No, that’s not a mistake.

I’m aware it’s the end of May, not December.

But I’ve just published another free Italian ‘conversation lesson’, and hey, why NOT talk about
Natale e Capodanno in the summer??

After all, conversation practice is conversation practice, right?

And if you want to speak better, chuck that grammar book in the trash can and get to it!

Today’s new lesson is here.

If nothing else, you could read through it and note down the unknown words.

But ideally you’ll find someone to practice with.

Pour yourself a cold beer, don those sunglasses, and chat away in Italian about Christmas and New Year!

(Or pick something more appropriate from the sixteen topics on our Conversation page.)

A lunedì.

P.S.

G.D.P.R. and all that?

From today, you have loads of new rights regarding how your data is managed. Congrats!

But I confess, I haven’t updated our privacy policy and so can’t give you a link to where you can read all about them.

That said, if you don’t want to get emails from me each Monday, Wednesday and Friday (and on other days too, when we have a promotion on), the simple solution is to click the ‘Unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of any email you get from the club.

People do this all the time, so no need to be shy. Once ‘unsubscribed’ no more ‘club’ emails will be sent to you.

And each week, I fire up the system and delete the data of everyone who has chosen to unsubscribe.

So, if this type of email is an irritant, or if this just isn’t your thing, do go ahead and unsubscribe.

Oh, and there’s another link at the bottom of the emails.

That one says ‘Change subscriber options’.

Clicking on it will get you to a page which shows you any other lists you may be on that are managed from my account.

For example, our Italian school, or our new online shop at easyreaders.org. I don’t copy emails from one list to another, but you may have signed up for different things. People do.

With the ‘Change subscriber options’ link, in a matter of seconds you can get your email off of all the lists.

Just click the radio buttons next to the list, or lists, you think you can live without.

Then click on the blue ‘Save My Subscriber Settings’ button to save your choices.

One more thing…

I use ANOTHER email list management service (as a backup, and for various technical reasons.)

So if, sometimes, you get two different emails with the same content, that’ll be why.

That OTHER system also has an unsubscribe option.

So you may have to unsubscribe twice, which is a drag and unprofessional to boot.

But that’s it, promise.

Or… Or… G.D.P.R.!

One of your new rights is that you can write and ask what data I have on you, and for it to be corrected or removed.

So, if all that unsubscribing seems like too much hassle, just write to me and I can do it for you!

Obviously you’ll need to tell me your email address so I that can locate it in the mailing list systems and anywhere else it may have ended up and delete it.

But I’ll forget it immediately afterwards!

(‘Off of’)

Today’s new, free material for students of Italian is yet another set of conversation prompts.

The theme is ‘Sei bravo a… ?‘ (‘Are you good at…?’)

Be aware that, at least for school subjects, Italians use the preposition ‘in’ not ‘at’.

So:

“Sono bravo in matematica!” (I’m good at maths = I’m good IN the maths class.)

Keep in mind that if you’re female, as fifty percent of us are, that would be ‘bravA’.

So:

“Sono brava in matematica!”

You’ll find the newly-published conversation prompts here:

‘Sei bravo a… ?‘

Try them with a friend from your Italian class, with your online teacher, or even alone.

You could interview yourself, like this:

“Raccontami Daniel, eri tra i migliori nella tua classe a scuola in qualche materia?”

“Beh, con franchezza Daniel, non ero molto interessato allo studio…”

Or if ‘Sei bravo a… ?‘ doesn’t grab you right now, select another topic from the ‘Conversation‘ page on the club website.

There are now fifteen topics to choose from, with more on the way.

Buono studio!

‘Sei bravo a… ?‘ | Conversation prompts

P.S.

Famous hippie guidebook publisher, ‘Lonely Planet’ has this week published their 2018 ‘Best in Europe’ list of must-see destinations.

And guess what?

Emilia Romagna, where I live and run an Italian language school, gets FIRST PLACE!

Check out the article.

Here’s the Italian version, and here’s the English version.

The picture for Emilia Romagna in the Italian version shows the centre of Bologna and was probably taken from the cathedral bell-tower, which is just meters from where I’m sitting as I write this.

How exciting!!

If you have time, why not read and compare both versions?

Or, if you’re in a rush, just do the no. 1 destination (it’s quite short) – no need to bother with the other nine…

A venerdì, allora.