Buondì. I’ll be brief this morning, as the trip to Milan left me with a mountain of jobs to get through. But speaking of Milan, before we press on, did you know that the city had canals? I certainly didn’t! There are some nice pictures in Google. Search for “milan navigli district” and choose the […]
Archives for January 2017
Greetings from Milan & two new Italian listening exercises!
Buondì. This morning I’m posting from Milan, where Stefi and I are spending a couple of days at the annual meeting of ASILS, the Association of Schools of Italian as a Second Language. It’s a chance to get together with other language school owners from around Italy to talk about common issues, and eat a […]
What to do if your listening comprehension “never improves”
Here’s another of those articles inspired by a conversation I had with a student. A different one this time, but the problem is still listening. The student’s an Italian manager, one of the top guys in his company. He’s learning English because he needs it for negotiations with international partners. He’s unusual in that he […]
You probably already knew this, but…
(This article has a couple of large images in it. If you don’t see them, click here to read it on the club website.) Buondì. Several club members have asked me recently how my Swedish is going. Back at the beginning of December I announced that I was going to learn a language OF YOUR […]
Check out the ‘Free Italian Exercises Checklist’ draft!
It’s Friday morning, so time to write something for OnlineItalianClub.com. But I’ve already spent hours today collecting and collating materials for the new ‘Checklist’. The idea is to create a .pdf that you can download and print. That way, you’ll be better able to monitor what you’ve studied, while also having a clearer idea of […]
Want to Learn Italian? Make Sure You Set Realistic Targets!
Want to learn Italian (or another foreign language)? Careful! In your initial enthusiasm, it’s possible that you might be unrealistic about how quickly that’s going to happen. Aiming too high means you’ll risk disappointment or demotivation. Setting too fast a pace, like beginning a marathon race with a sprint, almost guarantees you’ll run out of […]
Want to understand spoken Italian better? Here’s how
One morning last week I had a lesson with an Italian manager who needs to improve his English rapidly before a series of meetings coming up later this month. His particular concern is listening. There’ll be an interpreter at the meeting he’ll be attending, but he has a senior role and so would naturally prefer […]
Two New Italian Listening Tasks!
Buondì. As I mentioned the other day, I have a young lad helping me at the moment. His name’s Matt, and he’s one of those irritating college graduates who, at the age of about twenty, seem to speak several foreign languages perfectly. Anyway, I have him working on adding tasks to the listening material that […]
OnlineItalianClub.com – An update on the changes we’ve made!
Buondì. This week I’m back to teaching, which pays the mortgage. But I’ve also been working on the club website. You’ll recall that I asked for comments and suggestions? The response was very postive! As each email arrived, I copied the comments so I could pick out the most obvious changes to make. And this […]
What People Said About Reorganising OnlineItalianClub.com
Monday 9th of January and it looks very cold outside of my window here in Bologna. So, naturally, my enthusiasm is not at it’s highest ever level. Nevertheless, there’s lots to be done, so I’d best get on. One of the top items on the list is completing the reorganisation of onlineitalianclub.com. We’ve made some […]
