Archives for June 2023

Buondì. A quick one today, as I’ve a lot to do, with the Summer Sale and the up-coming Summer Series. Two many Ss there, I know. I’ll take it up with the marketing dept. (wait, that’s me!) As a reminder, our quarterly promotion, which we run at approximately 13-week intervals (summer, autumn/fall, New Year, spring), […]

Buondì. Let it be known that next week, so from July 3rd to 9th, our two online shops, EasyReaders.org (for ebooks) and NativeSpeakerTeachers.com (for one-to-one lessons), will be having their 2023 Summer Sale. Which means that I’ll be publicising a coupon code which, if you apply it in your shopping cart in either/both online shops, […]

Buondì. It’s going to be another hot one today in Bologna, where I live. The app I consult each morning on my smartphone summarises the weather with: ‘Che caldo, oggi si suda!’ (How hot, today one sweats!) But at six-thirty a.m. it was still fresh enough for me to put on jeans and boots for […]

Buondì. For years, since the ‘seventies, inflation wasn’t really a thing. In fact, for a while, economists worried about its opposite – deflation. The economy in Japan, for instance, never seemed to grow like those in other first world economies because inflation was negative. Citizens expected prices to go down, rather than up. Sounds like […]

Buondì. Yesterday evening we went to a party, the end-of-year event for a local association which we’ve been part of for a few years. It was nice to see everyone again, there was food (not that much) and cool wine (enough), so the evening passed quickly. It’s suddenly got really hot in Bologna – it’ll […]

Buondì. We don’t get many teachers here at OnlineItalianClub.com, at least as far as I’m aware. Currently we have about fifteen thousand club members. The stats function on our mailing system got broken about a month ago (they didn’t seem to notice, so were surprised when I got annoyed), but until mid-May between thirty and […]

Buondì. Is Italian hard to read? Well, it can be. In certain registers (legal style, the more pompous newspapers) it can seem as if writers are intentionally minimising the chances of their readers getting any idea of the content of the articles, instead prioritising the self-serving, show-offy message: ‘Look at how well I can write! […]

Buondì. Following on from Friday’s popular quiz on ‘false friends’, today I have something similar for you. The words I chose for you last week were identical to English words, in their spelling, if not in their pronunciation or meaning. The examples I used were ‘male’ and ‘brave’. But there really aren’t so many of […]

Buondì. Here’s a little quiz for you. Guess the fifteen English words defined below (= number of letters): a female horse (4) when goods are sold at a lower price than usual (4) a thin, bony flake on a fish (5) spies might use one to communicate (4) a military or police gesture that shows […]