This morning I’m covering for my wife at the reception desk of our Italian school.

She’s gone to the beach with the kids.

I like doing reception, as it’s a good chance to meet people.

Anyway, I was just chatting (in Italian of course) to Doak, from San Francisco.

He’s been a club member for years and said he enjoyed reading about my trip to Texas.

I promised to say ‘hi’ in today’s article.

“Ciao Doak, e grazie per il cioccolatino!”

‘Hi’ also to Nash, who has been writing in with questions about how to organise his studies.

As I hope you know, I welcome questions and always try to reply.

I was thinking, Nash, that maybe you could take a look at our ‘Best of‘ section, which has articles about various aspects of learning Italian going back to 2012.

There’s definitely something on study program planning. Perhaps that’ll give you some ideas…

Scrolling down the ‘Best of‘ list, I see that one of the articles is titled ‘Why studying grammar and vocabulary is a waste of time‘.

OK, perhaps that’s a bit extreme.

It was an early attempt to promote our easy readers.

If you take a look, be aware that the links are probably broken, any offers having expired years back.

The gist of it is that studying the components of a language in isolation is less effective than you might expect.

While grammar and vocabulary lessons have their place, context is fundamental, as is the motivation to continue learning.

Italian has a lot of grammar and, just between us, I can’t be doing with it.

That’s what my granny used to say about things that were too much bother.

Such as, for instance, the conditional form which is the topic of today’s free listening.

In English, this grammar would be known as the ‘third conditional’.

It describes an alternative past.

For example, if I hadn’t met my wife, I wouldn’t have moved to Italy.

But I did, and I did.

You get the idea.

Italians moan about conditionals in English (I’m an English teacher…)

They always want to study them just one more time, in the hope that the grammar will finally stick in their heads.

Sadly, it doesn’t.

You’re probably the same with conditionals in Italian, I know I am.

That said, I’ve got along perfectly well for twenty years with an imperfect knowledge of the subject.

Ever heard people say that it’s more important to be a good listener?

That’s true for language, too.

If you’re experienced at reading and listening, you’ll be able to spot that something is an unreal past conditional from the context.

Even if you only have a shaky command of the ‘rules’.

Whereas the other way around?

You know the grammar inside out, but can’t understand what you hear because “everyone speaks too fast”?

Go figure.

Anway, for all you grammar fiends out there, here’s the link:

Periodo ipotetico dell’irrealtà

Last chance at the ‘Book of the Week’

Many thanks to everyone who has bought a copy of this week’s half price easy reader ebook, Accattone.

I hope you enjoy it. Either way, don’t forget to leave a review, will you?

For the rest of you, here’s a final reminder…

The -50% offer ends on Sunday night!

Get yours while it’s cheap!

Read/listen to the story…

Then seek out the film on Youtube.

Hours of fun and effective language learning, for just £3.99!

Here are the links you’ll need to give it a go:

• Accattone – free sample chapter
• Accattone – full version
• NINE other ‘Book of the Film’ easy readers – half price!
• Browse all materials for learning Italian

A lunedì.

‘I viaggi lowcost‘ is the theme, though not the title, of today’s free Italian listening comprehension task.

Cheap flights have made up quite a big part of my summer.

Yours too, I suppose.

But now ‘Ferragosto’ is done, it’ll soon be back to the old routine.

Sigh!

The level of today’s free audio is B2, that is to say the fourth out of six (counting from the bottom, from where we all must begin.)

But beginners or near-beginners, don’t let that put you off!

All listening is good listening, and with the accompanying transcript, and the rather simple questions, you’ll surely get something from it.

Click here to give it a go!

(By the way, if you’re not very sure about the concept of levels, and which one you’re currently at, read this article and/or take our level test.

Then, armed with your level, find masses of free material to study on the club website, starting here!)

‘Book of the Week’ reminder

Don’t forget that this week we have one of our ‘book of the classic Italian movie’ easy readers, Accatone , at half the usual price!

One of our regular online Italian teachers, Giovanni Galavotti, is also an award-winning scriptwriter (look him up!), so he was the obvious choice when I had the idea of adapting the milestones of Italian cinema into simplified texts for learners.

Because of the writer’s background and ongoing professional involvement in the sector, the whole ‘movie’ series is done expertly and with a loving eye.

Giovanni tells me he enjoys having the opportunity to watch the films again.

He takes copious notes, breaking them down, scene-by-scene, before putting the essential elements of the story back together to create a text which is both faithful to the original movie and suitable for learners to read and listen to.

The end product is not just a fine piece of reading/listening comprehension material, but also a valid support for anyone intending to see the movie itself in the original language.

Others in this series are listed below, with the corresponding levels.

Each one, individually, costs £7.99, but note that for film enthusiasts there’s a bundle of all nine titles available at half price!

• Il sorpasso (A2)
• Amarcord (A2/B1)
• La dolce vita (A2/B1)
• Ladri di biciclette (A2/B1)
• Nuovo cinema paradiso (A2/B1)
• Divorzio all’italiana (B1)
• I soliti ignoti (B1)
• Roma città aperta (B1)
• Ieri, oggi, domani (B1/B2)

So Accatone, plus the other nine, makes ten movies you could be planning to watch as part of your ‘learn Italian’ study program!

Which reminds me of when I was first in Italy.

My (Italian) wife was pregnant with our first child and insisted on dragging me along to the movie theater around the corner from our miniscule flat.

I wasn’t enthusiastic and protested that I wouldn’t understand a word.

But she reassured me that she’d help me understand what was going on.

All I had to do was ask when something was unclear…

In the darkened auditorium, as expected, I soon got rather lost and whispered questions.

“Sssh!” was the response.

I tried again.

“Sssh!” “Sssh!” “Sssh!”

Not the done thing to speak in the movie theater, apparently.

So I sat through the remainder of the film in silence.

The protagonists were two girls. One of them killed herself in the final scene.

I had no idea why.

Which further reminds me, one of the films I saw in those days was ‘La dolce vita‘, which is borderline incomprehensible whether you speak the language perfectly or not.

It’s another of Giovanni’s rewrites, but don’t start with that one, even if it IS the only Italian film you’ve heard of…

A final thing about movies – by popular request we’ve been working on a MODERN Italian movie classic – ‘La vita è bella’.

I have the text and audio ready, and so just need to get the cover sorted before I can publish it.

It should be ready in September, so watch this space!

In the meantime, here are those links again:

Accattone – free sample chapter
Accattone – full version – half price this week only
NINE other ‘Book of the Film’ easy readers – half price!

A venerdì.