Introducing myself, Raffaele V., Florence, Italy

Introduce Yourself Here
#1

Hello,

It’s me, Raffaele.V from Florence/Italy!
About me: Italian man, aged 51. In the languages’ world since a very early age, grown up surrounded by people from all over the world. Curious observer, unbeatable reader, passionate for languages, cultures, world literature and history. Eager traveler both for work and leisure, I am very happy when I am able to speak the visited language’s country. I am a literary translator running a translation agency together with friends. .

My native or near-native languages: Italian

My C1/C2 languages: C2: Swedish, Spanish, English, French
C1: German, Danish

My B1/B2 languages: B2: Finnish, Russian
B1: Catalan, Quechua

My A1/A2 languages: A2: Indonesian, Malay, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Persian
A1: Faroese, Icelandic, Turkish, Hebrew

I also want to learn or have started to learn: Xhosa, Burmese, Thai, Mongolian, Vietnamese, Javanese, Batak, Sundanese, Madurese, Balinese, Minangkabau, Nahuatl, Aymara, Hindi

To find out more about me, you can visit http://Instagram: raffesvensson.

Looking forward to talking with you all and sharing our love of languages!

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#2

Bravo, Raffaele! I’m happy to “meet” you here.

#3

Molto piacere di conoscerti qui Raffaele!
Hai imparato molto lingue, è impressionante e motivazionale!
Questi giorni sto imparando sopratutto l’italiano e il norvegese (Penso che siano due delle lingue più belle del mondo)…but I also have not seen many on this forum interested, let alone B1 level, in Quechua! I fell in love with the Andes of Ecuador during 2 months living there (bird watching mostly), and while I only used Spanish I really would like to learn Quechua someday before returning to that part of the world. May I ask how you learned it? If you would be willing to share any tips that would be really great, I am sure others would also be interested, grazie mille!

#4

Ciao Steve,

fa piacere anche a me incontrare altre persone con le quali condividere la passione per le lingue. Sono italiano, vivo vicino a Firenze e tra le altre cose ho una grandissima passione per le lingue straniere.
Sei bravo a scrivere in italiano, sai? Se vuoi, possiamo fare conversazione. Sono un vero e proprio “language nerd”!
I got my major in Scandinavian languages in Italy and I spent 5 years in Scandinavia, mostly in Sweden and Denmark, but travelling (and partly working) also in Norway, Finland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Then I moved to Perù, where I lived for 4 years, improving my Spanish and getting acquainted with indigenous languages such as Quechua, Ashaninka, Aymara. The opportunity was too big not to take it, so I decided to attend courses in Quechua; I got in touch with a Quechua native speaker teacher and I attended private lessons in Lima during 2 years and a half. It was one of the best experiences I ever got in my whole life! I am far from speaking it fluently, but I can lead a conversation about simple topics.
Now, I am dedicating myself to Indonesian, a fantastic and surprisingly reach language with a very interesting and still unknown literature. then, the language “wish list” is very very long…

Un abbraccio.

Raffaele

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#5

Thank you for sharing your fascinating story, sounds like lots of language adventures! Scandinavia has a special place in my heart too, though I have only been to Sweden on 2 short visits and Denmark for a long weekend (Easter break road trip from Dresden to Jutland) and then a trekking trip with friends in breathtaking Iceland, but I still have to explore much more especially Norway and Finland, whose languages I especially want to learn at least to a B2 level for communication (and so many more places of course).
And I am glad you took that opportunity to go to Peru; I bet that must have been an unrivaled chance to learn Quechua with native speakers of an ancient beautiful culture and right there in the backyard of Machu Picchu, incredible! I never even heard about those other languages (partial weekend homework now)
In bocca al lupo con l’indonese! That reminds me to get back to and dust off my Malay before it rusts too much lol, visited peninsular and Borneo parts of Malaysia 2 years back (mostly for bird watching but love the language there too, Indonesian will shortly follow of course!)

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#6

Hi Teresa,

My pleasure!

Grazie!

#7

Ciao Steve,

Indonesian…I’m it it right now! So fascinating! Well, all South-East Asian languages are terrific… even though I’m particularly in love with Burmese and Thai (Looooove it!). Have put my feet into Dzongkha too (at that time it was very difficult to find material about it) and have been trying to cope with Lepcha, an endangered language in the Himalaya, spoken mostly in Sikkim.

Well, I am afraid just one life is not enough for me for all the language I would like to get a proficiency in…

Hugs from Florence!

Raffaele

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