Archives for February 2017

I managed to get some studying done over the weekend, both on Saturday and on Sunday. Only short sessions, but better than nothing. I’m finishing Kapitel 5 of my Swedish book (nearly half way!) And I learnt? Gick. Sounds a bit like baby vomit, but in fact it was my first encounter with the ‘preteritum’, […]

Today I’m teaching all day, covering for a teacher who’s off. Shame, because Friday is usually my day working at home, when I get lots of things done. Hence I’m writing this yesterday, if you see what I mean. Anyway, just be aware, anyone writing to me or ordering ebooks during Friday office hours, that […]

Club members will recall that a few months ago you guys chose for me to study Swedish. This was initially supposed to be a demo of how our easy readers and parallel texts could be used to learn a foreign language, even at a beginner level. But frankly, I’d have preferred to study Spanish. Why? […]

Today I have a new ‘Book of the Week’ offer for you. But first, thanks to everyone who supported our club by buying their half-price copy of ‘Rosa la cuoca disastrosa‘. Hope you’re enjoying it… Someone was kind enough to leave a review saying “Thanks for such a good read!”, which is satisfying. So buyers, […]

Late again today, as I’ve been trailing around doctor’s offices, pharmacies and finally the CUP (an essential Italian acronym – Centro Unico Prenotazione – the place where you wait in line to book medical tests.) It’s all routine stuff, so don’t bother to write to ask if I’m dying. But it IS very time-consuming. Sorry, then, […]

Today, two more listening comprehension tasks, as reworked by my colleague Matt, who’s busy adding questions to our stock of free Italian listening exercises. The topic is ‘the past’. There’s one audio focusing on regular verbs, and one on irregular verbs. I don’t think I need add more. Go listen: Italian Regular Past Tense Listening […]

Many thanks to those of you who bought last week’s new Italian easy reader Colombo e il mare Oceano. The offer has now ended, though if you’ve a yen to discover whether Colombo (the explorer, not the ‘seventies detective) did actually reach the new world, click here. Anyway, today I have two more ‘old’ listenings […]

Buondì. I’m later today, as I spent a couple of hours working on the ‘Learn Italian’ checklist, which we talked about a month or so ago. I HAVE been making progress with it, but it has had to take its place after teaching and other committments. But anyway, this morning after answering your emails and […]

Buondì. It’s mercoledì so here’s some more free material for learning Italian! Below you’ll find links to two more of our ‘old’ listening exercises, now with ‘new’ tasks. There’s an easier one (A1) and a much, much harder one (C2). The first has a grammar focus, the second is ‘just’ listening practice. (For more like […]