Italian at BLI: My New Year’s Resolution That Became a Boarding Pass to Adventure

Opinion Piece by Beth Mazza Robertson | 5 minute read

The New Year is a natural time for reinvention — a season of resolutions, bucket lists, and an exhausted return to normal. For me, January always feels like a giant exhale after the holidays: the kids head back to their real lives, the house looks a bit bare without all the colorful holiday decor, but I finally have time to catch my breath. In that calm, I often reflect on the year behind me and consider what I might change in the year ahead.

Every January for more than a decade, “Speak Italian” has appeared on my New Year’s resolution list. For me, there’s something powerful about writing it down — a reminder that my language-learning goals are not a hobby or a “someday-maybe” dream, but an investment in myself and in my lifelong desire to someday be able to say “Parlo italiano perfettamente”. And for the last three years, I’ve been signing up for in-person Italian class at Bend Language Institute to take concrete steps towards those three Italian words.

WHY IN-PERSON LANGUAGE LEARNING MATTERS:

There are plenty of ways to learn a new language. You can try apps like Duolingo or Rosetta Stone. You can listen to podcasts or watch YouTube videos. These are all great supplements, all of which I have done from time to time. But if you are lucky enough to have an option for in-person learning, you should take it!

Here in Bend, we have the Bend Language Institute where they offer in-person learning for 10 languages. There is something unique about an in-person class where you join together and form a cohort; often starting at the beginner level and moving up slowly to intermediate and then advanced. These small group classes give you an opportunity to ask questions, to find ways to put together your knowledge and learning in a way that online tools just cannot mimic.

And here’s the truth: people of all ages — not just young students — can benefit from in-person language learning. At BLI, the small-group environment creates something apps simply can’t replicate: community, accountability, and the space to practice real learning.

WHAT I NEED MOST:

Accountability: In-person class creates accountability that an app cannot do. When the class is fully engaged and having fun learning, I want to be there. I look forward to seeing my teacher and classmates and discussing the week’s events (in Italian, of course!)
Community: A cohort is a community – people I expect to see each week and often invite to lunch and meetups, both because I want to continue practicing the language but also because we all have something in common.
A safe space to struggle: A classroom where I can put to the test all parts of the language I’ve learned without worrying about competence or fluency. Everyone in the class will struggle; that’s a guaranteed part of the process.
Shared accomplishment: The sense of accomplishment that regular practice gives you. When my teacher smiles at my perfectly conjugated verb, or when my classmates applaud after I finish my fun presentation on the Wine Windows of Florence, this reinforces the sense of succeeding and learning.
Collaboration: It’s a collaborative effort for me and my cohort – it might be my classmate who explains a grammatical rule (what is a direct object pronoun anyway?!?). More often than not, we rely on each other for missing words, the definition of something or the dreaded verb conjugation, because when one of us learns, we all do.
Meaningful learning: This is the glue that holds it all together. I am not there because I need the credit or have to pass some test. I am there because I want to be and so does everyone else. Why? There are many reasons – perhaps it’s because they want to go to a new country and not feel like a stranger. Perhaps it’s because they want to communicate better with the people in their life or people they have yet to meet.

And the beauty of language learning is that it works at any age. My BLI classmates range from young people to retirees, and everyone moves forward together. I think adults — of any age — benefit enormously from in-person language classes. Learning a second language isn’t just about travel or cultural interest — it also serves as powerful cognitive exercise, improves brain elasticity, and enhances mental health and social connectedness (Antoniou & Wright, 2017; Bak et al., 2016).

BUT, DOES LEARNING ITALIAN REALLY BECOME A BOARDING PASS TO ADVENTURE?

Why bother even learning a new language? Beyond the fact that science has proven it is good for the brain to learn new things and having a growth mindset can improve pretty much every aspect of your life, could it lead to some new adventure?

Absolutely!

For me, learning Italian has led me to three new interesting adventures:

When I travel to Italy now, I feel confident going to smaller towns to seek out the non-touristy, true Italy, rather than just the big cities where everyone speaks English. On our last trip, we went to Alba in Piedmont and Bordighera in Liguria. Both are quaint, beautiful towns with unique cultures, traditions, and history — not to mention incredible food and wine. I felt confident at the train station, in taxis, at grocery stores and restaurants. Could I have had an in-depth conversation about a random topic like the six different football confederations in the World Cup? No, but I could find my way places, ask for directions and recommendations appropriately and make small talk, even share a little about myself.

Secondly, now every time I visit Italy, I enroll in an Italian language immersion school (Scuola per Stranieri). To date, I have spent 3 weeks in Florence, 3 weeks in Siena, 1 week in Sanremo and 2 weeks in Verona – all at different schools. Classes are typically held from 9am to 1pm which means you have time to tour and explore in the afternoon. Schools typically host afternoon outings, wine tastings, cooking classes and more. The other folks in your class may be English speaking, but they also may not, which means the only language you will all have in common is the language you all are learning. But just like the cohort that forms at BLI, the same happens in these language immersion schools and soon you’ll find yourself at a Valpolicella Wine Festival in front of a colosseum built in the first century AD during the reign of Emperor Augustus with three Germans coworkers, a Japanese woman, two best friends from Austria and a Venezuelan woman and her husband.

And lastly, during my time learning Italian, I researched my family’s ancestry and have been lucky enough to be granted Italian citizenship. I now have an Italian passport and have the right to stay in the EU for as long as I’d like. I have also broadened (and improved!) my professional life by incorporating my love for all things Italian into building an Italian Heritage & Travel Consulting Service; helping people plan their Italian Routes and/or research their Italian Roots! It’s called Italy Roots and Routes and you are welcome to visit my website and read some of the many recommendations I have for all the sights and sounds of Italy that I’ve experienced first-hand since 2019.

So my New Year’s resolution again will be to sign up for winter classes at BLI and then start planning my next Italian adventure… but first I need to double check that Viareggio has a school there!

I hope you sign up for winter classes at BLI today and start your own language adventure! And if learning Italian is on your list this year, spero che ci vediamo presto!