Buondì. As mentioned on Monday, we have a new, beginner/elementary-level (A1/2) ‘easy Italian reader’ ebook, the first in a series of simplified versions of classic Italian literature. It’s ‘Le avventure di Pinocchio‘, Carlo Collodi’s classic children’s story of a talking puppet running riot, now rewritten for students of Italian! Pinocchio is a wooden puppet but […]
Archives for April 2020
A quick article about nothing much
Buondì. Ever had one of those days? So far it’s been a litany of things going wrong. My wife has been muttering in Italian about a series of plagues and all we need now being the crickets (I think she meant locusts) and we’ll have had them all. But ‘coraggio’ I told myself, tackle the […]
Before, during or after?
Buondì. Two brief ‘segnalazioni’: 1.) The ‘Book Club’ project, reading Umberto Eco’s Il nome della rosa together, has reached the ‘eat cakes and chat about the book’ stage. You’re all invited to my place to discuss your reading experience, and the book itself. No, not really. That wouldn’t be practical, and besides, ‘social-distancing’. However, we […]
Another pedant kamikazes in the Battle of the Apostrophe
Buondì. Before the traditional Wednesday morning lockdown moan, here’s something uplifting from Manoel in Brasil: Soggetto: Grazie mille Contenuti: La ragione per cui sto scrivendo questo e-mail è perché ho voglia di ringraziarte pelo il tuo sito, ho imparato abbastanza studianto atravverso le lezione di Listening e oggi già sono capace di communicarmi senza dificoltà, […]
Italian Book Club, Day 7: The Final Straight!
Buondì. Another lockdown Monday, with still at least two weeks (!) to go until any real prospect of things starting up again here in Italy. Oh well, better make the best of it. Since finishing ‘Il nome della rosa‘ last week, I’ve been dipping into ‘Le avventure di Pinocchio‘ (we have an easy reader version […]
Why is using a dictionary as you read a dumb idea?
Buondì. Capitolo 6 of our ‘riassunti’ of Umberto Eco’s ‘Il nome della rosa‘ is now available on our website, here. It’s an exciting one! You should take a look. Previous chapters are listed on our Literature page. Each has a simplifed text, a glossary of ‘difficult’ terms with English translations, and a comprehension exercise. Plus, […]
“…e a chi non piace peggio per lui, rimane alle falde della collina.”
Buondì. “…e a chi non piace peggio per lui, rimane alle falde della collina.” That’s Umberto Eco talking about the first hundred or so pages of ‘Il nome della rosa’ in ‘Postille a “Il nome della rosa” 1983’. “…and whoever doesn’t like it, worse for them, they’ll remain on the slopes of the hill.” He’s […]
Reading, when done well, should be like surfing (not digging)
Buondì. +++ INTRODUCTORY NOTE Someone wrote to ask why on earth I have to write so much. Why should she waste time reading in English when she could be reading in Italian, she wanted to know. Why indeed? If you’ve been asking yourself the same question, then go here, or here, or here and find […]
Bottom-up or top-down?
Buondì. Bottom-up or top-down, which is your preferred way of doing things? No, I’m not trying to be smutty, I’m talking about reading in Italian. Do you start from the bottom, so at the level of individual words and phrases, or even their component parts (suffixes showing conjugations of verbs, gender, plurals of nouns, etc.), […]
‘Il nome della rosa’ capitolo 2 (and a new discussion topic)
Hey there, OnlineItalianClub.com members! Today we have the third part, the second chapter, of our ‘riassunto’ of Umberto Eco’s book: ‘Il nome della rosa’ – Capitolo 2 – Come un labirinto It’s linked to from our Literature page, too. And there, you’ll find the ‘Nota introduttiva’ and the first chapter, if you missed them. There […]
