sele,I'm thinking... should I send to you your books?

Arya, it is a threat! You've never met him!
I've got an idea, I can send him to whoever chooses your shifts

Carla, don't worry about the books. I'll come and visit you in Bologna (I love that town!), unless you really like to write letters & send parcels like me, in which case I'll give you my address

I've got your address!
or not?

No idea - why would you have my address? Uhm, maybe I put it on the envelope when I sent you the books?

yes...you put like a adesivo (I don't know the word in english... )

stick?

I like this topic......is very useful.....

Sticker

I adore this topic. A while ago I was getting upset because I felt I was talking/writing in Italian too frequently, and of course I was blaming Equiweb for it This is just the perfect solution

Carla....how is with your lessons?

I haven't start jet but I'm doing some introductory lessons........uni's life is very cool!

I am feeling very melancholic these days and really wish I could go back to Uni as a student, I mean

The other day I was telling Ombra that I've developed a tendency to treat Equiweb as a microcosm. Just now I was thinking that we could write a sociological essay on the two 'foreign language' topics here (this, in English, and the equivalent one in our local dialects).

What I find both fascinating and surprising is that people write much more freely in the other one, and also, popularity-wise, that fewer people are writing here. I would never have thought that could happen! Yet, I find it almost impossible to believe that the average member's knowledge of English is worse than their knowledge of their local dialect; simply because most of us have studied English at school! I have this feeling that people are afraid to write in English, but are not so worried about possible mistakes when they are writing in their dialect.

I would really like to elaborate on this, but I don't know anything about sociology. Is it because there are no written rules in dialects, so it's technically impossible to make mistakes? Or is it because this is an equestrian forum and we are outdoor people, and as such we have more contact with the countryside - where dialects, traditionally, are spoken with much more frequency than in cities? (and consequently, we actually are much more likely to know dialects, compared to the average Italian person)?

Is anyone studying sociology and willing to use us Equiweb members as guinea pigs for what would be a very interesting piece of research?

In my opinion, the dialect is too funny for word!

sele, i think a lot of people definitely can't speak and talk in english... they aren't just afraid of it, they can not! this summer i saw my students trying to talk in english during their final school examination: i mean, they really wanted to, because their marks depended on that, but they haven't been able to talk for more than two minutes...(but 3 students, who were in the american primary school...).
This problem is not about sociology or language rules or stuff like that, i think it's a typically italian problem! and i think it's an educational and politic question! in august i've been in holland and i was very surprised finding out every people can talk in english there! we are soooo backward about foreign languages here... so am i, obviously! i can write and read in english, but can't stand a call and i'm really afraid of any conversation...

anyway it's raining... i can't help being very pssimistic about sunday weather and my competion...

Sele, for me people are afraid to write in English, i studied English but write isn't simple for me.
the dialect is more similar to italian, perhaps it belongs (?) more tu us in comparison to a foreing language.

(dimmi se faccio errori, non sono molto abile )

But this is exactly what I find incomprehensible! How can you all write so easily in your local dialect, when you have never been taught it?? How can you spell, for example?
At least, you have been taught English, and for several years too.

Maybe it's just me -- I have never understood any dialect, written or spoken, and I just find it amazing that so many (young!) people can have lengthy conversations in several different dialects...