Buondì. Does anyone still use an actual Kindle? Rather than a Kindle app on a smartphone or tablet, I mean. Please don’t email to tell me you do. It’s Friday, I’m still convalescing, and so have hopes of doing the minimum at the computer. You could leave a comment on this article, if you wish. […]
Similarities and differences
Buondì. A club member who’s currently studying at our Italian school in Bologna stopped for a chat yesterday. Her Italian was really good, and she was clearly keen to practice, so we spoke in Italian, while I was frantically leaving through old folders, looking for something we’d lost and now urgently needed. I apologised for […]
New ‘easy reader’ ebook, just £5.99 this week!
Buondì. On Wednesday, I posted Chapter One of this week’s new ‘easy reader’ ebook, which is A2/B1 (pre-intermediate/intermediate) level but, in my opinion, is accessible for anyone with reasonable reading skills. By which I mean not obsessing over every word or sentence you don’t immediately understand, but instead trying to follow the story. That article, if […]
Move your eyes along the first line, from left to right
Buondì. If you read Wednesday’s article How to read in Italian (and why you really should!), you may – or may not – be wondering if I’ll publish Chapter 2 of next Monday’s new ebook ‘easy reader’, ‘Quando suonano alla porta‘ by Roberto Gamberini. It’s Friday, the sun’s shining, and the temperature in Bologna is […]
How to read in Italian (and why you really should!)
Buondì. People have lots of daft ideas about language learning, what they should and shouldn’t do, why that will or won’t help, and so on. Two of the most misunderstood areas are reading and listening in/to your foreign language. The other is pronunciation. I could list the the daft ideas people have about reading here […]
Most people are kind and competent (within limits…)
Buondì. I’m back, though a shadow of my former self, hobbling through the house, fearful lest an uncontrolled movement or unexpected cough set off agonies in my groin. This not helped by the fact that, having been sent home from hospital, the day after my operation, with six sachets of a potent non-opiod pain-killer (to […]
Thoughts on ‘don’t know how’
Buondì. I’m in a pensive mood today. Having got out of bed early, had a healthy breakfast, and walked for the prescribed thirty minutes – to the local park, around the lake, and back again – I got to reflecting that, despite the legions of bastard doctors, things seem to be less stressful lately. In […]
An innovation in email! And Tosca ‘easy reader’, just £5.99
Buondì. Many thanks to everyone who left a comment on last Wednesday’s article, in which I announced I might not have time for an article on Friday (I didn’t), or this coming Friday, either. I think I replied to everyone. Read the comments here, if you like doing that sort of thing. E poi, here’s […]
All the usual objections… / Disruption next two Fridays
Buondì. I’m going to keep this super-quick, as I’ve got a pile of medical stuff to deal with. That because, yesterday, I was summoned to meet a surgeon, who will graciously operate on a hernia that popped out of my groin in the middle of one night last spring, when I was lifting a thrashing […]
What to read in Italian / 3 Half-Price eBooks from 2016
Buondì. For the first time, almost in living memory, I had a relatively relaxing weekend. With the Spring Sale over, with no wild animals to wrangle, and with two-thirds of my adult kids off doing their own thing, there was, surprisingly, time. My wife went off to meet a friend, while I went for a […]