Buondì. Italian literature fans will be pleased to hear that this week we publish the fifth and final (for now) ‘easy Italian reader’ ebook in our series of simplified versions of classic Italian literature. Said to be the most famous and widely-read Italian novel, Alessandro Manzoni’s romantic blockbuster, ‘I promessi sposi‘, first published in 1827, […]
Archives for June 2020
Death and taxes
Buondì. Here’s a quick explanation, in advance of the Summer Sale, which starts on July 6th, of why our online lesson prices are going up. In a word, taxes. In an acronym, VAT, which would be IVA in Italian (l’imposta sul valore aggiunto, so Value-Added Tax.) British companies, amongst which we are pleased and proud […]
What you don’t understand about not understanding
Buondì. This is a recurrent theme, I know, but it drives my absolutely nuts when people tell me that they really HAD to look up every word they didn’t know in order to ‘understand’ a text. I froth at the mouth when students who refuse to practice listening at all, because they prioritise studying obscure […]
Best (worst) month ever!
Buondì. Hope you had a pleasant weekend. We were at the coast, in Rimini, which was nice. Though on Saturday there was way too much wind to get out on the boat, and on Sunday the conditions were rather too sedate for sailing. We ate well, at least. And didn’t get stuck in traffic on […]
Bluetooth headphones on, it’s back to normal life!
Buondì. From March 10th until June 8th I, like many people around the world, worked at home. Some aspects of that were nice – spending more time wearing shorts and sandals, reading classics of Italian literature for our Book Clubs while sitting in the spring sunshine, and not having to crowd onto an urban bus, […]
Autobiographies again, and a deserted book club…
Buondì. Two things today (it’ll be another short one, as I’m back to teaching in the evenings, so more pressed for time.) On Friday last week I wrote an article entitled ‘Ever thought of writing your autobiography?‘, the idea being to promote this week’s new ebook easy reader, La coscienza di Zeno, which is number […]
New Easy Reader / Mini-Book Club: La coscienza di Zeno
Buondì. As advertised on Friday, today we have another new, B1 (intermediate) -level ‘easy Italian reader’ ebook. La coscienza di Zeno is the fourth in our series of simplified versions of classic Italian literature. Italo Svevo’s self-published 1923 novel takes the form of memoirs written by his protagonist, Zeno, a sick young man who is […]
Ever thought of writing your autobiography?
Buondì. Every thought of writing your autobiography? The reason I ask is that on Monday we’ll be publishing the fourth in our series of ‘easy reader ebook’ versions of classics from the canon of Italian literature. We did the mad puppet, Pinocchio, the even madder spoilt rich kid, Moscarda (Uno, nessuno e cento mila) and […]
“Join the conversation!”
Buondì. Today will be my third day back at ‘work’, in the sense of actually having to go to a place, stay there for a while, and interact with flesh and blood people in a physical space (while wearing a mask, of course!) And it makes a nice change, to be honest. On the flip […]
I expect you knew that. It seems everyone did except me
Buondì. My neighbour – I’ve probably mentioned him before, the bodybuilder, married to a lady fitness instructor, they live opposite and are always ready for a chat, especially during the lockdown – yep, that’s the one, you remember! Anyway, over the weekend his elderly father came to visit, as you do on a Sunday: show […]
