Ciao, come stai? The simple greeting, “Hello, how are you?” in Italian is only three words long, but a powerful starting point to a full language of possibilities.  I recently took an Italian class with my husband at a local cultural center over the course of 15 weeks. The experience was both challenging and exciting, pushing me to learn in ways I hadn’t before. 

Making a concerted effort to learn a language as a hobby requires dedication and consistency. Upon undertaking this endeavor, I realized that whether I excelled or struggled was entirely a result of my own commitment, as I had no milestone, letter grade or diploma dictating my effort.