Topsy presents a skit to NYA Canadian Program Participants with fellow NYA Nexter Chris while at NYA’s Orientation Camp in Ottawa. (Photo Credit: Thorsten Gohl)

To explore my options I met up with our Participant Achievement Coach Jeff during my construction class. We talked about how I am interested in language learning and the arts. I could not decide if I wanted a language class or something to do with art. There were too many good options. Jeff started to make arrangements soon after the meeting to make my personal learning project happen. Since I was interested in languages, it helped that another participant was as well; so I chose to learn Italian with her.

Later, I was told I was set up with two Italian speaking people, Lisa and Jennifer. We sat at a library and they brought over some Italian text books. They taught us some introductions in Italian, such as “io sono…” “ ciao, come stai” “sto bene, grazie” and much more and we took notes. They also travelled a lot, which I am interested too. They mentioned where they’ve been to South east Asia and to a lot of places in Italy. They gave us travelling tips about Italy and Asia and what to be prepared for.

I encourage learning languages, especially your native language, to everyone because it can take you anywhere and it is very beneficial health wise and just fun in general.