My Italian is reasonably good. There’s room for improvement, I’m sure, but I can also see a self-deprecating tendency at work there. Generally I receive a lot of praise for my use of the language – although the English accent I can’t seem to shake off tends to amuse people. Soon after arriving it became clear that if I really wished to help I needed to learn the language, and I had come with that intention. Having previously put a fair amount of effort into learning German while in Switzerland, and then Thai, but not really getting to the point of being able to put them to much use, I was determined to take it further with Italian. After less than three years I could give a simple Dhamma talk, doing my first weekend retreat in Italian – but then when I found myself in hospital and was presented with a menu I had no clue what was on it! The resident community is quite international, so we mainly speak English amongst ourselves.