Opened a bunch of packs this month and somehow ended up with mostly duplicates again. Hard not to feel disappointed after spending that much money.
Hi everyone, I’m really worried about my cat and wanted to ask if anyone has experienced something similar.
My cat recently gave birth, but sadly the kitten died. Ever since then she’s been acting really strange. She has a younger sibling and she seems to think her younger sibling is her kitten now. The younger sibling is still breastfeeding from their mom, and my cat keeps trying to compete with the mom during nursing time. She follows the younger sibling around, tries to mother her.
I don’t know if this is normal grieving behavior, hormones, stress, or something I should be seriously concerned about. She seems very attached and protective now, but it’s also becoming a little obsessive.
She’s still eating and moving around normally, but emotionally she just seems different after losing the kitten.
Has anyone dealt with this before? Will it pass on its own, or should I separate them / take her to the vet?
I’d really appreciate any advice because I feel bad for her and I’m not sure what the right thing to do is.
I thought living in Italy would automatically force me to speak Italian, but it mostly showed me how good I am at avoiding conversations.
I’m in a smaller place, not one of those cities where you can hide in an expat bubble. I can read menus, signs, comune emails, random WhatsApp messages from neighbors, etc. But then I go to the bar or farmacia and suddenly my Italian becomes caveman Italian. Last week I rehearsed buying bread, still said the wrong thing, laughed awkwardly, and then replayed it in my head for an hour 🙃
What’s helped a bit is separating “recognition” from “speaking under pressure.” Duolingo/Babbel are okay for basic structure, Anki is better for words I actually hear locally, and Easy Italian helps with the speed and rhythm of normal speech. I also keep reminding myself that even the CEFR A2 description is about handling simple routine exchanges, not sounding elegant \[CEFR levels]
Tandem and italki have been the most realistic, because a human actually waits for you to answer. But scheduling plus nerves means I don’t do them as often as I should. I’ve also been using Issen for 10 minutes before errands, mostly to rehearse simple conversations out loud when there’s no one nearby to practice with.
My tiny “method” now is: listen first, write 3 phrases I’ll probably need, say them out loud before leaving, then force myself not to switch to English immediately. After about two weeks I still freeze sometimes, but I recover faster instead of abandoning the whole interaction.
For people in small-town/rural Italy, what actually helped you go from studying Italian at home to using it outside?