Covid update 2
First things first, welcome to my new domain! You will no longer have to click on an annoying link to get to me, you can simply head on over to filipporicci.eu. Slowly but surely, I should start appearing in search engines (fingers crossed). Most of us officially survived their first week of quarantine and therefore teleworking. I gotta say, it’s not that bad. The situation here in Rome is not nearly as bad as it is in Lombardy, the north of Italy (where Milan is). Family and friends are luckily all well. Most of us here just want it to end. It’s been an interesting week. Social interactions are happening online, whether it’s whatsapp, skype, zoom, or whatever other platform you may be using. People started having virtual coffees and meals together. It’s fun. Tomorrow we’ve even got our staff drinks at 17.30, we called it quarantini (get it?). One of the best things about my quarantine experience is having dogs. Being a dog owner, you are the shit. Not only you’ll be picking up a whole lot of it (that happens all the time), but also, you have an excuse to go enjoy fresh air. I am confident the dogs all over Italy are tired. My dogs have to be dragged out and want to stay home. It’s what academics worldwide refer to as the reversal of fortunes hypothesis(hah). Now I know that quarantines are starting all over Europe. How is that for you all? Send me an email and let me know. Something beautiful that has been happening is the development of a shared national identity. At 6 o’clock every evening, since the second or third quarantine day, people started signing, all over Italy, from their balconies. Check out the end of this blog post for more… In the meantime, here’s the actual blog post.
In this time of isolation, we need to have company. As I’ve mentioned, a lot of us resorted to having virtual coffee breaks and meals and/or more frequent calls. During one of these calls, just last week, a designer and great friend of mine Lorenzo (check out his own company’s website materie unite) sent me something amazing. Imagine being able to tap into a stream of culture, that is happening, all the time. What I’m talking about of course, is radio. Now, radio has existed for a long time now, so how is this any news, and why should it be part of the fluent blog? The problem with radio of course, is that it is relatively short range, at least as far as our distances today are concerned. Raise the curtain for, drum roll please… Radio Garden! Radio Garden is an interactive collection of worldwide radio stations that you can tap into, any time you want. Why is this important? Remember I was talking a lot about immersion, in particular, soaking up as much of a language as possible. This is not always easy, however. It’s a great experience, if you’ve got a lot of, say, Indonesian friends who can constantly supply you with a stream of Indonesian music, food, language and culture. It’s quite another experience if, because in American suburbia east-jesus-nowhere, and you are trying to learn Indonesian. The internet is your best friend, but still it may be difficult to find useful resources that aren’t purely academic. How do I know what’s hot in Indonesia right now? For music it’s the top 40 right? And what usually plays top 40 stuff? Bingo. Yahtzee. Goal. GG well played.
Not only you’ll be hearing whatever’s popular right now in your target country, you’ll also be hearing people speak colloquially. And who best to teach you how to speak than radio djs, people who are specifically selected because they have a most beautifully disposed voice for speaking to millions? You can thank Lorenzo by checking out his website.
It’s beautiful. When Lorenzo called me, he said something along the lines of: “It’s incredible. I mean, imagine and old man, far away from here, listening to the same stuff you are listening to in this very moment.” A person that lived a completely different life, that took the road not taken (bonus points if you get the reference). I mean, radio was one of the first phenomena to truly move information across kilometers and kilometers of land, like it’s never been done before. Pimped up by the internet, it became your very own language learning tool. Head on over to Radio Garden right now, and listen to a bunch of radio stations. You can do this anytime. Though you are studying, you can have it play in the background while you are cooking. Immerse yourself. Check out my blog post on this. One of my favorite Turkish radio stations is Özgürüz from Istanbul. Have fun with it. Remember, we humans absorb language, we don’t learn it. Listen, watch, and speak as much as you can. Here's a picture I took today at sunset, gazing westward towards San Giovanni, from my apartment in Pigneto, while La donna cannone by de Gregori was playing full volume.
Speaking of radio…
To end, I would like to mention that this Friday, at 11 o’clock in the morning, all Italian national radio stations will be broadcasting the national anthem. L’inno di Mameli. Here's a news article (in Italian). Some of you might have seen videos of us Italians going crazy with songs at night, in the midst of this corona pandemic. The problem is that, it’s hard to start singing the same song. Originally spread through a chain whatsapp message, I don’t think anybody expected for this thing to actually kick off. To tune in on Radio Garden, this Friday, at 11 o’clock GMT +1, all you need to do is click on any of the Italian radio stations.
Stay beautiful,
calypso.
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