Buondì. I am occasionally called rude, last night it was ‘horrid’, though rarely ‘unhelpful’, which would be unjust, given that the friction with club members and customers usually comes when I am attempting to assist them (day, night and weekends) with their customer service issues. Lots of people are pleased with my customer service, a […]
Archives for April 2021
Is Italy once more open for language study/travel?
Buondì. Is Italy once more open for language study/travel? There’s much talk of ‘vaccine passports’, travel corridors, and such like. And many, perhaps most, Italian language schools are already showing on their websites that they are ‘open’. But concretely? Nothing seems very certain… If you live in the UK, for instance, travel abroad is still […]
Sorry, I’m all out of miracles
Buondì. A short one today because… well, frankly, because I’m rather tired of people asking me how they can achieve the improbable, in very little time, and with no particular effort. On the club website, over the years, I’ve written just about everything I know about language-learning, a whole career’s worth of teaching, and direct […]
Language-Learning Tip #02 How to define your learning goals
Buondì. A quick one today, as I’m supposed to be in an online conference… Wednesday’s article included Language-Learning Tip #01, which was: ‘Apps and courses aren’t written for you personally. Nor necessarily well.’ If you missed it, you can read it here. The gist of it was that language courses are rarely put together to […]
Who’s the world’s best foreign language-learner? (Not you)
Buondì. Imagine the world’s best, that is to say most-able, most-competent language-learner. I’m thinking of a mid-level diplomat from a continental European country. A diplomat because language skills are essential to the job, mid-level because the most.junior people will lack experience and the most-senior will be judged on other things besides language competence. Unfortunately that […]
Half-price eBook of the Week: Rosa la cuoca disastrosa (A1)
Buondì. This week we have another half-price ‘eBook of the Week’ for you. It’s Rosa la cuoca disastrosa, the level is A1 (elementary), and for the next seven days it will cost you just £3.99, rather than the usual easy reader ebook price of £7.99. The level – A1 – means that this text is […]
Apply a little common sense, maybe?
Buondì. On Wednesday, I asked people to write comments outlining their language-learning journeys, and plenty of you did, for which I am grateful. About twenty people contributed, but I am assuming that many more of you read through what others had written, as that’s the normal pattern. And is, in any case, a good way […]
Where did you begin? How far have you got? What’s next?
Buondì. For the last few months I’ve been working with a writer, who is also one of our Italian teachers. We have a number of websites, aimed at both English speakers (like this one) and Italian speakers, for example NonParloSpagnolo.com, which as the name suggests is for Italians who’d like to begin learning Spanish, Imparareinglese.com […]
New Italian ‘easy reader’ ebook: Il miracolo del paese (C1)
Buondì. Thanks to the many, many club members who joined in on Friday by posting a comment on that day’s article. If you missed it, Read me!, and in particular the comments, which you’ll find at the bottom of the article. There were the beginnings of quite an interesting debate about Wikipedia, and whether or […]
Read me!
Buondì. A decades-old computer programer habit, when packaging up multiple files together in a folder, is to add a very simple .txt file named ‘read me’ or similar. Anything the buyer or user needs to know, in order to make the software function, i.e. which of the other enclosed files to click on first, is […]
