Nurja traveled to Rome with EF in February 2022 for 12 weeks. She talks about her time in Bella Italia and learning Italian at the EF language school.
Allora, as they say when you want to draw attention to yourself in Italy and tell something. My journey with EF began in mid-February. On Sunday, February 20, 2022, I was picked up on time at the airport in Rome and chauffeured directly to my host family.
Accommodation
I received a friendly and open welcome in the host family. The host family consisted of the mother Paola, her daughter Carolina and their dog Pimpa. Pimpa, who was unfortunately ill at the time, had bitten Paola a few days earlier, leaving Paola’s arm severely injured. Paola was in pain and her movement was restricted. Paola told us, my host sister Amélia and me, that she would contact the school and that we might have to change families in the next few days. That was the reason why we hadn’t quite settled in yet.
A few days passed and we didn’t know whether we could stay or not. This brought a certain amount of unrest into the house as we were literally living out of a suitcase and had to be prepared every day that we might be told that we had to move. Paola told us every day that she would contact the school and that we didn’t have to worry, but that didn’t happen and we felt a bit stuck. But Paola didn’t want that at all, it was a misunderstanding that we were able to clear up when I asked her about it.
However, due to this unrest described and other triggers, I thought about changing my host family or living situation. By triggers I mean, for example, that the host mother rarely if ever spoke to us and, for example, ate separately in the evening. When we tried to start a conversation, there wasn’t much response from her and she often switched to French. She probably wanted to accommodate us since we both speak French. However, we preferred to speak Italian so we could learn the language. It’s difficult to describe, Amélia and I both didn’t feel completely comfortable. Paola didn’t explicitly do anything wrong, but unfortunately it just didn’t fit.
In addition, after about a week, my host sister’s original plans changed. Amélia decided to go home after staying for two weeks instead of four because she had important family matters to take care of there. She had a conversation with the school director Cristina Pinti and Monica Uwaifo, who is responsible for administration and accommodation on site. Since I lived in the same household and was Amélia’s caregiver, I was brought in for the interview. In this conversation we were able to describe our situation at home together. I said clearly that it would be feasible for me to stay there, that I could handle it, but at the same time it was not my ideal. Both Cristina and Monica were very understanding and showed me several options as to how things could proceed (Residence B&B Trastevere, other host family…).
In the evening Amélia and I spoke to Paola. Amélia said that she was going home early for family reasons and I explained my situation and my thoughts. In the end we all agreed that it would be best if I moved into the residence and Paola took care of herself and herself can take care of her dog Pimpa. Afterwards I informed Monica of my decision and a few days later I was able to move. I immediately felt at home in the residence and was able to settle in quickly.
EF Roma
Now about school, in short this school is much better than I imagined. On the first day we were all welcomed warmly and motivated by the EF staff and were given a good introduction to everything we needed to know. Arrival, introduction, placement test and city tour – that was our Monday morning program. In the afternoon the first lesson started straight away. The placement test consisted of a written and an oral part. I had a little small talk with two teachers to see if I could speak and understand anything at all. This test showed that I can start at language level A2. This was a surprise for me as I had never really studied Italian seriously before and so thought I was starting from scratch.
I was slightly overwhelmed in the first lesson because it was a repetition of last week, which I was obviously missing. I felt like I only understood “train station”. However, the teachers struck a good balance between being considerate of the new students and at the same time not losing the thread of the lesson and neglecting other students. The first few days, I really thought I’d never learn all this. After a few days I got more and more used to the language and noticed that I could concentrate better and put together what I had learned piece by piece.
In the first two weeks, a big obstacle for me was that I mainly spoke French at home with the host family, as Amélia is from France and my host mother also enjoyed speaking French. So I initially had a confusion between French and Italian, as both languages have some similarities. I always had French words in my head whenever I wanted to speak Italian and vice versa. This made it difficult for me to learn Italian. But after these two weeks, when Amélia left, this changed. I spoke less French and was able to focus more on Italian.
From start to finish I was very motivated to learn new things and was always very happy to go to school. This was because after a while I was able to see my own progress and also had great classmates. What’s more, the teachers are all very young and always motivated. You can only wish for this type of teacher; they are people who are tailor-made for their profession. As a student, you get the feeling that for the teachers it’s not just another job to make money, but that it’s really important to them that we learn something and that they really care about each and every one of them. The lessons were usually very varied and entertaining. In Italian you were always allowed to ask questions and the teachers were happy to take time to answer your concerns. They also master the balance between friendship and competence very well. It was always a good mix between learning as much as possible, but not being too strict or stubborn. I really enjoyed going to school there. I can really count myself very lucky and thank the staff, the teachers and EF Roma in general.
Leisure time
In addition to the lessons, there were countless activities, from city tours, wine tastings 🍷, pizza courses 🍕, to day trips. I took part in a few activities and really appreciated hearing and speaking Italian in everyday situations, relaxed and informal.
I was really able to learn a lot during this time! Linguistically, interpersonally and also about myself. I would have liked to have stayed longer. Nothing is certain yet, but I’m really thinking about repeating or continuing this incredible journey with EF Roma.
