Buondì. There’s a lot of self-serving nonsense in marketing, I’m sure you’ll agree. Personally, I live by ‘caveat emptor’, so ‘let the buyer beware’, and I do. But when you’re actually selling products, or a service, ripping off your customers is seldom either satisfying or sustainable. Better to find a way to do things ethically. […]
This summer? Exploit the power of achievable, daily targets!
Buondì. July 1st! Never a bad moment to review your study habits, assuming you have any. If not, read on. Here in Bologna it’s extremely hot, which means my daily routine has been upended. The cardiologist-imposed minimum thirty-minute walk which I typically did mid-afternoon when I got bored sitting at the computer, now has to […]
New Easy Reader / Mini-Book Club: ‘I promessi sposi’
Buondì. Italian literature fans will be pleased to hear that this week we publish the fifth and final (for now) ‘easy Italian reader’ ebook in our series of simplified versions of classic Italian literature. Said to be the most famous and widely-read Italian novel, Alessandro Manzoni’s romantic blockbuster, ‘I promessi sposi‘, first published in 1827, […]
Death and taxes
Buondì. Here’s a quick explanation, in advance of the Summer Sale, which starts on July 6th, of why our online lesson prices are going up. In a word, taxes. In an acronym, VAT, which would be IVA in Italian (l’imposta sul valore aggiunto, so Value-Added Tax.) British companies, amongst which we are pleased and proud […]
What you don’t understand about not understanding
Buondì. This is a recurrent theme, I know, but it drives my absolutely nuts when people tell me that they really HAD to look up every word they didn’t know in order to ‘understand’ a text. I froth at the mouth when students who refuse to practice listening at all, because they prioritise studying obscure […]
Best (worst) month ever!
Buondì. Hope you had a pleasant weekend. We were at the coast, in Rimini, which was nice. Though on Saturday there was way too much wind to get out on the boat, and on Sunday the conditions were rather too sedate for sailing. We ate well, at least. And didn’t get stuck in traffic on […]
Bluetooth headphones on, it’s back to normal life!
Buondì. From March 10th until June 8th I, like many people around the world, worked at home. Some aspects of that were nice – spending more time wearing shorts and sandals, reading classics of Italian literature for our Book Clubs while sitting in the spring sunshine, and not having to crowd onto an urban bus, […]
Autobiographies again, and a deserted book club…
Buondì. Two things today (it’ll be another short one, as I’m back to teaching in the evenings, so more pressed for time.) On Friday last week I wrote an article entitled ‘Ever thought of writing your autobiography?‘, the idea being to promote this week’s new ebook easy reader, La coscienza di Zeno, which is number […]
New Easy Reader / Mini-Book Club: La coscienza di Zeno
Buondì. As advertised on Friday, today we have another new, B1 (intermediate) -level ‘easy Italian reader’ ebook. La coscienza di Zeno is the fourth in our series of simplified versions of classic Italian literature. Italo Svevo’s self-published 1923 novel takes the form of memoirs written by his protagonist, Zeno, a sick young man who is […]
Ever thought of writing your autobiography?
Buondì. Every thought of writing your autobiography? The reason I ask is that on Monday we’ll be publishing the fourth in our series of ‘easy reader ebook’ versions of classics from the canon of Italian literature. We did the mad puppet, Pinocchio, the even madder spoilt rich kid, Moscarda (Uno, nessuno e cento mila) and […]
