Several people have written to me because they are a little worried about their ability to hold their own in our new online Italian conversation classes, which start next week. Some are concerned because they’ve never done anything similar before: speaking a foreign language, with strangers, over the Internet! Others admit to having a good […]
New conversation class on Tuesdays (just one place left in the Wed. group!)
It’s nine in the evening in Italy… Dinner’s been cleared away and there’s an hour or two to while away before bed. Vegetating in front of the TV is always an easy choice. For the unambitious. Learning Italian is a better one. But opening a grammar book at that time of night takes real force […]
Online Italian conversation class starts next week – places limited!
Over the last month or so we’ve been offering free online Italian conversation groups. Perhaps you were one of the many students from around the world who joined Paolo online for a chat in Italian? In all, we we ran fifteen 30-minute sessions. It was a sort of experiment… Could we successfully offer online GROUP […]
Here’s how to feel more confident speaking Italian
Yesterday’s article covered why you might feel anxious when speaking Italian. So today, let’s take a look at a few techniques which could help you feel more confident. Be realistic Obviously, if you go into any conversation expecting to be as able as you would be when speaking your own language, you’re likely to be […]
Terrified of speaking Italian? Just what exactly are you afraid of?
So you’ve memorized long-lists of Italian words, conquered the main irregular verbs, and more or less got the hang of Italian’s weird sentence structure. But speaking terrifies you. You find yourself paralyzed with fright at the idea of having to join in a conversation. Perhaps your fear goes so deep, you’ll actively avoid situations in which […]
Register now for this week’s Italian conversation groups
If you read these articles in an e-mail, you’ll only see the first few lines in future. To read the whole article (and to register for the Italian conversation groups) you’ll need to click the ‘Read more’ link and visit the website. Why? Statistics show us that, while a minority of people open, read and […]
Are you a different person when you speak Italian?
As a young man I spent three years working in Turkey, where people were constantly reminding me of the famous Turkish saying about speaking a foreign language: “Bir dil bir insan, iki dil iki insan.” (One who speaks only one language is one person, but one who speaks two languages is two people.) Source: http://www.omniglot.com/language/proverbs/language.htm Turks […]
What Italian grammar do I need to study at each level?
Here’s a question emailed to me the other day by Catarina: Ho trovato le designazione dei livelli d’italiani A1 fino a B2 su molti siti ma non capisco che grammatica, verbi, … correspondono a ogni livello (ho trovato informazione divergente). Il mio obbiettivo é continuare a imparare per fare prima un esame B1. Che devo […]
Register now for your free online Italian conversation lesson
Here’s a little feedback on last week’s free Italian conversation sessions, from some of those who took part: La sessione di questa mattina è stata molto interessante e divertente, grazie! Devo dire che è stata la prima volta che ho davvero parlato italiano. E voglio continuare! – Catarina Ho appena finito la mia prima sessione […]
End of the Italian listening challenge: lessons learnt
It’s exactly two weeks since I last wrote about my quest to improve my listening (in French, so as to demonstrate to you guys that it’s possible to do the same with your Italian). This afternoon I decided to call it a day. Want to know how I got on? How to improve your listening […]