It’s been a while since I had a good rant. Hasn’t it? So OK, just to clear up a few things: A ‘book’ is commonly held to be a collection of pages with type or pictures on them, held together in a permanent binder. The pages are made of paper, which is itself usually made […]
Archives for January 2019
Guess what I spent the morning doing?
Buondì. Guess what I spent the morning doing? Not writing this, obviously, as it’s nearly one p.m. (Italian time) and I’m just beginning. Nor taking an online lesson, no such luck. No indeedy – in fact, I spent about three hours sending emails to many of the people who’ve bought ebooks in the last month […]
Some advice from OnlineItalianClub.com members
Buondì. Below is an email I had this week from Kudzai, which he (or she, not sure which – Wikipedia mentions a Zimbabwean cricketer but it’s probably not him) would like me to share with you: Ciao Daniel, I was thinking of writing this message in Italian, however I was hoping that maybe other people could […]
Re: The Joy of Not Understanding!
Buondì. Two things came out of Monday’s article ‘The Joy of Not Understanding!‘ The first was that a club member in Sweden volunteered to practice Swedish with me in exchange for Italian lessons (with a club teacher, that is, not with me personally- I don’t teach Italian as I have an awful English accent and […]
The Joy of Not Understanding!
I am by nature a contrary person, but bear with me. So I was listening to a Turkish radio channel on Saturday evening. The program was for the youth audience but, though I’m long past my teens, I stuck with it because I like Turkish music. It makes me want to dance, which is surprising […]
Stupid, and not so stupid, questions
Buondì. They say there’s no such thing as a stupid question, which is something that, as a teacher (and a marketer), I firmly believe. However, there’s such a thing as taking reasonable care before asking… For example, in the FAQ of our online shop, there’s loads of useful information, organised around the most common issues […]
“A suspense melodrama with the moral concerns of angry satire”
Buondì. We have a new ebook easy reader out! My job, as always, is to sell it, not that that should be hard. If I were studying Italian, I’d buy it myself. If anything similar were available for the languages I am currently studying, I’d willingly shell out. Money spent on materials is often WASTED, […]
Why you should be READING in Italian
Buondì. I’ve been writing a lot about listening and speaking lately. That’s for two reasons: a.) Everyone wants to be able to SPEAK the language they’re studying and b.) Speaking on it’s own isn’t much use if you can’t actually understand the replies I take regular online lessons to practice speaking the languages I’m sort […]
A peep in the postbag
Buondì. I get a lot of emails from club members. Fortunately, I once invested a few pennies in a second-hand ‘teach yourself touch-typing’ book, so replying isn’t that onerous… In fact it can be interesting, and a pleasant distraction from ‘real’ work. Below are some emails that came in after Wednesday’s article ‘Listening Comprehension, Lesson […]
Listening Comprehension, Lesson #1, Manage Your Expectations
Reading time: Ages! Buondì. This from Krista in response to Monday’s article, ‘What to study?’: …do you have a suggestion for Italian TV? Like, where/how to access? I’ve tried the RAI app for podcasts and I’ve found they speak waaay too quickly for my intermediate linguistic ability. And my reply, with the important parts highlighted […]
