Monday, December 9, 2013

Paunnet blog in italiano

Beware... Photoshop genius at work XD
Some of you might have noticed it, many probably didn't, but since my last two posts, I started writing in Italian as well as in English. This is something I had done in my very first few posts and immediately stopped because I had almost no Italian followers, so I felt like the extra work wasn't worth it.

What's changed?
Last week I had an incredibly energizing and motivational chat with the brilliant Marine of Supercut, owner of one of the very few online fabric stores in Italy. We spoke for more than an hour about the discouraging situation of the sewing world in Italy and how we want to contribute to change it, helping to bring sewing to the masses the way it's happening in other parts of the world.

Well, my first, small contribution to this change is to blog in my beloved mother tongue, so that my contents are more accessible to Italian readers and, hopefully, they might inspire and encourage more Italian girls to sew.

Nothing will change for my "international" readers. Excluding this post, where I wanted both languages to be visible at the same time, you'll simply see the phrase "Leggi in italiano" ("Read in Italian") at the bottom of my posts. You'll only see the Italian translation by clicking on that link.


Chissà se qualcuno l'avrà notato... A partire dagli ultimi due post che ho pubblicato, il mio blog è diventato bilingue e contiene ora una traduzione italiana di ogni post da qui a venire.
E' una cosa che già avevo fatto agli albori di questo blog, ma che avevo lasciato perdere quasi subito perché il numero di visitatori e commentatori italiani era vicino allo 0 (ed è tuttora limitato al 5%), e la traduzione mi sembrava quindi una faticaccia senza merito.

Cos'è cambiato?
La settimana scorsa ho fatto una lunghissima chiacchierata (che mi ha motivato tantissimo) con la fantastica Marine di Supercut, uno dei rarissimi negozi online di stoffa in Italia. Abbiamo parlato a lungo della situazione del cucito in Italia, che francamente è un po' scoraggiante se paragonata a paesi come la Francia e il mondo anglosassone. Entrambe vorremmo fare qualcosa per avvicinare le masse al cucito e far capire a tutti che non è un hobby da vecchiette come la maggior parte delle persone con cui ho avuto a che fare sembra pensare.

Ebbene, il mio primo, piccolo contributo in questa direzione è di integrare la mia amata lingua madre nel mio blog, in modo che i miei contenuti siano più accessibili ai miei conterranei e che, incrociando le dita, possano ispirare e incoraggiare più ragazze italiane ad avvicinarsi al cucito.

D'ora in poi, basterà scorrere i miei post fino alla fine, cercare la scritta "Leggi in italiano" e cliccarci sopra: si aprirà così la traduzione italiana, a seguito del testo in inglese. Non è la mia soluzione ideale, ma non essendo una maga di html è quella che funziona meglio per me in questo momento.

Si accettano suggerimenti e si dà il benvenuto a chiunque voglia commentare in italiano! :)

47 comments:

  1. That's a good move! For a few years I only wrote my blog in English, and then I decided to add Polish and found a huge community of Polish crafty girls, met many friends. It was totally worth the effort! *^o^*

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  2. Way to go! Not that i speak Italian, but I'm all for spreading the sewing word in other languages besides English. In my opinion, approaching readers in their first language does make a difference. Besides, building a local community in a foreign language does sound a bit weird, doesn't it? My first language has around 1 million speakers, but I decided to ditch English altogether and chose my tiny language as my blogging language just for the sake of approaching the local community of (potential) sewers. Anyway, I'm glad you're so diligent and manage to keep your blog bilingual!

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  3. That's Great !!!
    I'm learning Italian at work, and having something interesting to read in italian is definitely a good thing and will help me to improve !!!

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  4. lovely. way to go! And I love the hyper enthousiastic picture of you :):):)

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  5. Sono francese, ma preferisco l'italiano all'inglese! Grazie per la traduzione!

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  6. ciao, ti scopro oggi che inizi a scrivere in italiano ma continuerò a leggerti in inglese...così mi esercito!!

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  7. This is something I been thinking about. So many of us don't write in our mother tongue and that discourage loads of readers from our countries that would love to be able to understand. Great for you to bring the italian back. I may even think about writing in Portuguese in the future

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  8. I love finding blogs in languages other than what I personally can understand. Google translate in a chrome browser is actually very good at translating the text for me right on the page itself (with a few odd words, but nothing that stops the comprehension). I also think it encourages people to show their own style and humour better in a language and culture that is native to them. Go for it!

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  9. I think this is wonderful! I've been purposefully searching for sewing blogs in spanish, and I'm sure that in addition to native italians that students of italians would love this! Bilingualism is such an amazing thing, I'm so glad you're sharing your skills!

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  10. I started writing in French because my Mom complained she couldn't read my blog. But I don't regret the time and effort I put behind it. Blogging in 2 languages is quite enriching. Good luck and have fun!

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  11. IMO you should try and figure out how to "save Italian sewing" before all the lovely small stores with luxury fabrics close--online is fine, but in America we need online fabric because many of us would have to drive 100+ miles to even SEE more than 10 silks or 20 wools in person. :P



    (I consider it one of the great tragedies in my life that I had so little cash flexiblity while studying abroad that my suitcase home wasn't full of meters and meters of lovely fabric.)

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  12. Ciao!
    ti ho scoperto oggi tramite jolies bobines e quale gioia nello scoprire che sei italiana!
    affezionata lettrice di moltissimi blog stranieri ( Jolies Bobines, LLadybird, Colette, Sewaholic, Did you make that, ecc...), mi riempie di orgoglio sapere che c'è chi tiene alta la nostra bandiera nel web!
    ho cominciato da circa un anno a cucire e mi sto appassionando sempre di più, quindi grazie per questo bel blog pieno di idee e progetti da scoprire!
    in bocca al lupo!

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  13. Yay!! Such a great idea! I definitely hope this will encourage more Italian sewists! But, selfishly, I'm thinking this might help me brush up on my Italian...? (Teehehe... keep dreaming!)

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  14. I know I will be reading in both languages so I can improve my Italian. I lived briefly in Rome in '92, and learned just enough to get by, but haven't practiced much since then. This is a good way to get back to it! :)

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  15. Yay! How exciting! I'm just sad I don't read Italian, but it is top of my list of languages to learn!

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  16. I did that for a couple of my posts as well - write in German and English, but it was sooo much work! I just couldn't keep it up. And it felt unnatural. It was like having a translation job. Most German speakers, especially those who blog, have fairly decent English, so I figured they would be able to read my blog anyways and gave up.

    I wish you luck with this bilingual project and hope you find it much more enjoyable than I did. Maybe you can share some tips on how to keep it up :)

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  17. I think it's a wonderful thing :) That and it's a pretty darn glamourous language that I naturally associate with fabulous sewing, clothing and most importantly - delicious fabrics! I for one would love to see a little sewing related translation... the kind of things google translate really struggles with because it's so niche!

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  18. Silvia - Sewing PrincessDecember 10, 2013 at 9:19 AM

    Fantastico Anna...cosi' mi sentiro' meno sola ;o)

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  19. Ti seguo dall'Italia anch'io e non avevo capito che fossi di madrelingua italiana. Da oggi ti seguirò ancora più volentieri. Qui in Italia siamo in dietro anni luce su tutto. Prima di appassionarmi al cucito ho imparato la maglia da autodidatta su youtube e poi mi sono innamorata del magico mondo di revelry... ma quante italiane lo conoscono??? Insomma brava e speriamo.....
    Roberta

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  20. Fantastic news that the blog is now going to be in Italian!

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  21. you could have leant it ages ago... :-)

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  22. great effort.. wondered where you got your sandals from.. im in Australia, so guessing it wont be easy to find them here!!

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  23. Fantastic! Well done you. I've been doing some Italian lessons so I'll be popping by for extra practise :)

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  24. I bought them 2 years ago in a local market, so I'm afraid I can't point you in a precise direction! But It's an easy style to find, so good luck :)

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  25. Ciaooo Roberta! Benvenuta!
    Come ti posso trovare su Ravelry?

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  26. Thank you so much! If it sticks, I'll definitely consider it! For the moment, I write my posts in English and then very liberally translate them into Italian. It's much faster for me to do so than the opposite!

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  27. Che bella cosa, Niko, mi rendi felicissima! Grazie!

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  28. That's also a very interesting aspect, and I think it's related to what I want to do : if it's a just a niche that sews, how are those stores going to keep existing?

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  29. Grazie! It's really fun to find out about so many people who studied Italian and that are welcoming some practice! :)

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  30. Grazie, Elena! Che bel messaggio, mi rende davvero contenta! :D

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  31. Yes, exactly! It's hard to be funny in another language, that's something I've always suffered about, being a very sarcastic person :)

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  32. Brava! Si impara tantissimo inglese grazie ai blog di cucito, a me hanno aiuta davvero moltissimo! :)

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  33. Haha, that was a blooper from a "jumping" photoshoot from last year... I knew it was going to come in handy sooner or later!

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  34. Meraviglioso! I'm learning Italian will be great practise. Amore cucitura!

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  35. I think bi-lingual posts are a wonderful idea! Well done! My husband wanted me to write my blog in Japanese also because some of our friends in Japan had complained they couldn't read the blog but my Japanese is too rusty. Maybe in the future I'll review it.
    On my last visit to Italy this summer, I was also surprised to hear that fabric shops are closing down due to lack of customers, why do you think that is? I would have thought that with all the lovely fabrics available, Italians would be keen to sew their own stuff. I hope your blog does encourage more Italians to sew, good luck!
    Christine

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  36. sono latosca su Ravelry!!! Sono un po' inattiva da quando mi ha preso la passione della maglia ma vedrai i miei sforzi degli scorsi due anni....

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  37. volevo dire la passione del cucito!!!! :-)))))

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  38. That's fantastic! :-). What a great step. Just curious - is it possible to put the "leggi in italiano" at the top of the post so that it's easier to find?

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  39. That's something I've been debating back and forth... Ultimately, I feel like I need to give priority to my English-speaking readers, so I want to "bother" them as little as possible with the translation.
    I think I'll add a note at the beginning of my posts that the Italian translation is at the bottom.
    Thank you for your suggestion :D

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  40. in italiano, non posso crederci questo si che è un bel regalo per il 2014, in bocca al lupo e .... non mollare, un abbraccio.
    bru

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  41. Ciao!!!! finalmente un blog italiano sul cucito...ho iniziato da poco e vivendo a Londra seguo solo blog in inglese e con mi meravigliavo di non averne trovato nessuno in italiano!!! Complimenti per le tue creazioni mi piacciono tutte!!! Da oggi ti seguiro'!!! Un abbraccio

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