Miriam E Lewis

Hello! So, as you know I'm currently learning Italian the fun/scary/crazy way. I'm also doing it on a budget.

When I first decided to go for this scheme I set about trying to get a foundation of knowledge the cheapest possible way. Here are some of the things I did (all of which were entirely FREE:

• Raided the library for Audiobooks. Its costs to rent these but the staff were fine with me uploading them to my laptop there and then for free. Make sure to check at your library though, you don't want to annoy anyone! The one I went back to again and again was Pimsleur's Italian Short Course. I did dabble in another called Italian Language Builder but I found it far too advanced.

• Language Learning Sites. I spent quite a lot of time on BBC Languages' Italian section working through their tests. I found their pattern pretty good and it made you aware of how much you were learning as you went. Pretty nice for just a quick test to see how much you might know as well. I recommend you start your learning there!

• Downloaded Podcasts. Admittedly I didn't get a lot of use from these but that's mostly because it was quite a bit later on I found them and, for me, they were too short for one listening session. Either way if you want short bursts of knowledge this could be for you. The ones I tried were My Daily Phrase Italian and One Minute Italian.

• Listened to the audiobooks. In my sleep, on the way to work, whilst I was doing chores, whilst I was drawing and whilst I bathed. Basically for any task that didn't require me reading or writing at the same time. I didn't necessarily pay full attention but listening to these especially the Pimsleur book really helped me.

• Listened to Italian radio. As I knew I was going to Firenze I started putting on various Italian radios until I found one that suited my tastes. I then took my favourite songs and made a small Spotify playlist. Beware though most radios play a LOT of English language songs so all you'll really hear is jingles. Fiesole100 and Radio Rock Roma were my favourites. I used Tune In to find them and streamed them through iTunes which worked okay.

• Skimmed through language guides. Well in my case it was 5 little freebie guides from The Guardian newspaper from awhile back. They weren't particularly useful for me but they were entertaining and nicely written.

• Listened to a tailored Spotify playlist. Using the songs I liked from Italian radio I managed to build up a pretty decent playlist which you can listen to if you like. Listening to these built up an awareness and I actually get the songs in my head quite often and find myself singing them. The song Punto I found myself singing today and actually using my new knowledge to mentally translate- which was both unexpected and fun! I have two playlists one with catchy Italian songs and one of Italian soundtracks of Disney films which was good for association. On the catch Italian songs playlist I recommend listening to Indietro / Breathe Gentle which has two versions one with an English/Italian duet, quite interesting even if it is just standard pop music.

• Talking to Italian friends. This is pretty good for people who know the language quite well but for me it was tricky. Having said that my friend helped me grasp the basics better and got me understanding basic pronounciation.

Hey all, so you may know I'm off to Italy to work and study soon. I'm heading out thanks to ECTARC and their Leonardo program. As part of this scheme we get training in our chosen language for a week then we get shipped out to our city- in my case Firenze (Florence) and there its 3-4 weeks of language learning time then into a 9-10 week work placement.

I'm due to fly out to Firenze (Florence) this Saturday and I'm pretty darn excited to say the least! Before starting this scheme my biggest language based achievement was a D in short course second lanuage GCE Welsh. I used to be ashamed of that but now I see it as just a sign that I was brought up in a very small closed world- I never even went abroad until I was 21. A little while ago I was given the chance to expand my cultural mind with Transformat Lab where we briefly visited Budapest and Paris. In less than a week in each place we learned so much about the cultures and even some language it was amazing- and that wasn't even the number one focus of what we were doing!

When the chance came along to join the ECTARC Leonardo scheme I was surprised and shocked- 3 months in Italy! Its insane. I'm a valleys girl. I grew up thinking Cardiff was far away and not seeing the point in going abroad. True story. Just ask my friends Amy Brazier or Nick Clackett and they'll regale you with stories of trying to broaden my mind whilst I stayed stubborn to my roots. And like my D in Welsh I'm not ashamed to admit it. I was wrong, there's this whole fantastical world out there! Anyway, enough about that.

The main thing I want to say is, I'm about to head out to spend 3 months in Firenze and I'm quivering in my practical-boots with both excitement and fear! I'm heading out with a group of other Welshies (all of which seem far more worldly and amazing than me) and we'll be dotted around Italy working.

I've been keeping a journal and I intend to scan and upload the pictures periodically for your viewing wonder! Despite the length of this post I'm not very big on words and I think the journal entries will better explain the ups and downs of this whole scheme for me.

For now here's a really grainy photo of my wonderful and evolving journal:

Hey guys so this week I decided to start a new group for some friends on Facebook. The group is called Cardiff Weekly Art Challenge and its already grown quickly and people I've never met have contributed.
Basically there is a weekly theme that people can contribute their art to. Last week was Muppets and here's my entry:

Hello blog, I got busy and forgot to update you. A lot of the work I've done can;t be shown until the relative, film/game is released and I'm currently reviewing my blog and showreel so, for now, here's a sort of placeholder. I did it in a lunch break whilst working on a horror film a little while ago. Took no more than half an hour.