No time to read this? Why not find something to study instead? A1 – Beginner/Elementary | A2 – Pre-Intermediate | B1 – Intermediate | B2 – Upper-Intermediate | C1 – Advanced | C2 – Proficiency | What’s my level? | Italian level test

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Buondì.

Since Bug left – nearly two weeks ago now – I’ve had time to work, but very little enthusiasm.

However, yesterday I spent much of the day at our Italian school in Bologna, as I had to do a teacher-training session for the staff there.

In an idle moment, after making the photocopies and reviewing my session notes, I looked at the traffic stats for the OTHER club websites (Spanish, French, German), which were predictably poor, given that I’ve been busy parenting small animals for the past five years.

Having recently concluded that I’d never motivate myself to do anything with the Spanish, French and German sites – and anyway, why bother if no one’s interested, and AI is coming, and… – I’d already planned not to renew the online(language)club.com domains, which expire this coming Saturday. And to subsequently delete the websites when the 5-day grace period runs out. One less thing to feel bad about!

But then, sitting there on Madrelingua‘s yellow leather couch (all the classrooms were full, which is a good sign, at least) peering at my laptop screen, I remembered a problem which I’d never resolved, one which was quite possibly the cause of the depressing traffic stats.

Put simply, if you’ve ever visited a website with a URL that begins with http:// (for instance, http://onlinespanishclub.com/) your web browser might have flashed warnings telling you that the site is ‘unsafe’ and that you should hurl your computer, tablet or smartphone out of a window, and run like the wind before it detonates.

Whereas when the URL (website address) begins with https:// (like this one https://onlinespanishclub.com/) there’s no such hysteria and your click simply results in the webpage being displayed.

The extra ‘s’ stands for ‘secure’, apparently, which means that if the URL begins with https:// connections between your device and the website are encrypted, while when it’s an http:// the data exchanged between you and the website is visible to all who might wish to spy on it, assuming they can be bothered and have the necessary tech skills.

Why would you care if the world’s hackers can see that you’re browsing the Spanish Grammar 101 Possessive Adjectives page at http://onlinespanishclub.com/?

Actually, there’s no reason. Despite flashing red pages and dire warnings not to proceeed, your device really won’t blow up. Your eyebrows won’t be burned right off. Your soft furnishings won’t get singed.

The ‘secure’ part of the https:// blah-blah thingy totally IS relevant when you’re entering personal information, especially if financial, such as credit card details.

Suppose you were in the market for ebooks to improve your Italian, for instance? Then you might visit this URL https://easyreaders.org/catalogue/ and, having decided to splash some cash on your learning, be reassured that the ‘s’ means no bad actors can monitor the back and forth between your laptop or smartphone and the website’s server. It’s all encrypted. Hurrah!!

That said, most websites don’t handle their own payment processing. It’s almost always done by a specialist on THEIR website rather than on the vendor’s site. For example, we use Stripe for our three shops (Madrelingua, EasyReaders.org, NativeSpeakerTeachers.com). In return for a commission they handle everything, and their security is world-class. Apparently.

At EasyItalianNews.com donations are processed via Paypal, again in return for a commission, again with world-class encryption. And so on.

So, though it shouldn’t really matter that hackers could, if they were so inclined, see how poor your Spanish, French and German is when you use our ‘other’ clubs, likely all the red, flashing ‘this site is insecure’ warnings would – over the years I’ve been minding small animals instead of my own business – have affected the traffic. Fewer people would have discovered and profited from the materials because web browser software was ‘protecting’ them.

How come then that all our other websites are secure/encrypted but the ‘other’ clubs aren’t/weren’t?

https://onlineitalianclub.com/ is an independent website, meaning that it’s easy and free to add the ‘s’ encryption, though unnecessary as nothing sensitive is ever asked for.

Whereas I set up the Spanish, French and German sites as subsections of what’s called a ‘multisite’ WordPress installation (don’t ask) and – back in the day – changing the http:// to the reassuring though unnecessary https:// was – for some reason – impossible.

E così. Pottering on my yellow couch, I Googled ‘https for multisite’ and discovered that the world had moved on while I’d been changing diapers. It would, apparently, also be easy and free to encrypt traffic to and from the ‘other’ clubs, too.

Took about ten minutes in the end – I wish training teachers were so simple and satisfying. But I was left with a problem: now the sites were ‘secure’, likely more people would take a look, so they might be worth investing in. And now, senza-Bug, I have time to burn, so to speak. All the stars are aligned!

Except that the ‘other’ club domains are all expiring, and the ebook company’s bank account (Easy Readers LLP operates all the clubs, including this one) was just drained by a massive bill from our expensive bulk mailing system.

Conclusion? I need to sell some ebooks, and fast. Ideally before Saturday!!

Learning Italian? Browse the Catalog. There are free sample chapters for everything. Please look at them before buying anything – it saves a lot of customer service hassle.

Ebooks for learning other languages are also on the Catalog page, or follow these links to go directly to the materials for the language you want to improve: French | Spanish | German

N.b. The ‘other’ club sites (Spanish, French and German) all feature a free ‘easy reader’ and a free parallel text. Find them in the site menu, and/or download the same text as a .pdf from the ebooks store’s Catalog page (scroll down for the ‘other’ languages).

Oh, and I nearly forgot – the ebooks store has a 33% coupon code for new customers. You have to get on the mailing list to receive it, but unsubscribing is easy. Details are here: https://easyreaders.org/mailing-list/

Gotta go prep for an online Swedish conversation at lunchtime.

Then on to my third beginners’ Spanish grammar lesson. I’m learning and proof-reading/editing at the same time, which is fun!

Alla prossima settimana.

P.S.

And here’s the inevitable reminder to read/listen to Tuesday’s bulletin of news from EasyItalianNews.com.

Reading/listening practice will help you consolidate the Italian you’re studying, expand your vocabulary, and build vital comprehension skills.

EasyItalianNews.com is FREE to read/listen to.

Subscribing, and so receiving all three text + audio bulletins of ‘easy’ news via email each week – on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays – is also FREE.

Just enter your email address on this page and click the confirmation link that will be sent to you.

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OnlineItalianClub.com | EasyItalianNews.com | Shop (ebooks) | Shop (online lessons)

OnlineFrenchClub.com | OnlineSpanishClub.com | OnlineGermanClub.com

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No longer interested?

All bulk emails we send (including this one) contain an unsubscribe link, usually at the bottom. Scroll down to find it, click the link and select ‘unsubscribe’. That will permanently remove your email address from our mailing list.

No time to read this? Why not find something to study instead? A1 – Beginner/Elementary | A2 – Pre-Intermediate | B1 – Intermediate | B2 – Upper-Intermediate | C1 – Advanced | C2 – Proficiency | What’s my level? | Italian level test

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Buondì.

As explained in the previous article (Bye-bye Bug), since Friday last I’ve had much more time ‘to study’.

Much, much more time.

The weekend – without walks, parks, or food tantrums – felt endless, and not in a fun way. I was even looking forward to Monday, and envying my wife, who would have to take the bus to work then sit at a desk most of the day.

Friday or Saturday evening we walked to a local restaurant and consoled ourselves with a ‘primo’ followed by a ‘fritto misto di pesce’, those helped down with several jugs of sparkling white wine. And then we were bored again, so went to bed early.

Looking to pass some idle hours, I browsed the podcasts on https://www.raiplaysound.it/. As it’s been years since I listened to Italian radio – except in the car – I had high hopes, but the podcast I listened on the US midterms was disappointing – rather like listening to a monologue from a school teacher. I much prefer the Swedish version ( https://www.sverigesradio.se/poddar/usapodden ), though of course I understand less of it.

Still browsing the neglected media apps on my phone, I read an article in Spanish about post-mastectomy breast reconstruction – don’t ask me why – then watched videos of French rioters burning down their ‘mairies’ (= town halls).

Later I opened the library app and flicked through ‘Le Figaro’. I won’t link to their site as there’s a paywall. And if you don’t live in the ‘Provincia di Bologna’, with it’s generously-funded public library service, your only option would be to pay for the content. The library uses https://www.pressreader.com/, which isn’t bad if you’ve the budget for it.

So the days passed until – I say – it’s Wednesday again! The house is tidy, at least, and I’ve got lots of work stuff done.

But there’s definitely a time lag involved here, between the moment when Stefi and I ‘got our lives back’, so to speak, and the point at which our days will feel well-lived again.

We’ll get there, I’m sure, just like you do after the end of a teenage romance. It’s all passion until – Boom! – everything’s different. Eventually you adjust.

Talking of time lags brings my mind back to language-learning causes and effects.

Suppose you want to ‘learn Italian’, or improve the Italian you already know, or whatever more specific goal you may have (specific is GOOD).

If you do nothing, then naturally nothing that you desire will happen. No progress will be made. You probably won’t be surprised.

But if you get your act together and do something – read an article, listen to a podcast, whatever floats your language-learning boat – then it can also feel, rather depressingly, as if nothing has happened, no progress has been made.

Be aware.

Don’t be suprised if it feels like you got nothing back from the Spanish article on cosmetic surgery or the French ‘how to riot’ news clips. That’s totally normal.

Take a beginners’ Italian course and – for a short while – you’ll still be a beginner, even though each hour that passes adds much to your store of knowledge and experiences.

Then suddenly you’re not a beginner any longer. Boom!

You’ll know it’s happened when ‘conjugate’ no longer reminds you of ‘conjugal’ but instead describes the necessary work of finding the right bit of the verb you want to say or write.

Less-gramatically, you’ll know you’re no longer a beginner when simple interactions no longer seem like miracles, when you can ask for things in bars without resort to English, and so on.

Time lags, then flies. Happens all the time.

(“Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.”)

How to stick at it (the reading, the listening, the interacting, even the grammar study – if you absolutely must) long enough to see the desired effect?

What works for me is to focus on the process, by which I mean on the ‘doing something’, then on the ‘doing that something again’.

‘Fake it until you make it’, as they say. Except it isn’t faking it, you just haven’t made it yet. Or, at least, there’s no evidence of that having happened.

Objective: ‘read more in Spanish’ (rather than ‘learn Spanish’ or ‘improve my Spanish’, which are anything but specific).

Method: take a break from the computer at the time when – until very recently – my work day used to end so I could go collect Bug from the petting zoo. Walk to the piazza at the end of the street. Sit on the wall. Fire up the RTVE Noticias app or download EL PAÍS (el periódico global) from the library. Pick an article. Read it (while keeping an eye out for any of Bug’s little friends and their keepers passing by…) Repeat tomorrow.

Remember, if you do nothing, nothing will happen.

To which we can add, if you do boring stuff, nothing interesting will happen.

Boring is bad in language-learning, and probably life too. Choose something interesting (breasts, mid-terms, the French behaving badly) and there’s more chance of maintaining your ‘process’.

Which reminds me: below you’ll see the usual reminder to “read/listen to Tuesday’s bulletin of news from EasyItalianNews.com“, which is designed (was designed, actually, by me) to exploit precisely this ‘process + time = progress’ strategy.

You don’t have to ‘study’ it. You don’t have to look up all the words you don’t know in the dictionary. You totally, totally don’t have to ‘understand’ it, whatever that means.

All you have to do is to make it a regular thing, so read/listen to each bulletin (they’re free).

Do that for six months or so. If it doesn’t have any effect, email me to complain. No one ever does. But some people donate each month, so must – presumably – be happy.

We work hard to add three bulletins a week to your ‘read and listen to Italian’ process, and there’s no reason you can’t add other sources of audio and text to those.

All you have to do is go sit on a wall someplace and read/listen.

Time passes. Then suddenly…

Alla prossima settimana!

P.S.

And here’s a reminder to read/listen to Tuesday’s bulletin of news from EasyItalianNews.com.

Reading/listening practice will help you consolidate the Italian you’re studying, expand your vocabulary, and build vital comprehension skills.

EasyItalianNews.com is FREE to read/listen to.

Subscribing, and so receiving all three text + audio bulletins of ‘easy’ news via email each week – on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays – is also FREE.

Just enter your email address on this page and click the confirmation link that will be sent to you.

+++

OnlineItalianClub.com | EasyItalianNews.com | Shop (ebooks) | Shop (online lessons)

OnlineFrenchClub.com | OnlineSpanishClub.com | OnlineGermanClub.com

+++

No longer interested?

All bulk emails we send (including this one) contain an unsubscribe link, usually at the bottom. Scroll down to find it, click the link and select ‘unsubscribe’. That will permanently remove your email address from our mailing list.