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I'm in school (again) and taking Italian this semester. I don't find most of it to be difficult, so far, except pronouncing that stupid R. I just can't roll my tongue...never have been able to. Spanish in high school? Couldn't do the R then either. I've been sitting here for the last two hours practicing and so far have only managed to sound like a complete idiot. Ugh!

I hear ya. I've always and still have problems rolling my R's. I've given up.

Good luck!

So you'll have an accent. As long as people can understand you it doesn't really matter. Although software programs might give you fits

I'm of Italian descent and can't do it, so don't feel bad.

You are giving your tongue a workout. Time to reward it with some Italian ice cream.

I grew up learning French in school. I remember in Grade 2, there was heavy emphasis placed on us learning to properly roll our "R"s.

Fastforward 15 years and I start taking Spanish in university. My prof would get so frustrated with me because she said I rolled my "R"s "too French". I remember sitting in her office one afternoon with her trying to get me to do it the Spanish way. She would roll and R and I would try and match it. I thought I was doing great, but she was getting more and more frustrated.

Don't sweat it. It'll come.

Ohhhh - you are bringing back memories of HS Spanish. She would have us practice that "Pot of tea" saying until we got the rolling down. I can do a MINI roll when I say pot of tea but can't incorporate it into real words. LOL

I can do a MINI roll when I say pot of tea but can't incorporate it into real words.

I was like that learning Armenian. There is a letter that sounds like the French guttural R. I was so proud of myself for learning how to pronounce it, but couldn't use it in a word to save my life. There was another girl in the class who was also learning Spanish and she couldn't stop rolling her R's

I'm curious. I've been practicing this for hours every day and am still horrible at it. If I can't get it right I'm worried I will get docked a crap ton of points in my speaking assignments. I don't want to get a worse grade because of a stupid letter. Please tell me teachers/professors are somewhat lenient. It's stressing me out. I'm already not a huge fan of my professor. The semester doesn't even technically start until Thursday and he's already given us a ton of work to do (23 assignments due by Sunday, 7 due on Thursday alone ).

[This message edited by frigidfire86 at 6:01 PM, August 20th (Tuesday)]

I'm a second language teacher (French) and I certainly wouldn't dock a bunch of points for one letter. I don't know Italian, but based on my knowledge of French and Spanish, rolling an R is probably the hardest thing to pronounce, and your prof knows that. I'm sure that as long as he sees that you're trying, it'll be ok.

It's really, really hard to learn another language as an adult. I'm sure you'll be fine.

Teachers in my experience have been been pretty lenient with this kind of thing. They will correct you and try to make you work on it more, but it is a small part of grading.