lowes. Val of U-95, while supplies last, selection varies by location, program subject to terms and conditions, see Lowes dot com slash terms with details, subject to change. 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