I'm one Ziner who definitely tries to Learn the Lingo. For our Italian trip at the beginning of May, I've taken 18 classes at our local Board of Education night school. It's been a lot of fun not only learning some Italian, but meeting our professore Antonio, a young Ph.D. student who tells us much about his immigrant parents' lives, where they came from, what the different regions in Italy are like, something about politics in Italy, how and why the dialects differ, etc. In addition, most of my classmates are planning their own trips to Italy, so there is lots of excitement in the air. At 60, I find I'm not learning as easily as I once did, but now feel confident that I can understand instructions on any machine, timetable, street sign, menu, etc. and can converse a little - albeit in the present tense only! In addition, in a city like Toronto with nearly half a million residents of Italian background, it's a good language to learn. Ciao -

Margaret Singer in Toronto