Thinking more about why I was so reluctant to start a blog, I think I have identified another reason: "false friends". I taught English for many years in a Liceo Linguistico and used this label for those words which were very similar in both English and Italian - SO similar that over the years one "infected" the other. For example, the English "tranquility" and the Italian "tranquillità " or "canceled" and "cancellato" causing the double "l" mixup. Or "imagine" and "immaginare". The list is very long and I find so often that I HAVE been "contaminated". By now, my two languages blend seamlessly (almost) and often seem much like a single entity. I find myself borrowing from one or the other and mixing them at times, NOT something I am proud of. I am ( or was, at least) a perfectionist and to think that I could be unaware of misspelling basic words and combining parts of the two languages bothered...and still bothers me.
Another subtle problem which has crept up on me is writing style. The longer-subordinate-clause-sentences, the flowery descriptions, the syntax of the Italian has influenced my English, resulting often in a stilted, slightly awkward written English. It often leaves the reader with a sense of "oddness".
Nevertheless, I am trying to throw these concerns to the wind, realizing that even these things are part of me, of someone who has spent far more than half of her life in Italy and who is actually a "hybrid". Of someone who dreams in both languages, depending on the subject, of someone who shares only ONE language with her Italian husband, of someone who was the only foreigner in town for many years and NEVER had an Italian friend who spoke English.
So, bear with me when you see examples of "false friends", language mixing or stilted style in my entries. I guess there are worse things, right.
