Four discoveries I made at my last Italian immersion retreat
Spending five days together wtih six adults is an incredible learning experience for everyone.
I just got back from one of my Italian language immersion retreats.
For those who are new here, every year, I host two Italian immersion retreats where for five days learners from all over the world experience life in my hometown, Gaeta. It’s a small town in Southern Italy, one hour by train from Naples and Rome. It has a tiny, friendly community with a slow pace of life and seems apparently forgotten by time.
It’s perfect if you’re looking to build genuine Italian connections where nobody will answer you in English and people always have time to chat with you.
On my return, I usually share life lessons that I learned during the event and retreat highlights as a sort of celebration of language immersions but also to give a taste of the retreat to people who weren’t able to join. So, here we go.
We’re here to learn from each other.
What I’ve always hated about traditional classrooms, is the focus on the teacher who knows everything and shares his /her knowledge with learners who apparently don’t contribute in any way.
During the Retreat, and working with me in general, we learn from each other.
Yes, sure, I might know more Italian and have a trick or two to share with you about learning strategically but during language immersions, the language coach learns as well.
We always learn when we share our own individual stories and experiences with each other.
It’s perfect. How often can you get six adults from three different countries and different age groups together to make friends and share their life stories, hopes, and dreams? Sadly, this is not something that happens a lot naturally and I’m so happy that my retreat paves the ground for this sort of connection.
But it’s not only that.
As language learners, when you get six adults together, all at different moments of their Italian journey but also at different stages in life, learning happens as a shared language experience. That’s because learners speak to each other, assess each other’s level and give mutual emotional ( vital!) and linguistic support.
During the Retreat, for me, it was beautiful to hear the group chat about their own strategies and how their language journey is. As a fellow language learner, I know what a lonely thing it is to be passionate about languages and have nobody to share your interest with. Having people in real life to chat about all things languages, is soooo liberating.
That’s not all. In my retreats, I keep people at different levels within the intermediate group. So what happens is that learners with a weaker knowledge of Italian get to spend time with more advanced learners and that’s where the magic happens. Learning doesn’t happen only when you’re speaking with a native but also when you’re speaking to someone at a different level.
We’re here to learn from each other when we show up and share our stories and in a safe space, we don’t fear judgement. We grow.
Food and sharing meals.
The relationship within the group grew over a few days. By day three, everyone was eating and sharing their dishes with everyone else. We’d talk about food and when we happened to order something very tasty, we’d excitedly share it with the rest of the group.
That’s what Italy is all about. Sharing moments with other people over food.
After eating, the first thing an Italian will ask you is Come hai mangiato? How was it? And on forth will come all the details of what made that meal good or not so good.
These are the staples of Italian culture. Getting to a point where you as an outsider feel comfortable doing that is a big learning experience.
Another great moment was cooking Iole’s legendary carbonara together. Iole is the owner of Volver, the B&B I use during my Gaeta Retreats. Aurea got a chance to help out ( something that Iole rarely allows because her kitchen is tiny).
Some wine was opened, life stories were told.
Iole’s idea is that the only way of eating carbonara is with pasta corta. I think the exact opposite is true ( real carbonara only with pasta lunga) but that didn’t keep me from enjoying an amazing meal and finishing it up with homemade limoncello.
We sat down at 1 pm and got up from the table at 4 pm. It was one of those neverending lunches.
Prepositions are important
One afternoon, I’d arranged to meet up with everyone in the WhatsApp group next to the cinema.
I wrote: Ci vediamo davanti al cinema alle cinque. We’ll meet in front of the cinema at 5 pm.
Then, I took a seat at the nearby café waiting for everyone to show up. Over my cup of caffé macchiato I saw each and every one of my students walk beyond me and into the cinema. They had all understood Ci vediamo al cinema and just assumed that we were having class at the cinema.
Each of the participants walked in and asked about me to the bewildered staff of the cinema
Then we laughed over it at the nearby cafè. They sounded so sure that I’d said to meet at the cinema that I double-checked the message I’d written in WhatsApp.
That’s the material for language memories and is such evidence of how it is important to make mistakes if you really want to learn.
Eat like a local
Another memorable moment was when David asked the waitress what they had to offer on the menu and she said there was spaghetti alle parnocchie, a local dish.
David, this is something I admire in him, was always trying to taste new dishes. So, when the waitress explained that parnocchie were a local seafood famous for being extremely hard to eat and known also as “ spaccalabbra ( lip-breakers) he felt he HAD to eat it.
Parnocchie are extremely hard to eat but very tasty. The trick is to understand that they have very little flesh, open them strategically and suck the juice out of it.
Needless to say that despite my food coaching, parnocchie lived up to their reputation of being lip breakers! In this tiny video, you can see Dave struggling with the parnocchie.
The weather was bad but the last day…
The last evening was magical. The weather was perfect.
The sky was that perfect blue that you get right after a long storm. A bright blue that brings out the color in every single thing so that everything stands out magically.
We went to the old part of town to the main sights.
We witnessed a rosario being performed in the church of the Annunziata. That prompted a conversation about religion and prayers in different languages. And then we walked to the top of the town where you could see the Castello Angioino-Aragonese and the Chiesa di San Francesco. As I said, the view was stunning.
One last aperitivo all’ aperto where the pigeons tried to snag away a bit of our nibbles and then we witnessed the most beautiful sunset.
So, what can I say? It was a wonderful experience and every time, I’m surprised at how much we can learn given the right prompts.
Have you ever been on a language immersion retreat?
If this experience is something that speaks to you, make sure you join the Retreat waiting list. I have one last spot for September and I’m already accepting applications for 2024.
