me: I see you! (I won't keep you, but ask me how I am so I can show off)
Heather: Tell me everything!
me: (no, you have to say "how are you?")
Heather: How are you?
me: Buona. E lei?*
Heather: YOU ARE SO AWESOME!!!!!
Sono bene, grazie!
me: =D
Heather: That is SO cool! How'd you do it?
me: Well, I knew buona already, and my Italian phrase of the day today is e lei
Heather: You are too cool.
Keep it up and we can email back and forth in Italian!
me: hee. I think emailing in Italian might take a while, but I'd love to throw phrases around. It's a good way to learn
Heather: Let me know if I can help somehow! You are always welcome to email me phrases and I'll let you know if you put them together the right way!
me: Okay.
Sadly my phrase a day thing seems to be really random
What does sono bene mean? I assume it's also good, but whats the translation?
Heather: They usually are. I remember when I first started taking Italian, one of the phrases was: Mi piace i biglietti. It means "I like the tickets."
me: hee
Heather: Sono bene means "I am well." In fact, if you wanted to say you were doing well, you would say bene instead of buona. Bene means well, as opposed to good.
me: Ooh, I'll have to remember that. A ton of people say "good" when asked how they are, but proper grammar is in fact "well"
Heather: Buono/buona would be for something more like "that was a good book."
me: Ah. I mostly use it as "buona notte"
Heather: Right, and in Italian you have to say the right one or you sound... well, American... :)
me: hee
Heather: Buona notte is perfect, or Buona mattina (good morning) and Buona sera (good evening).
me: I have this... boy... and he speaks French, so I can now say "good night" in four languages
Heather: Weird factoid -- you would only use 'buona notte' to say something like good night (as in when someone is going to bed.) Otherwise you would use buona sera.
French and Italian are very similar in a lot of ways.
me: That's actually the same in German
You'd say "guten abend" to most people. You'd only use "guten nacht" with your family
Heather: Yep, same sort of thing.
me: yeah
Heather: Oh how I miss speaking Italian....
Anyway, I am SO proud of you!
me: Not sure what the french "good evening" is, but goodnight is "bon nuit"
Well when I learn Italian we can speak it
Heather: YAY! Are you thinking about classes or anything?
me: Not yet. No time. But looking at some online tutorials, and my phrase of the day thing, which even has audio to tell me how to pronounce it
Heather: Fair enough. I am having the same issue. I was going to get Rosetta Stone, but I have heard it is too basic for my level.
me: Oh yeah? Basic is good for me
I took German for 2 years and only remember a handful of things
Heather: Rosetta is supposed to be AWESOME... according to a bunch of work people who had to learn languages fast. I still say classes are the best though, but obviously way more time consuming.
I took French for EIGHT years and I've got nothing!
me: Wow. Okay, I gotta get to work
Heather: Yeah, me too!
me: Talk to you soon
Heather: bye!
Ciao! :)

*translation: "Good. And you?"