Buondì.
Two brief ‘annunci’ today.
First out, I had a polite email from Giovanni, one of our online teachers and author of our ‘Book of the Classic Italian Movie‘ series of ‘easy reader’ ebooks, gently reminding me that if I was going to promote Youtube videos for random strangers (Monday’s article) I might consider directing interested club members towards his award-winning short film, ‘A casa mia‘.
It’s set in Sardinia, so the Italian is quite distinctly non-standard, so the whole thing is subtitled IN Italian. Don’t let that put you off, though, as it’s very visual and well worth fifteen minutes of your time today, even if you don’t understand much of what’s being said (actually, that’s really good practice! I always tell my students, “Practice NOT understanding! The road to the charming city of Understanding runs through the grotty suburbs of Not Having A Clue What’s Going On.”)
I mentioned that Giovanni’s movie won an award. But it wasn’t just ANY award, ‘A casa mia‘ was selected in the 2017 ‘David di Donatello’, and won the Best Short Film category. Got the Pre-Christmas blues? Go distract yourself with ‘A casa mia‘.
E poi, Giovanni’s email went on, his full-length movie, ‘Il vegetariano’ (The Vegetarian), is now available on Amazon Prime in the UK and the USA (I tried to find it here in Italy, but couldn’t.)
What’s it about? According to mymoviews.it, from which I freely lift the following quotes, it’s
La storia di Krishna liberamente ispirata a reali esperienze di vita di immigrati indiani, che a partire dagli anni Novanta si sono trasferiti in Italia.
OK, so Indian immigrants to Italy, then what?
Krishna, un giovane immigrato indiano figlio di un brahmino, vive nella campagna emiliana e lavora come mungitore. Quando una mucca improduttiva sembra destinata al macello, Krishna sarà costretto a fare una difficile scelta che lo obbligherà a fare i conti con un nucleo secolare di convinzioni come la metempsicosi e il rispetto per tutte le forme di vita.
The boy’s a cowherd, then, and not just any cows, either! Emilia-Romagna, my reluctantly-adopted home, is where the famous Parmigiano-Reggiano (Parmesan) comes form!
Find out more, including watching the trailer, at https://www.mymovies.it/film/2019/il-vegetariano/. Or why not make it your Christmas Day family viewing?
N.b. This one surely isn’t free – whatever you pay to watch it goes straight to Jeff Bezos, though according to EasyItalianNews.com the poor man seems to have suffered an expensive divorce. Perhaps a few copper coins will make their way to the screenwriters, who one imagines have been left to starve in their draughtly attics (churning out ebooks and doing online Italian lessons to make ends meet) until they can think up the next masterpiece.
Watch ‘Il vegetariano’ on Amazon in the UK or the USA this Natale!
Item no. 2 on the agenda is to mention that our January Sale (20% off everything in our online shop, assuming you remember to use the coupon code) begins on Monday 28th of December. You can be sure I’ll be mentioning this again, so no need to rush away right now to add it to your ‘To Do’ list.
The reason I mention it today is that Lucia, our Teaching Manager, is about to begin emailing the coupon code out to existing students, the idea being that they get in first – that way our teachers will know how much capacity they have to take on new students, once the January Sale starts for everyone.
Remember, please, that this year we have been forced to increase some (not all) of our online lesson prices, because of 20% British VAT.
There’s no point in writing me angry emails to complain that the most popular 10 x 30-minute lesson package now costs a fifth more than it did last year. Blame the tax man or woman, instead.
However, to partially compensate, we’ve introduced a 20 x 30-minute lesson package and a 30 x 30-minute lesson package, each of which is discounted slightly more than for the 10 lesson pack. Regular students (some of whom used to buy multiple 10-lesson packs at once) will save by buying in bulk.
Online Italian lesson prices are here. But don’t buy them WITHOUT THE COUPON CODE! (There are always some people who forget.)
The January Sale coupon code you need to save 20% on the prices in the shop should arrive in exisiting students’ email inboxes today or tomorrow. Everyone else will find it included in next Monday’s article, then relentlessly promoted for the week or so thereafter.
A venerdì, allora.
P.S.
Niente. It’s the calm before the storm.
Go find something useful to spend your time on: