Archives for March 2017

Buondì. Remember the ‘study checklist’, which I last mentioned back in January, or at the start of February? Well, things being as they are, I haven’t made much progress with it. Just the A1 – Beginner/Elementary version is eleven pages long! But the end of the spring term is looming, and things are getting quieter. […]

Buondì. Today I have two free intermediate-level Italian listening tasks for you. But if you’re just starting out with Italian, don’t (necessarily) let my description of the level as ‘intermediate’ put you off. Free material is, after all, free material and what you can understand when you listen is a function of a lot more […]

Buondì. And a beautiful spring ‘dì’ it is too, here in Bologna. Though it promises to be a busy one, as I have several meetings lined up, and am teaching in the evening. So, to business! First I have three more ‘old listenings with new exercises’ for you. The level is A2 (pre-intermediate) which should […]

Yesterday, besides various customer service emails about ebooks and online lessons, I had a couple of interesting ones about listening. Philip wanted to share his approach, which seems very considered, so I’m sure he won’t mind if I copy and paste what he wrote. He’s talking about how he uses the easy readers: One thing […]

A wise old man once said… When you’re learning a language, you start off on a high. There’s all the excitement of a new project. The possibility of achieving great things! But beware! The ‘up’ can quickly change to a ‘down’. The difficulty of the task becomes impossible to ignore. It’s soon evident that success […]

I’ll be fifty in a few weeks. If you’re of a similar age, or older, you might remember the TV show from the ‘seventies, ‘Mission: Impossible’. “Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to improve your Italian reading and listening skills. Should you or any of your team be caught or killed, OnlineItalianClub.com […]

Yesterday evening I studied Swedish for an hour, as the plan dictates. Tuesdays and Thursdays I don’t teach in the evening, so I schedule an hour for each of those two days. Many thanks, by the way, to my wife, who helps out with my learning by washing the dinner dishes. Friday, Saturday and Sunday […]

Over the weekend I was studying Swedish. In particular I was doing the listening exercises, which my Swedish mother-in-law kindly located on a recent visit to Stockholm. For me, the listening comprehension exercises are the best bit! The grammar, I can take or leave. I’m lazy about learning vocabulary. And my pronunciation is zero. But […]

Buondì. Today we have a new ‘Book of the Classic Italian Movie’ out. Honestly, I’d never heard of ‘Accattone‘, but I HAD heard of Pier Paolo Pasolini, a left-wing writer, poet and director who was famously murdered. It was the ‘seventies, a period of violent turmoil in Italy, and Pasolini met his gruesome end at […]

If you haven’t booked your free trial online Italian lesson yet, consider this your final reminder! About 65 people book have already booked a lesson. Lucia, our teaching manager, tells me that she’s written to most of you, and some lessons have already taken place. Hope they went well! For anyone else interested, we’re keeping […]