As I said the other day, I felt like my Italian skill was not improving. Therefore, rather than shying away, I decided to talk a lot to my family in "broken Italian."
While eating dinner, we always watch TV, and Barack Obama was on the news. So naturally, I asked what the Italians think about Obama. They said that most Italians like him for his strong stance for gun control. In case you do not know, the possession of guns is not allowed in Italy, and therefore, even the possibility of holding guns is repulsive to most Italians (I think). So in that sense, they appear to like Obama. I asked them if Obama did anything that strenghten the relationship between the States and Italy, but they said they do not know (they are not really into politics). I found this interesting because most Koreans would also say that they like Obama, for his rather liberal requests/demands to Korea.
But regardless of my political affiliation, I was excited that I was able to communicate to my host family in Italian. I understood most of what they were saying and then responded in very short, but grammatically correct, sentences. It has only been 55-ish days since I first started using Italian, and the amount I learned is incredible. So for that, I am really proud of myself.