Learning Italian and School

So, my Italian has actually been getting better lately, strangely. For a while there I thought I'd never understand it. I understand voices I am more familiar with the best, such as those of my host family, but am starting to actually understand what the teachers are saying, if I pay attention. Listening and understanding is no longer passive, like it was in Canada. I need to listen very carefully, paying attention to verb endings, and adjectives, but I am understanding a lot more. Nearly everyone has been incredibly patient with me, for which I am very thankful, however, when I ask you to repeat something, I mean just that, for you to repeat it. Not change the words, not translate into broken English, not to turn to your friend and say "how do I say...". I appreciate what you are doing to help me, however, most of the time I simply didn't hear you.
Some other difficulties:
There are approximately 1,000,000 tenses I need to learn. And each tense has six forms that I frequently forget.
The majority of common verbs are irregular.
I don't know very many words, so sometimes it's difficult for me to add to conversations.
I hate feeling like a burden to conversations.
I don't understand the jokes.


I'm realizing just how little expectations my teachers have for me. I actually have to ask if I can write some other test, and frequently what I write isn't graded at all. Probably according to administration I don't exist as a student. Today I took a test in Physics 5, as it's at the same time as Math 5. The professor read out the questions, but I didn't catch them, so I borrowed his little handwritten note, that I understood only slightly more than when he read it. Since students sit in tables of two, there are two tests. I think the test had six or eight questions per side. I'm not exactlty sure because I just picked a few that I could write about/understood the handwriting enough to read the question. I wouldn't be surprised if I got a two on that one. If he marks it.

If you are interested in what it's like learning another language without getting a visa, check out my friend Petra's blog (katima-petra.blogspot.com). She just moved to Quebec after being in Ontario for three months, with Katimavik, a youth volunteer organization in Canada. Everyone here seems to expect me to know French since I'm Canadian, but I'm pathetically unilingual, so I am very jealous of Petra's opportunity to learn French. I am also very jealous of her being in Katimavik. 'Cause it seems like the coolest thing ever.